Chapter 26 #2
“Please don’t let her take me again. Don’t let her take me. Haley, help me! Get me out of here!”
I couldn’t breathe around the lump in my throat. What the fuck was Liam keeping from me?
I scooped her up and walked off with her in my arms. Colson, Nora, and Liam followed as I led the way to my car. I didn’t know about anyone else, but I needed to figure out what the hell this girl had gone through and why she asked me, of all people, not to let her mother take her again.
Opening my door, I set her inside and shut it.
Liam was at the door, his arms crossed. His fist was red but that was the extent of the damage. Over his shoulder I watched as Colson set Mila and Seraph in Liam’s truck.
“I want to talk to her,” I said angrily.
I loved Liam, but I didn’t like that he hadn’t told me there was a restraining order against Lacey, or that his daughter would have a full-blown panic attack at the sight of her mother. Why the fuck was there a parenting plan in place if this was the situation?
Liam’s chin hit his chest as he agreed. Then he leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to my lips.
“I’m sorry for not telling you.”
“You need to stop keeping things from me.”
He nodded, looking somber. I wish I could remove the words Jeffery had said that likely dug under his armor and nicked his pride. With him it was the type of wound that would fester, and it would take weeks to help fix that damage—if it was repairable at all.
I walked around the front of the car and got in, leaving everyone else behind.
“Is it okay that we’re here?” Maddy asked, pushing her drink around in front of her.
I smiled and sipped from my milkshake. We had left Macon city limits and were nestled up in that same mountain spa that we’d gone to last time.
Upon arriving, we had our toes painted and our faces massaged, and now we were at the restaurant, drinking milkshakes, something they didn’t actually serve here at the restaurant, but the cook took pity when he found out there was a ten-year-old asking.
“We’re okay. Your dad knows where we are. I texted him.”
She seemed to immediately relax when I said that.
“Today was sort of crazy…” I started, trying to coax her to talk. But I had already decided if she didn’t, it would be fine.
Her hair was braided today into two symmetrical lines, her blue eyes full of sorrow and an old sadness that if I had looked more carefully, I would have realized was there long before this.
“What happened, Maddy?”
She let out a little sigh and played with the condensation on her cup.
“My mom wasn’t always this bad…actually, I don’t know, maybe she was.” She shrugged her little shoulder, looking off to the side.
“I remember when I was Mila’s age, she told Aunt Julie she hoped her next kid would have blonde hair because it would be prettier.
She talked about Seraph and me like we were ugly or something because we had dark hair.
She would talk about dying our hair when we were young…
see if she could get us in any beauty pageants.
That was way before she started doing the drugs, too. ”
She took a break to sip her milkshake, but my heart was in my throat as she watched the table and continued.
“I tried to find the good in her. I tried to love her. That’s why I went with her that day. Why after all the bad stuff, I agreed to go. She begged my dad to allow her to take me to my cousin’s birthday party. It was supposed to be this girls’ night thing…and Lacey wanted to take me.”
I didn’t comment on her changing her mother to Lacey in her story, but I did start to pick at my nail and kick my leg under the table as she kept talking and my nerves were running raw.
“Dad didn’t want to let me go, but eventually she wore him down.
She was doing really good, whatever that meant…
he just kept saying it. So she took me. No one else, and we were driving fast. She kept talking to me about the different ways we could do my hair or change my clothes to make me look prettier.
I wasn’t really paying attention until she stopped for gas.
The guy took a long time to come out and pump it for us, so she ended up getting out of the car to go get him.
She told me to stay put. But I watched her through the window, the whole time.
She was on the phone with someone outside the store.
The gas guy came and started pumping gas but she didn’t come back.
She just kept talking and yelling at that person on the phone.
Finally, she came back, and told me to get out and go with her into the store.
I thought it was to go to the bathroom or something. ”
Maddy’s eyes started to water as her cheeks turned red. I reached over and rubbed her hand.
“Hey. If this is too hard, you don’t have to talk about it.”
Her little face lifted, as tears fell from her dark lashes.
“I want you to know. I feel safe with you.”
My heart melted, but my gut still twisted as I waited to hear how Lacey had hurt my girl.
I didn’t want to hear it, but I wanted to help carry this burden of hers.
Sharing something painful that made us vulnerable was like extending a piece of yourself to someone and them saying they would be willing to help heal it.
Maddy wet her lips, swiping at her face with her sleeve as she went on.
“She took me in the bathroom and then told me to stay there—that she had to go somewhere for a little bit. I asked her not to, but she said he wouldn’t let her bring me, so she went anyway.
She left me there, in the bathroom that had toilet paper all over the floor and smelled like pee.
I ran after her as soon as she left, but she was already running to her car.
I stood in the parking lot, crying, watching her drive away.
I didn’t know who he was, but he didn’t sound nice. ”
Oh my God.
“Maddy,” my voice broke as I reached forward to hold onto her hand, I had to ground myself and remind myself she was okay, “How did you get home?”
“The gas station worker ran outside after me and took me back in. He gave me a bag of Chex Mix to eat while he called the police, and when I asked if I could call my daddy, he told me yes. I had memorized his number after being left at school a few times. He got to me before the police did.”
