Chapter 10 Gillian #2
The trailer sat at the end of a dirt road, half hidden behind scrubby pines.
A single porch light buzzed over the sagging steps, attracting more moths than it chased away.
The whole place reeked of stale beer, cigarettes, and something sour that might have been vomit.
Siding peeled like diseased skin, a broken truck sat on blocks out front, and beer cans littered the weeds.
A generator thumped somewhere from behind the mobile home.
And there she was. Bella. Sitting rigid on a cracked lawn chair among three men who looked as worn-out as the trailer.
She was pale, hugging her arms tight around herself, her chin jutting forward as if trying to be brave.
When she saw us, she startled, half rising.
One of the men, gaunt, wiry, with patchy facial hair, pushed her back into the chair.
“That’s Darren,” Alex said, his voice hoarse. “I recognize him from his mug shot.”
Alex and I got out of the car, exchanging a glance over the top of the vehicle.
“Stay cool,” I said under my breath. “Easy does it.”
“Dad,” Bella yelled out to him, struggling to get up, but Darren placed a grubby hand on her head, stilling her.
“Dad, help me,” Bella whispered, starting to cry.
Alex went deadly still beside me. “You let go of her. Now.”
Darren made a big show of lifting his hand from Bella’s head as if he were totally innocent. “Nothing to worry about. Just visiting with my kid. Who was kept from me.”
Bella ran to Alex, practically launching herself into his arms.
“Are you okay?” Alex asked her.
“Not really,” Bella said.
“Well, well.” With his free hand, Darren lifted his beer with mock civility. “To what do we owe the pleasure of a visit from such a big shot?”
His friend, heavy-set with greasy hair slicked against his skull, held up his phone. The screen’s glow made his face look corpse-pale. He gave a low whistle. “Look at this here. Alexander Garcia. Net worth north of a billion.”
Darren swayed slightly as he rose to his feet, beer sloshing over his fingers.
“Shoot, I wonder what a judge would say about all this. Fourteen years of missed birthdays. Fourteen Christmases. First steps, first words—all stolen from me.” His smile was razor-thin.
“That’s worth something, don’t you think?
Maybe keep it out of the courts. You do the right thing. Payment for stealing my child.”
“I didn’t steal her from you,” Alex said, sounding eerily calm. “You left Mattie and the kids without a backward glance. You left a pregnant woman and her toddler. Alone and broke.”
“Who’s to say that’s what really happened?” Darren asked. “Mattie’s in the ground, so she can’t really do much, can she? Maybe she kept them from me. Poisoned them against me.”
Bella whimpered.
“You denied she was even yours,” Alex said.
Darren shrugged. “Did I now? How would you ever prove that?”
“We’re going home,” Alex said. “You come after her or me or money, I’ll make sure you pay for it.”
Darren’s laugh was mean and hollow. “Go ahead, take her. But you’ll be hearing from me real soon.” He gestured toward the phone. “Child abandonment. Parental alienation. There are laws, and I know people who know how to use them.”
The heavy-set man lifted his phone higher, red recording light winking. “Smile pretty for the camera, now. I want to make sure we have evidence of you threatening Bella’s real father.”
Alex’s voice dropped to something lethal. “You want to show a judge footage of you drunk around a minor you abandoned?”
The phone man chuckled, still recording. “Doesn’t matter. The internet loves to hate a billionaire.”
Something in me snapped. Before Alex could take the bait, I moved.
Years of Pilates and dance kicked in and I shot forward, twisted at the waist, and brought my leg up in a sharp arc.
My foot connected with the man’s wrist, sending the phone flying.
It smacked against the dirt and, before he could even lunge for it, I brought my heel down hard.
The crack of shattering glass and plastic gave me more satisfaction than it should have.
“Oops,” I said coolly, straightening as his face went red with rage. “Guess you won’t be posting that.”
Darren’s two friends surged half out of their chairs, but Darren barked a laugh, holding up his beer like a referee calling a foul. “Easy, boys. Let them go. We’re in the right here, and the courts will agree.”
“You don’t want to come after me or my daughter,” Alex said. “Trust me. It won’t end well for you.”
