28. James
28
JAMES
H ow I hated their fake smiles.
These people were suing me and here they were, in my house, trying to pretend like everything was fine. Thank God for Kaitlyn, who ran interference for me while trying to keep Harper on steady ground.
Not that it was helping.
My daughter could barely look at Mitch and Maureen let alone give them the hugs they were all but demanding from her. She was curled up on a patio chair a few feet away from where the rest of us had gathered, staring at the hem of her dress. I hated seeing her like this. It brought me back to the initial days after her kidnapping, when she was shut down and withdrawn from the world. Had she had a nightmare about it? Was that what was behind her mood this morning? I wanted to ask—but like hell was I going to get into it in front of the Dreshers.
“Harper honey, would you like me to buy you a present?” Maureen asked in a saccharine voice. “Maybe we can stop at a toy store? Do you like dolls, honey?” She looked like she was headed for a three-mimosa brunch. She’d clearly spent time getting ready, in a flowy cheetah print dress with her yellow-blonde hair in a poofy ponytail.
“Harper, don’t you want to come over here and give your Grandpa Mitch a big hug?” he asked, spreading his arms wide. He was a giant of a man, not as tall as me but definitely wider, in a straw Panama hat and orange golf shirt. “It would make me really happy to get a hug from you.”
“Please don’t hinge your emotional state on touch that forces her out of her comfort zone,” Kaitlyn scolded in a low voice, leaning closer to that asshole so only he could hear. “That leads to guilt. Physical contact is her decision.”
I wanted to laugh when I saw Mitch’s shocked expression. Score one for Kaitlyn.
Maureen sniffed. “When we were little, we knew to respect our elders. I guess things are different now.”
“And when you were little, you probably weren’t told that you were allowed to say ‘no’ to things that made you uncomfortable, like hugs from adults you barely knew, which I’m guessing led to some boundaries being crossed,” Kaitlyn responded quietly.
Maureen shifted uncomfortably as a look of sadness flitted across her face. Kaitlyn had clearly hit a nerve.
“Hey Harper, how about some ice cream?” Mitch boomed in an overly friendly voice. “It’s never too early for ice cream, right?”
We all turned to watch Harper give an almost imperceptible head shake. I could read her like a book, and I could already tell that the visit wasn’t going to get any better.
“I know what we can do,” Maureen said. “Let’s go for a walk on the beach. We can look for shells!”
Another head shake.
I glanced at Kaitlyn and could tell she was as displeased as I was at how pushy Maureen was being, but she was in professional mode, trying to navigate the choppy waters of the unscheduled visit.
“Harper,” Kaitlyn said in a soothing voice. For the first time since the Dreshers arrived, my daughter actually looked at the person addressing her. “We were having a nice time coloring this morning. Would you like to color now?”
“No thank you.”
It was a tiny voice, the scared tremor of the old Harper. A regression that sent my stress levels skyrocketing. Things were going worse than I’d imagined, especially considering all of the progress Harper had been making up to this point.
That was it, I’d had enough. “I think that’s enough visiting. We let you see her and she’s clearly uninterested in anything beyond that, so I think it’s time for you to go. We’ll give it some time and maybe try to schedule something in the future, but we’re done for today.”
Maureen turned to me with her mouth hanging open. “ Excuse me? You’re throwing us out? We’re her grandparents!”
Mitch joined the charge, focusing on my daughter. “Harper, look at me! Stop pouting over there and tell us what you want to do. We’ve given you a bunch of options, so pick something already!”
She crumpled even further into the corner of the chair, pulling a pillow onto her lap and hiding behind it.
Kaitlyn said, “Excuse me, that’s an unacceptable?—”
“Absolutely not!” I shouted over her, rising to my feet. “You will not speak to my daughter like that!”
Mitch jumped up. “And you’re not going to stop us from seeing our granddaughter!”
“Guys, guys, enough ,” Kaitlyn said, moving in between us with her hands out to put distance between us. “This is completely inappropriate and not at all helpful.”
“You’re right,” I fumed. “Mitch, Maureen, please come to my office.”
“No, sir. Absolutely not,” Maureen spat back at me, shooting me a superior look. “We came here to see Harper, not the man keeping her from us!”
“If you’d open your eyes, you’d see that she doesn’t want to be with you,” I shouted, losing my cool completely. “Look at her, she’s petrified of you!”
We all turned to look at the chair and discovered that my daughter had disappeared.
“Harper?” Kaitlyn called out. “Where are you?”
The air went still as we all turned in circles, trying to see where she’d run off to.