I smiled as a few tears slipped free. “Of course he did, he would move the whole world for you.”
Maddy sniffed, swiping at her face with her sleeve again.
“I used to think she wanted me—like really wanted me—but now I know she only wants herself, and I don’t ever want to be around her again.”
I shook my head. “You won’t. I promise you.”
I was going to make it my personal mission to talk to the few attorneys I had on retainer to see what could be done about blowing this parenting plan to hell.
I had no idea if Liam would let me, but I was about to majorly stick my nose into his business.
These girls were my business now. I loved them and would do everything within my power to protect them.
“I’m sorry you went through that, sweetie.
I don’t know Lacey, or why she chose to do that, but I know you’re worth more than how she chose to reflect your value in her life.
I know from my own mom that sometimes there are some parents who just don’t know how to do it right.
It really just takes love, and if you don’t have that, then you get ugliness.
And you, sweet girl, have had to endure too much of that. ”
“You had an ugly-hearted mom too?” Her blue eyes glistened under the lights.
I nodded, taking her hands in mine. “I did, but the key is to find someone in your life that helps you focus on the good. I make lists every day; they help me remember what’s good in my life, and what I’m thankful for.”
Maddy considered me for a moment, finishing off her milkshake.
“Can I try making them?”
“Of course you can. When we get back, I’ll show you mine.”
She smiled and nodded, seeming happier and lighter than when we walked in.
“You ready to go home?” I asked, taking a generous sip of my shake.
Maddy did the same and nodded.
We took our time going home, stopping at a local farm to grab some honey, lavender, and berries.
Maddy loved it so much that she asked if we could go back in October to get pumpkins.
The thought of being with them around Halloween was something I hadn’t even processed, but suddenly images of dressing all three girls up in the cutest outfits swam through my mind and my heart flip-flopped in my chest.
Once we entered Macon and pulled into the garage to park, Maddy rounded the car and wrapped her arms around my waist in a tight hug.
Then she whispered something that changed my insides around.
“I love you, Haley.”
My heart swelled until my chest was tight, and I could barely breathe.
It was heavier, something you knew you’d have to work harder to keep intact, something you’d have to care for differently from this day forward because it wasn’t just you who mattered.
There were other lives that counted on whether that thing inside your chest kept beating.
I bent over and hugged her back, choking back a sob. “I love you too, Maddy.”
We stood there for a few long moments, but they’d live in my mind and stretch further, into a thousand brilliant sparks that held all the good in this world.
Mila cracked open the door to the laundry room, stepping into the garage with a white bag in her arms.
“Haley, you got mail! Can I open it?”
Maddy and I broke apart, and I swiped at my face before taking the parcel from Mila’s hands.
“Let’s open it together inside.”
Once we cleared the laundry room, and took off our shoes and coats, we found Liam nursing a bottle of beer in his office. The second he saw me, he jumped up and rounded the desk.
“Hey.”
I smiled at him and let Mila begin to tear into the package.
He walked over and sat with us as Mila pulled out a thin shoe box.
“You got shoes!” Mila yelled excitedly.
Maddy narrowed her gaze, turning the lid to see the words on the front. “Hush Shoes. What are those?”
“Oh, these are actually for your dad. I had Daniel send them over.”
Liam opened the box and pulled out the black shoes, turning them over in his hand.
“They’re light.”
Tossing them from one hand to the other, he inspected the material as I slid closer.
“These were designed to be lighter. I was thinking, would you be willing to try them while you train in the ring? If you love them, then maybe we can do a little tiny snippet of you on social media using them?” I put my hands together like I was praying.
I hadn’t warned him in the least that this was coming, but I found with Liam, sneak attacks were the most effective.
His eyes flicked up, assessing me for a moment before returning to the shoes in his hands. He set them back in the box and then scratched his temple.
“Uh…I don’t know.”
My gut coiled the smallest bit.
“You would get paid. I mean, I’m not talking about an ongoing thing. We’re just trying to find celebrities and influencers before the launch. It would mean a lot if you—”
Sliding the box back into the bag, Liam stood and kissed the top of my head.
“Let’s talk about it later, okay?”
I sat there as he moved past me and got the girls excited about helping with dinner in the kitchen. Meanwhile, I carefully tucked my emotions away and tried not to let it show how disappointed I was.
I honestly didn’t care about the shoe; it wasn’t my brainchild or my baby. I was just a financial backer, but if he agreed to show them, he’d get paid a couple thousand dollars for the promotion. It would be easy money…and the exposure would be great for the gym.
Why wasn’t he willing to let me help him?
Why was he so fucking prideful?
Grabbing the rest of my mail and my purse, I headed upstairs to collect myself.
I could hear the girls giggling with Liam in the kitchen, and all I wanted was for that sound to last. I wanted him to keep all the things that made him happy.
Clinging to that sound, had my fingers clutching my phone.
Desperation and reckless love had me dialing the man who mentored me and helped me field new business acquisitions.
Each ring had my heart hammering in my chest as I shut the guest bedroom door and sat on the bed, pulling the ends of my hair into my fist.
“Hello?”
“Gunther?”
He let out his signature laugh, and it instantly calmed me.
“Haley, sweetheart, how are you?”
“I’m doing good, but listen, I need a favor…”