28. Chapter Twenty-Six
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
BETSY
N erves ran through her as she replayed Bonnie’s question in her head.
Can we go play and talk in Betsy’s playroom?
Were they really going to do that? How was it going to turn out? Were they secretly wanting to go to her room so they could talk bad about her to her face?
She didn’t want to go if they were going to be rude to her. But would they? They seemed nice while they were standing by the front door. Like they actually wanted to hang out with her at some point.
But what if they were just being fake and once they got into her playroom they would turn on her?
Betsy gripped Daddy’s hand, giving it a squeeze. Hopefully he would understand that she didn’t want to leave him. She didn’t want to be alone with them. Bonnie had forgiven her for hacking into her website, but what if she wanted to give her a talking to when they got alone? What if they went into the room and her Daddy decided to do something?
“That is fine with me,” Rogan said.
“Me as well. Just stay out of trouble,” Miles spoke.
“You can show them the new color we painted the room,” Daddy whispered.
While she wanted to do that, she didn’t want to be alone with them. She wanted Daddy with her.
“I don’t want to leave you,” she whispered back, hoping he would understand.
The nerves were getting higher and higher with each passing second. There was no way she would be able to survive it without Daddy. He was her anchor right now.
“I think you’ll be fine, baby,” he gently said. “I’m going to be right here. If you need anything, you can always come back in here or you can call out my name. I’ll be there, but I think you need some time alone with them.”
Did she really though? She was perfectly content with staying here with him. She wanted to stay with him.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled.
“Try for several minutes. Daddy needs to talk to them about something and I don’t want you to hear it. It’s for grownup ears.”
Pushing her lip out, she looked at Daddy. “But I is a grownup.”
“Hmmm you are, but you’re also my Little. It’s not for your ears. So why don’t you go with Bonnie and Storm to your room. Show them how pretty it is.”
Sighing, she got up from her seat and looked at them. They both gave her a big smile.
“Daddy Ray, do you want to come with us?” Bonnie asked.
“Maybe I’ll join you in a couple of minutes. Right now Daddy Ray needs to be right here to talk about this.”
“Okay, you’re more than welcome to come.”
Rogan ran his hands through Raynar’s hair. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. You can go play and talk with them.”
“I’m okay. I want to stay here and talk about this. I know I’m just the cleaner, but I may be able to help.”
Bonnie grabbed Betsy’s hand. She looked over at Daddy, not ready to leave yet. Betsy had never felt this way before, wanting to be around someone all the time. She had been on her own for so long, having to do things she didn't want to do but now, now she had Daddy. She wanted him to help her and be with her to calm herself down.
What had happened to her? Was she okay? Did she need to get checked out by a doctor?
“I’m going to be right here. You’re okay.”
She didn’t feel okay. If anything, she felt like she was going to slowly crawl out of her skin from the nerves.
“Baby,” he gently said. “Everything is going to be alright. I’m right here. Nothing bad is going to happen. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Bonnie would never do anything to hurt you,” Rogan barked at her. His voice was angry.
She shied away, whimpering. Pictures of her dad yelling at her, hitting her flashed through her mind.
“Sorry, Sir.”
Betsy couldn’t look over in his direction. She didn’t want to be reminded of what an angry face would look like. She had left it behind, far behind but it was making its way back into her life.
“I’m really sorry, Sir. I didn’t mean anything by it,” she rushed out, looking down at her free hand.
Bonnie was still holding her other one and Betsy wanted to yank it out. Would she think badly of her if she did?
“Don’t you dare bark at her!” Daddy raised his voice. “She didn’t insinuate that Bonnie or Storm would do anything. I was reassuring her so she wouldn’t be so nervous.”
The room was silent as Daddy talked. She closed her eyes, taking in a shaky breath.
“She is nervous around new people. You need to be more considerate and not read into things. I was the one who said nothing would happen, not her so don’t you dare bark and yell at her,” Daddy continued.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
It had really made her nervous, more nervous than she already was. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea for them to come over. It was all turning to shit anyways.
“It’s not. He had no reason to be rude to you. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Daddy calmly said.
She could still hear the anger in his voice.
“It really is okay,” Betsy whispered, not looking up.
She didn’t want him to get into any trouble. Rogan was his boss, he could do anything to Daddy. He could fire him and then send people after him. She didn’t want that. Not when he had gotten along with them before she came into the picture.
“I bet he reminded you of your dad,” he gently said.
Her eyes went wide as she looked up at him. “We don’t need to talk about this.”
She never wanted to talk about it ever. That was in the past. She had mentioned he had beat her with a belt, but that was it. She didn’t say anything else.
Daddy must have done some research on her, the little information that was left. After Betsy had left the foster homes and got her own place, she had gone through everything and got rid of things on the internet.
She couldn’t get rid of everything, but she got rid of a lot of it. But there were still some things that she hadn’t mentioned to Daddy on the internet. Police reports that gave a detailed account of what happened.
She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. This was not how she expected the day to go. She thought it would have been nerve wracking but better. This, this was a train wreck.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Daddy said, grabbing her free hand.
Betsy looked up to see Daddy smiling at her.
“I don’t want to,” she whispered. “We don’t need to talk about it at all. It’s in the past.”
“We will talk about it later,” Daddy gave her a pointed look. “We need to.”
Sighing, she nodded her head.
“I hid it, got rid of it,” she mumbled. “Or most of it.”
Daddy had to know that. The way he spoke earlier made her think he knew more than what she told him. He had to.
“I know, baby. But not everything. Everything is going to be okay though.”
Was it? Was it really going to be okay or was he just saying that to calm her down?
“Now, why don’t you go play and talk with Storm and Bonnie,” Daddy gave her a smile.
Betsy looked up and around the room. She had forgotten there were other people in the room. She made eye contact with Rogan and he wasn’t glaring or angry at her. He looked curious.
She quickly looked back at Daddy. She did not need Rogan to be curious about her. Not at all. That could be dangerous. What if he found something he didn’t like and killed her?
“Can you show us your playroom?” Storm asked. “We would love to see what you changed.”
Changed?
“We helped Kirk get some of the furniture but have never walked into the room,” Bonnie explained. “We would love to see it.”