Chapter 1
D arren was ready for the long trip ahead.
His two daughters sat in the back watching cartoons on the TV there.
His girls were ten and twelve, and they were well behaved.
He was a stockbroker and made a good living, and he would admit he spoiled his girls.
Maybe more than he would have if their mother had been a better parent.
Blossom had been an awful mother, and had he known more about her to begin with, he’d never have had a relationship with her.
He found out way more than he wanted to know about Blossom after they were married.
Darren was young and just wanted to have fun, and he'd never intended to have a serious relationship with her.
She agreed that all she wanted was a little fun, and then they would go their separate ways.
He'd worn condoms, and she said she was on the pill, so he was surprised when she became pregnant.
It was hard to believe that there was any way the baby could be his, so he had her tested, and it turned out that the baby was his.
With that fact, there was only one thing he could do, and that was to marry her.
After that, he discovered that Blossom was an exotic dancer, and he suspected she had also sold herself on the side.
She lied about being a college student, and she was only taking one class, so she had a reason to hang out around the college.
She must have seen him coming a mile away, and after the baby was born, he discussed the possibility of them separating, but she had insisted that she would get custody, and he would have to do without his child.
His next surprise came about a year and a half later, when she said she was pregnant again.
The mistake he'd made then was drinking a little bit too much and ending up in her bed because they slept separately, which was coming back to haunt him.
He decided that he was going to be stuck with that woman forever, and he needed to avoid sleeping with her, or they would have a whole house full of children, and he would never be able to leave.
Darren finally spoke with a lawyer, who told him, based on all the information he had gathered about Blossom, that Darren would get custody.
The only thing was that he would have to pay her off and have a contract to prove it.
Darren finally felt free, but maybe he had waited too long.
She came to him after the divorce was finished and the custody arrangement had been reached to make a deal with him.
Blossom had found someone who was willing to pay $1,000,000 for each of his girls.
That showed what kind of mother she was because she saw nothing wrong with selling her children.
“Think about what a wonderful life we could have with all that money.” She'd explained.
“Are you crazy? They may not mean much to you, but they mean everything to me.”
“They'll never be safe. This is a scary dude, and they are on his radar now. We can take the money, or he'll take them anyway, and they'll be gone.”
“I'm glad I have my daughters, but I wish I'd had them with anyone in the world but you. I want you to leave and never come around us again.” Darren admitted.
He had a feeling that even though she had left, he hadn't seen the last of that woman.
Darren also realized he would have to get some protection for his girls.
He was sure it was this white wolf nonsense that was coming back to haunt him, no matter how much he tried to make it go away.
This was something he would have to discuss with his mother, and he hoped she would have a solution for him.
He didn't want his daughters to be dragged through whatever kind of mess Blossom could involve them in.
Darren took a deep breath and exhaled. His daughters were in the back singing some silly song along with the cartoon they were watching.
They deserved to be happy, and the best way for that to happen was to get them away from New York and back home, where he had roots.
He wasn't afraid to admit that family could help him protect them.
He wasn't sure what his new father-in-law was like, but he had to be better than Darren's own father.
His mother sounded happy with her new life, and she deserved it.
Ray Junior seemed to be doing better now that Shiloh, his sister, had brought her kids home.
Even his niece seemed to have improved, and all that was from their coming home.
Darren could only hope the same would happen to him and his kids.
They stopped for the night a little over halfway there.
The girls were excited, so he took them swimming in the pool for about an hour.
After that, they ate supper and went to bed.
He was in the same room in one bed, while they shared a bed right next to his.
Ever since his ex-wife told him about the deal, she had been trying to get him to sell their daughters, and he had a harder time sleeping.
That turned out to be a good thing because he heard people talking right outside the door.
They must have thought he was asleep, but the second that they tried to come into the room, he reached into his pajama pants’ pocket and pulled out an alarm.
A bright light came on, and a noise that could wake the dead blasted out of it.
The two guys trying to break into the room turned and ran.
Darren turned off his security device and closed the door.
That was when he had to get his daughters back to sleep, and neither of them was easy to calm down.
Apparently, with the security device off and no one filing a complaint except for the loud noise, which had disappeared, the hotel did nothing.
Eventually, they all fell back asleep until the alarm went off.
Why did he feel like he had hardly slept at all?
He woke his daughters, and they got ready, then went to breakfast in the hotel dining room.
His oldest packed her pockets with apples and oranges, and they both got a drink to take with them.
They were now back on the road, and he was driving as fast as he could without risking a ticket.
Last night had scared him because it had been the first time that he could be sure of when an attempt had been made to take his daughters.
There were a few times he thought he'd been followed, and people had looked at them a little too long, but before, he had never been sure that they were trying to take his girls.
“Hey, Mom! We'll be there tonight, but I'm not sure what time. Why don't you send the address so I can put it in my GPS?” He asked as he talked to his mother on the phone.
He wanted to make sure he drove straight to her house, where she had told him she had security, not unlike Ariel's, his cousin. His stepfather had also hired a nanny who had taken some security training and would be able to keep the girls safe from any reasonable threat. Darren hated that that was necessary, but he felt relieved that it was available. Adele, his oldest daughter, was laughing in the back seat. Her little sister had hit a high note in the song, and it hadn’t sounded good.
Ellis, the youngest girl, wasn’t bothered by that and just kept singing.
Darren was tired of driving, but they were getting close.
It had been a surprise that neither of his girls had fallen asleep while they were driving.
He was sure it was because they didn't want to miss the first sight of grandmother's house.
They've been to the old house because they stayed a couple of weeks with his mother about four years ago.
Blossom hadn't come, and he'd been relieved.
He hoped that if anyone found out that they were moving down here, they wouldn't be able to find him or his girls because Blossom knew nothing about his family.
She'd ask no questions because she hadn't cared and felt like his family was unimportant.
“No one important ever came from Arkansas.” Blossom had said.
He'd not bothered to tell her that a president had come from Arkansas, among other people.
Darren hadn't bothered to tell her much of anything, and now he was glad he hadn't.
He hadn't even bothered to tell her he was taking the girls there to relocate.
The less she knew, the better as far as he was concerned.
Since the divorce, the girls hadn't asked one time about where their mother was or why she was no longer around.
That told him that he had made the right decision more than anything else did.
Even though he'd not been home in four years, he was seeing familiar sights and knew he was getting close.
He knew the address was near the lake, and he was expecting one of the old cabins that were common there, maybe remodeled.
What he wasn't expecting was a mansion with a gate.
Darren stopped at the gate and used the intercom, thinking he probably had the wrong place.
It was a shock when his mother answered, and the gates slowly opened. Who the hell had she married?
He pulled past the gate and saw that it was closing.
When he got closer to the house, he saw a guard in black combat gear.
His mother had undersold the security because, apparently, it was very good.
Someone came out of the house and hurried toward his SUV.
The guy was young, and he figured he'd help him unload his luggage.
Darren opened the back, and he and the guy grabbed their bags.
When he turned towards the house, he saw that his daughters were already at the door and going in.
Darren hurried to catch up, and the moment he saw his mother, he knew something was very different. “Mom?” He asked hesitantly.