Page 55 of Broken Daddy

And I know in that moment, I’ll do everything I can to protect Genevieve and the baby we swore to keep a secret.

* * *

It’s not evenfive o’clock when Chris knocks on the door and thunders into the house without an invitation.

His eyes are wild, his usually perfect hair mussed.

“Are you okay? Is Eva?”

“We’re fine,” I reassure him as Eva runs by me and latches on to her uncle.

It hurts my heart to see my daughter so terrified in her own home. After the cops left, I walked her through the alarm system—how it works. How it’s meant to keep us safe.

But I don’t think it did much to abate her fears.

Gen, too, is worried. She stands in the living room with her arms crossed, a floor-length gray dress on. She looks tired and pale. Hopefully, Chris will assume it’s just the events of the early morning hours.

“Honey, it’s okay. Your dad and I will always be here to protect you, okay? You have nothing to worry about. No one can get into your home.”

Eva nods along with Chris’s words as he hugs her, but she’s still sniffling. Gently, I encourage her to go upstairs and try to sleep a little longer. Almost all of the lights in the house are on and we’ve just had several cops come to take a statement and search the property.

“What’s going on?” Chris asks flatly as soon as Eva disappears at the top of the stairs. “What happened?”

Gen and I share a look. She gives me a faint nod, and I take a deep breath, leading Chris farther into the room and speaking in a low voice.

“It’s someone who has it out for Genevieve. A stalker.”

She gives me a frustrated glance, but at this point, she can’t deny it. Two windows on the pool house are completely shattered, and a slur is scrawled across the side of the small building in black spray paint.

Chris looks back and forth between us. “I’m going to need more than that.”

With a sigh, Gen sits down to explain. She fills Chris in on what’s been happening: how someone targeted her apartment, though they must not have realized she wasn’t there. And then slashed her tires the next time she went into the city.

And now this.

“So they know you’re here.” It’s a statement, and as he says it, Chris gives me a look that tells me,I don’t like this.

“Yes. But I think whoever it is thought I was staying in the pool house. I don’t think they realize Nate moved me in here.”

She seems hesitant to share the information, and I know she’s wondering if Chris has any idea what’s happened between us. And if I’m tempted to say anything about the baby.

Her hand moves involuntarily toward her belly, but she pulls it back, presses it beneath her thigh.

“The property alarm went off as soon as they climbed over the fence. They didn’t try to get into the main house, just vandalized the pool house.”

“That doesn’t really matter, Nate. Things like this—people like this—they escalate. Whoever it is, they know she’s here and they’ll probably keep looking for her. When they realize she’s in the house…”

His words echo my worst fears.

Someone getting in.

Someone finding my daughter. Finding Gen.

Someone hurting them.

“What can we do, legally?” It comes out gruffly, which my brother knows is only a sign of just how worried I am.

He sits back on the loveseat with a sigh.

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