We escorted a trembling Bella to the car. Alex opened the back and got her settled, even fastening her seatbelt for her like she was six instead of fourteen before getting into the front passenger’s seat.
Darren called out, voice thick with glee. “Thanks for that little show, sweetheart. Courts love it when you destroy evidence. Tampering, obstruction. I can spin it six ways from Sunday.”
“I dare you to try,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Oh, I will, honey. I will,” Darren called out to me as I slipped into the driver’s seat.
I backed the car up quickly, squashing several empty beer cans under the tires, before heading out of there as fast as I could without endangering our lives.
The road curled north, the ocean flashing silver and blue on our left, but I barely noticed the view. My hands were back on the steering wheel, every muscle still wired from the encounter at the trailer. Beside me, Alex sat rigid, one arm braced against the door, his eyes hollow.
In the back seat, Bella looked small, pale, and fragile. My heart softened. She was just a little girl who missed her mother.
“I’m sorry,” Bella whispered, head bowed.
Alex twisted in his seat to look at her, his face stricken. “Bella, what you did is—unbelievably stupid.”
“I didn’t know it would be like that.” Her voice broke and tears tumbled down her cheeks.
“I thought maybe he’d care. Maybe he’d want to know me.
But he didn’t even …” She let out a sob.
“He didn’t even ask how Mom died. The minute I mentioned, you know, about your company, they started looking you up on the phone and realized you’re rich.
I’m sorry, Dad. I’ve messed everything up. ”
“You scared the hell out of me. Turning off your phone like that? Bella, really?”
“How did you find me?” Bella asked.
“We asked in town,” Alex said. “Thank God for bartenders.”
Bella wiped her face with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “I should never have turned off my phone, but I could see that you were following me. I just wanted a chance to see him without you telling me no.”
Alex’s voice was raw when he spoke. “The idea of anything happening to you—I don’t think I could handle it, Bella. I already lost your mom. I can’t lose you too.”
“I know. I was stupid. I talked myself into thinking he was reformed since that arrest we saw. I’m an idiot.”
I glanced at her in the rearview mirror, softening my voice. “You weren’t stupid. Everyone wants to know where they come from. But sometimes, the answers aren’t what we hope for. I should know.”
Her eyes flicked up, meeting mine in the mirror. “Why are you here?” Her tone wasn’t accusing, merely curious.
“I was walking on the beach when I saw your dad. Looking for you.”
“I figured you’d snuck out to spend the day with your friends,” Alex said. “So I went down to your usual spot to haul you back home. But you weren’t there. And I panicked.”
Bella groaned. “Did you ask my friends where I was?”
“I did. They didn’t know. That’s when I saw the cop,” Alex said.
“You talked to the cops?” Bella asked. “Oh God.”
“I was scared out of my mind,” Alex said.
“He was completely frantic,” I said. “I could tell the moment I spotted him with the policeman. I knew something was wrong.”
“Can you ever forgive me?” Bella asked.
Alex faced forward again, his jaw working, his chest rising and falling unevenly. “I’m very angry right now, but, yes, I can forgive you.”
Bella nodded, shrinking into herself even further. The fight had gone out of her.
“Do you know what my friend Lila always says?” I asked. “That everything’s better when our stomachs are full. There’s a little café up the highway with good sandwiches and an ocean view. Are you hungry? Maybe we stop for lunch before we head home?”
“I need to wash my hands,” Bella said. “With hot water and lots of soap. Ugh. And my hair. His hand was so dirty.”
“I might need to wash my shoe,” I said. “Where it touched that disgusting phone.”
Bella giggled, then sniffed. Alex smiled, shaking his head.
“That was something else, Gillie. Kicking it out of his hand.” Alex glanced over at me, his eyes shining with admiration.
“I guess all those years dancing were worth something after all. I just hope he doesn’t know about the storage cloud. If he has video of that, it might look really bad.”
“Bad for him,” Alex said. “Not you.”
I really hoped that was true. Because all Alex needed was a video of his unhinged friend kicking a phone out of a drunk man’s hand.