21. Chapter Nineteen
CHAPTER NINETEEN
SAMMI
S omeone cleared their throat, giving Sammi a fright. She turned around to see Daddy standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised. She immediately pulled her hands to her back and gave Daddy a big smile.
Sammi had been packing a couple of her things into boxes earlier today in preparation for putting her house on the market. It was her one day off and it wasn’t actually a day off. She couldn’t remember the last time she had sat and relaxed when she wasn’t supposed to work.
It had been two weeks since Daddy told her he worked with Deccan. She had gone back to work this past week with Daddy carefully watching over her. And if he wasn’t there, Nolan was since Ezekiel was usually with Daddy.
But he was getting more comfortable with her working even if he didn’t like it. Or that was what she thought. She didn’t know what was going on through Daddy’s mind.
“What are you doing?” Daddy asked, taking a step into the room she was in.
“Nofing.” She looked away.
She had been writing on the boxes so she knew what was in each one. It wasn’t her fault the only markers she had were all different colors. They were just calling her name, and she couldn’t disappoint them. Tinkle even agreed with her.
“Little One.” His voice held a warning.
Sammi didn’t know why she wasn’t telling Daddy what she was doing. It’s not like he would punish her.
“Tinkle made me do it,” she rushed out before she thought through what she was saying. Her eyes went wide as she looked over at her stuffed animal sitting on one of the boxes. “Sorry, Tinkle,” she whispered.
Tinkle didn’t say anything back to her, and she started to worry. Had she hurt his feelings? She was a bad fox mommy. She should be taking care of him, not throwing him under the bus.
“And what did Tinkle make you do?” Daddy knelt in front of her.
“Nofing,” she whispered.
“Sammi.”
She sighed and looked away, not wanting to look into his eyes. She knew if she did, she would spill everything.
“Look at Daddy, right now, Little One.”
She didn’t look up, though.
“Now,” he commanded.
Sammi looked up only to see Daddy’s face hard and emotionless. She should have gazed up before, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“Now, you’re going to answer Daddy’s question. What did Tinkle make you do?” Daddy asked once again.
Sammi looked over at Tinkle before looking back at Daddy. She could just feel Tinkle telling her to tell Daddy the truth. Which meant telling Daddy that Tinkle didn’t make her do it, but the markers did.
“It wasn’t Tinkle who made me do it. The markers did. I promise. I was labeling the boxes, and they just called out to my name,” Sammi explained.
“Called out your name,” Daddy corrected her.
She sighed. “They told me to color the boxes, so I did.”
“Show me your hands.”
She slowly brought her hands in front of her and showed him the markers along with her colorful hands. She didn’t know how she had gotten all the lines on her hands, but they were.
“Why did you put them behind you when I walked into the room?” Daddy asked, taking the markers and putting their caps back on.
She shrugged. “Panic? I know what I was doing wasn’t wrong since it wasn’t the wall. The markers did tell me to draw on the wall. I mean, look at the wall. It’s so bare and boring. It needed some of my touch, but I didn’t do it. I just did it on the boxes.”
It took her several minutes to talk herself out of coloring on the wall. She knew if she did, nobody would buy the house, and she needed them to. She needed the money so she could give it to Deccan.
Daddy cupped her face with his hands. “Daddy is super proud of you for not coloring on the walls. You coloring on the boxes was not wrong.” He looked around the room.
She had been packing her Little room. She needed it all gone before the lady came to take pictures. She didn’t want this room on display when she wasn’t married or had any kids. What would they think of her if they saw it?
“Why are you packing?” Daddy asked. “Especially your Little room.”
Sammi opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to figure out something to say. She hadn’t thought about what she would say if Daddy asked. She wasn’t planning on Daddy coming over today.
It was getting trickier and trickier, keeping everything away from him. But it wasn’t her place to say that her brother had a debt she got dragged into. It was his debt, and he wanted it kept a secret, which she was doing. Even though it was breaking one of her rules. It was stressing her out beyond belief. She was supposed to go to Daddy for things like this.
But she couldn’t.
Maybe when it was all over, she would be able to explain it to Daddy. She was definitely going to be getting a spanking, which was coming to terms with that.
“Little One, why are you packing?” Daddy asked.
“My brother needs help, so I’m moving my stuff back into my parents’ house to help him,” she quickly replied.
It wasn’t a complete lie. Her brother did need help with the debt. Sammi was the only person who was family who could help with the debt. It seemed to be a family thing but she wasn’t sure, Deccan going after people who owed him money. Or so she thought.
