Page 57 of Make Me Whole

“Alrighty. Have a nice day.”

I knew well that hanging up on someone who was wishing you a good day was rude, but this lady had just ruined my day—and probably my life as well—so I had no patience for her chipperness. I also had no air in my lungs or coherent thoughts in my head.

A custodian approached, and I rolled the window down. On autopilot, I said, “I’m here for Ella Holmes-Walsh and Aiden Preston.”

The young man scrunched his eyes at me. “I’ll go get Aiden for you, but Ella was already picked up.”

I stared at the man in silence for what felt like forever. My ears rang, my heart pounded, and combined with the recent shock of learning I waspregnantit was a little too much.

“What do you mean?” I asked, hyperventilating.

My expression made the boy on the other side of my door grow a little paler. “The mayor just picked her up. He was first in line.”

“No,” I shrieked in a voice that didn’t sound like my own as my hand shot up to cover my mouth.

Freaked out, the boy said he was going to call his superior and bolted. A wave of nausea hit me, and I felt like I would pass out. Tears sprang to my eyes as my worst fear became a reality. Not knowing what to do, I did the one thing I shouldn’t—I called Max.

23

MAX

Right after Marge died, worried about leaving Aiden alone, I read an article that listed the top ten causes of death in America. Eight were illnesses. Since I already lived a healthy lifestyle, I figured there was no point in worrying about those. The last one was suicide, an urge that didn’t afflict me no matter how depressed my widowerhood made me.

Number three, however, scared me. Unintentional injuries killed nearly two hundred thousand people a year, and considering I had been a careless thrill seeker for over three decades, I knew that if I wanted to live a long life for Aiden, changes had to be made.

So, before he could even support his own head, I became the poster boy for safety gear at worksites, controlled thrills, and safe driving. People hated me for it—especially for the anxious old lady driving—but I didn’t mind. It was better to be Aiden’s hated living father than his beloved dead father.

But that changed when I answered Sky’s frantic call. Hearing the panic in her voice was excruciating, and learning that Eli had taken her daughter from school made everything much worse.

Barely thinking, I drove like a crazy person. From the street, I spotted her car parked right in front of the gate, but the school’s driveway was too congested with anxious parents trying to drive around Sky’s car to pick up their children, which made getting to her fast through usual routes impossible.

Not giving a fuck about what people would think, I climbed the curb and drove my truck through the little garden out front. Ignoring people’s protests, I stopped just across from Sky, exited the truck, and ran to her.

She was standing on the sidewalk, holding Aiden’s hand with a blank look on her face while the school’s principal talked to her. My son was the first one to see me and yelled, “Dad!”

Sky turned her head, and tears pooled in her eyes when she saw me.

I ran faster.

I placed a comforting hand on my son’s head then curled my arms around Skylar. She draped her free arm around me and let out a small sob against my shoulder.

“Shh . . .” I cooed, smoothing her soft hair. “I’m here, sweetheart. We’ll find her.”

Her chest heaved against mine, and I held her tighter. I turned my face to the principal, nostrils flaring in anger. “What happened?”

The tall woman shrank at my tone. “As a courtesy to the Walsh family and the mayor, we’ve been handling Ella’s custody situation on a need-to-know basis. So, when Mayor Walsh came over to pick up Ella, our new custodian wasn’t aware he shouldn’t release the girl to her father. It was an honest mistake, and I’ve been trying to reassure Mrs. Walsh—”

“It’s Ms. Holmes,” I corrected the principal, fuming with anger. “Also, I think that out of all the people in this school who needed to know that Eli Fucking Walsh doesn’t have custody or visitation rights with his daughter, the custodian responsible for pick up should have been at the top of the list.”

Principal Lightfoot raised an overly-plucked brow. “Mr. Preston, there are children here—including your own. Please refrain from such language. Also, it’s improper to use such vulgarity regarding the mayor. You may take your girlfriend’s side in the custody battle, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right side or that you don’t owe Mayor Walsh the dignity of his office.”

What the fuck?I stared at the principal with a scrunched-up face. She wasn’t nearly half as pretty as Sky, but she wasn’t ugly, which led me to wonder if Eli was fucking her. That was the only explanation I could come up with for the nerve on this woman.

Maxed out on patience, I held her challenging gaze and filled my mouth to say, “Fuck off, lady.” Her eyes bugged like a cartoon character’s. It would have made me laugh if I weren’t so angry.

I continued, “I bet my dick that these kids have heard—and probably said—worse. Also, I didn’t call the mayor a fuck, I called the man. And I’ll do it as many times as I want. Eli Walsh is a fucker and an asshole, and since he took a child he had no right to from school, he’s also a kidnapper.

“And you can bet your ass that as soon as I find Ella, I’m going straight to the school board to report that the kidnapping happened under your watch. Since this school is in Pine Creek instead of Windy River, there’s nothing Mayor Walsh can do to protect you. So good luck finding another job.”

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