“Harper, it’s okay honey,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “You don’t have to go anywhere. You can stay with us, they’re leaving now.”
Mitch made an exasperated noise as he strode around the patio looking behind the lounge chairs.
“Harper! Don’t play games like this,” Maureen chastised, looking more angry than concerned about my daughter’s whereabouts. “It’s not nice. We don’t like it when you act like this, young lady!”
“Knock it off,” I growled at her. “You’re going to scare her even more.”
“Hey, Harper, let’s go up to your room and play for a little while,” Kaitlyn said in a soothing voice. “Just you and me. No one else.”
I knew of all of the options that had been given, that was most likely to be the one my daughter truly wanted. She needed to decompress after this mess of a morning. I was furious at myself for letting them in despite knowing Harper wasn’t in the right headspace, and even angrier at them for demanding we give in to them.
“I’m going to look down by the dock,” Kaitlyn said, her expression pinched. I could tell she was struggling to maintain a calm demeanor, which stressed me out even more. Kaitlyn was always even-keeled, and the fact that she was nervous meant Harper’s behavior was worthy of concern.
“Harper!” Mitch roared, his face red. “Get back here now ! This isn’t funny.”
The tone of his voice broke me, and it took everything in my power not to haul back and punch him in the jaw. I stormed over and stopped inches from his face, close enough to see the fear in his eyes.
“Out,” I growled, pointing toward the door. “Get the fuck out of my house. Now .”
Mitch stumbled backward. “I…I…”
“You too,” I rasped at Maureen. “Leave.”
“But we’re helping,” she finally managed, gesturing around herself. “We need to find our granddaughter.”
“The only thing you need to do is leave—and I’m not asking again.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Miguel. He answered in one ring. “The Dreshers need to be escorted off the premises. Get Frank and make it happen.”
Mitch and Maureen were stumbling around the patio in shock as I headed inside the house. I was confident that thanks to my team they’d be gone within minutes. I had no intention of sticking around to watch it happen. My sole focus was finding Harper.
It wasn’t the first time she’d disappeared during a time of stress. It was her go-to strategy when she was scared or upset in the weeks after her return. She hadn’t done it in ages, since before Kaitlyn arrived. My heart pounded as I realized Harper was still in a precarious place despite the progress she’d been making. I hated that the Dreshers contributed to her regression. There was no way I was ever letting them near her again.
“Harp, where are you?” My voice echoed into the silence of the foyer.
Vida came rushing from the kitchen wearing a frown. “Is everything okay? I heard yelling outside.”
“The Dreshers were here and they upset Harper, so now she’s hiding,” I explained. Vida and I had joined forces to find my daughter many times.
She gave me a nod. “Okay. I’ll look too. Don’t worry, we’ll find her. We always do.”
Harper had a few go-to spots, so I started with them. First, the theater room. The resourceful little girl had figured out how to turn on the projector, something I could barely figure out, and a few times I’d found her watching cartoons in the dark. I peeked my head in, but the cavernous room was silent.
“Harp, you in here?”
Nothing.
She also liked to hide in the storage room where we kept the holiday decorations. Something about being surrounded by smiling pumpkins and Christmas elves seemed to bring her comfort. It was in a far-off wing, one we rarely visited, but I had to check it, just to be sure. I cracked the door and looked in, but I could tell by the stillness she wasn’t in there either.
I continued my hunt feeling more and more nervous as time ticked on. Where was she hiding? And was she safe? The fact that Kaitlyn had opted to look down by the water first sent a chill through me. Could Harper have slipped in? I picked up my pace.
Then it hit me. Kaitlyn . She was the one new variable since Harper’s last episode. And she was a source of comfort for my daughter. Of course! I ran up the stairs to her room.
I ignored the fact that I was basically trespassing into Kaitlyn’s private space and barged in.
“Harper? Honey are you in here?”
I noticed the closet door was open, and something rustling inside.
“Daddy?”
I rushed to the closet and wrenched it open as relief spread through my body. Harper was curled up on the floor with one of Kaitlyn’s sweatshirts wrapped around her shoulders. She looked up at me, her eyes haunted.
“I don’t want to see them anymore,” she whispered. “Please don’t make me.”
I dropped to my knees and pulled her to me. “Sweetheart, no, you don’t have to. I’m so sorry you were scared.”
I rocked her back and forth as she clung to me, her breathing shallow.
“It won’t happen again, you’re safe,” I cooed, kissing her soft hair.
It was at that moment when I realized how far I’d have to go to make sure that was true.