Sammi had only heard rumors about Deccan and him loaning money. There was nothing solid until her brother came to her. And now she was in this mess. His mess. This horrible mess that she wouldn’t wish on anybody.
“What are you doing with this house? Why are you packing? Can’t you just help him by dropping by every once in a while?” Daddy really had no idea.
Her armpits started to sweat as she stared at him. He was asking way too many questions. Ones which she didn’t have the answers to. She hadn’t thought that he was actually going to see her move any boxes, so she didn’t think about what he could possibly ask. Now, she knew that as a mistake. She should have figured that he would be checking in on her since everything had gone down. She couldn’t go ten minutes without him asking if her blood sugar levels were in normal range.
“Um, I’m going to sell the house?” It came out more like a question, and she closed her eyes.
She was definitely bringing more attention to the situation than she wanted. But Sammi wasn’t a good liar. She never would be because she didn’t like lying to people, but she had promised her brother she wouldn’t tell a soul. Deccan had also threatened her not to tell anybody else. She wanted her pinkies all intact. Deccan didn’t say he was going to take her fingers, but that was the first thing to go whenever the person was getting tortured in movies. She didn’t want to end up like them, so she kept it a secret even though it meant lying to the people she loved.
Well, it was only Daddy, but still, it was hard. Especially when it was one of her rules, and she knew when Daddy found out that her bottom was going to be so red. Maybe Daddy never had to find out. Maybe she could live with the lie forever. She probably would have to since she had no idea if Deccan meant keeping it a secret until it was paid off or until one of them died.
Sammi was going to go with keeping the secret until one of them died. It made the most sense when she thought about it.
“Why are you going to sell your house? What does he need help with?” Daddy asked.
Tears pooled in her eyes as she stared at him. She so badly wanted to tell him everything, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know what Deccan was going to do, and she didn’t want to think about the consequences for her or her brother.
“I... I can’t tell you,” she whispered. “It’s not my place to say because my brother doesn’t want anyone to know. I just need to help him out.”
“Are you safe?” Daddy cupped her face.
“Yes,” but she sounded unsure.
For now, she was safe, but she didn’t know how much money her brother still owed and if she would have to work or not. Would Deccan want her if he found out she was diabetic? Not being able to work for Daddy meant no insurance to get her medication. Would Deccan have insurance for her?
Daddy eyed her for several seconds, which made her hold her breath. She didn’t want to give him any indication that she was even more worried than she sounded.
And it seemed to work as Daddy smiled at her. “If that changes, let me know straight away. I don’t want my baby girl in any danger. I want you safe and sound, cuddled in my arms.”
Sammi nodded, agreeing with Daddy. She would love to be safe and sound and cuddled in his arms more than anything in the world. It sounded glorious. Maybe one day she would hand everything to Daddy so he would take control, and Sammi would have a stress-free life.
That would be the best thing ever.
“Do you need help transporting these to your brother’s house?” Daddy asked. “I drove in the truck, so I can help you if you want.”
“Not right now. I’m not moving in for another couple of days, and he doesn’t want it in the house before then,” she replied.
It was more like she hadn’t talked to her brother about when she was actually moving in. She had talked about next weekend, but Sammi didn’t know if she would be able to pack everything and get it moved by then.
She did have a lot of things in her guest room that she was going to sell. There were bits and pieces that she hadn’t touched in years or didn’t really need. It would make for easy cash but also fewer things to move into her brother’s house.
It wasn’t ideal that she was moving in with him. Even though both of them loved each other, they just hadn’t lived together in several years, and she knew it was going to be a bit of a struggle. He didn’t know she was a Little, which was going to make her life even harder than it was already.
Thankfully, he knew that she had diabetes and had actually grabbed some low-carb foods for her at his house. Everyone that knew she had type 1 had been researching the right food to eat. It made her realize how much some people actually cared for her. That one extra person at her work who Daddy told probably didn’t care that much, but she knew that Nolan and Ezekiel did. Or she hoped they did.
“If that changes, you let me know, and I’ll grab some of the guys with their trucks and help you move.” Daddy kissed her lips.
She moaned and leaned into his touch, wanting more, but Daddy pulled away. She blinked at Daddy several times before sagging her shoulders.
“More?” she practically begged.
Daddy smiled. “Maybe later. Do you need help packing more, or can we go get food?”
“Go get food,” Sammi declared, knowing her packing could wait a couple of hours.