Chapter 40
Forty
Cee Cee knocked on her office door, carrying a flower arrangement, and headed for the desk. ‘Another delivery, boss lady,’ she said, standing back with her hands perched on her hips.
‘Put it out the front,’ Kenzie said, barely glancing up.
‘There’s no room out the front. The other bunches are taking up too much room on my desk as it is.’
‘Then throw them out, or donate them to a hospice,’ she said irritably. ‘Just take them out of here.’
‘I’ve never had a man send me multiple bunches of flowers before. Just saying!’ she said at Kenzie’s glare. ‘Maybe you should at least talk to him? He rang again a few minutes ago.’
‘No phone calls. No flowers in here,’ Kenzie said sternly.
‘Okay,’ Cee Cee said, backing out of the office slowly. ‘No need to get snippy.’
‘Sorry,’ Kenzie called out, irritated that Ewan’s campaign for forgiveness was turning her into the boss from hell.
It had been two days since she’d arrived home, and she’d thrown herself back into work.
Thanks to Floss’s article, there had been a number of new clients making bookings for events and weddings.
Business had never been better. It could have so easily gone the other way, but Kenzie quickly pushed away the thought.
Floss had clearly known what she was talking about: getting the story out ahead of her attack had obviously taken the wind out of Sasha’s sails.
There’d been no follow-up threats, no social media backlash.
When Mercedes had rung to talk about ice sculptures and if they could be made from pink champagne, she’d mentioned Sasha had apparently flown to an ashram in Ubud to find inner peace.
Now, Kenzie just wanted to put it all behind them and move on.
Unfortunately, Ewan was not of the same opinion.
Kenzie knew she had to deal with it eventually, but she simply wasn’t ready yet.
It broke her heart to continually fob off Poppy’s never-ending questions of ‘Why can’t we go back and visit Granny?
’ and ‘Why can’t I see my daddy and my cousins?
’ It wasn’t fair, but she still hadn’t worked out how to explain to a four-year-old all that had happened.
How did you tell a child that the family she’d just found believed she didn’t actually belong to them after all?
That afternoon, as Poppy rode ahead on her little pushbike on the walking track, Kenzie stared at the training wheels, remembering the conversation they’d had about taking them off. She wondered if she was letting her own fears hold her daughter back.
What if she falls? What if she gets hurt?
What if she doesn’t learn to trust her judgement? the small voice inside shot back. What if she misses out on so much because she won’t take a chance?
She watched the little legs pump ferociously and smiled. Poppy was right—she was ready to learn how to ride without them.
Kenzie had been scared, used to being overprotective and yes, guilty of wrapping Poppy in cottonwool. Well, as of tomorrow, she would put aside her fear and teach her daughter how to ride her bike without training wheels.
She had a moment of sadness as she thought about Ewan, and how this was something he’d have wanted to do as her dad, then quickly pushed the thought away. There was no point dwelling on what might have been.
‘Daddy!’ Poppy called out and Kenzie turned her head quickly, almost giving herself whiplash.
She’d almost hoped Poppy had just confused some poor man with Ewan, until she spotted the Daddy in question.
The air left her lungs, and before she could stop her, Poppy dropped her bike and was running across the grass to greet him.
Kenzie watched him swing her daughter into the air before hugging her tightly. The joy on both their faces sent a wave of longing through her, and she swallowed past a lump that had suddenly formed in her throat.
Poppy held his face between her small hands, forcing him to pay attention to her, and launched into an interrogation of a thousand questions.
‘Where have you been? How come you didn’t come home with us?
Have you ever been on an aeroplane?’ before she switched gears and started telling him about what happened at daycare and that she wanted a puppy because her friend Ocean had a new puppy.
He patiently listened, then went on to answer another round of questions before he asked her to show him how she rode her bike, and put her back down on the ground.
‘Hi,’ he said, sounding cautious.
‘Are you watching?’ Poppy called over her shoulder, one foot on the ground and the other braced on the pedal.
‘Yep,’ Ewan called.
She launched off and pedalled her heart out, taking off down the track.
‘I’ve been trying to call you,’ he said, eyes still on the pink-helmeted hellion swerving her way around a woman with a fluffy white dog on a lead.
‘I know.’
‘I get that you’re angry, but I wanted to explain.’
‘What is there to explain? You chose to believe that test—and I guess I can see why you’d be confused.
Maybe. I’d have offered to do it again so there were no doubts, but the fact your father, I’m assuming, went behind my back and then proceeded to call me a gold-digger changed my mind.
I don’t need to prove anything to any of you. ’
‘Don’t you owe it to our daughter to listen to me?’
‘Don’t tell me what my daughter needs,’ she said evenly. ‘Come back this way now, Poppy,’ she called, waiting for her to get off and drag her bike around forcefully before remounting.
‘She really needs those trainer wheels off,’ Ewan murmured, watching her struggle.
‘I’m on it, thanks,’ she said curtly.
‘Sorry. I was just—’
‘None of this is your concern anymore. You’re off the hook,’ she said sarcastically.
‘I don’t care about the stupid test, Kenzie.’
‘Your family does.’
‘No, they don’t. They never did, and especially not now.’
Kenzie looked over at him.
‘It wasn’t my sample on the test.’
‘What?’
‘Dad provided the sample so there would be no chance of the results being positive. He was setting you up.’
Kenzie stared at him. ‘Wow,’ Kenzie finally said, stunned. ‘That’s … kind of disturbing.’
‘There’s more,’ Ewan said in a low voice that caught her attention. ‘Callum isn’t my biological father.’
‘What?’
‘While he was trying to set you up, he inadvertently exposed a dirty family secret. Everything kind of turned to crap once you left.’
Holy cow. ‘That must have been a pretty big shock,’ she said slowly.
‘You could say that.’
‘Are you okay?’ she asked.
‘Yeah. It kind of explained a lot. He and Mum are going through a bit of an adjustment.’
‘Is your mum okay?’
‘She will be. I think she’s relieved it all finally came out. Dad’s moved out of the big house and over to the other side of the property. I think Mum’s had enough of his crap.’
‘Oh, wow,’ she breathed. ‘What’ll happen with them?’
Ewan shrugged. ‘No idea. I think they’re both content at this stage to just live separate lives. It’s not like they haven’t been doing that for a long time already.’
‘That’s a lot to deal with.’
‘It has been,’ he agreed, his gaze on Poppy as she pulled up in front of them out of breath.
‘You’re a pro,’ Ewan said, sounding impressed.
‘Wanna see me on the monkey bars? I can do three now,’ she told him, already clambering off the bike and unclipping her helmet.
‘Sure,’ he said, taking the helmet she pushed into his hands, and watching her run towards the play equipment.
Kenzie went to pick up her discarded bike, but Ewan bent down and lifted it, and they followed the four-year-old slowly across the grass.
‘Kenzie,’ he said turning to face her abruptly.
‘I just wanted to apologise. I never meant to doubt you. I don’t think I honestly did doubt you.
It just happened so quickly and caught me off guard.
I believe you weren’t sleeping with anyone else and I’m really sorry I questioned you about being drunk.
Like I was one to talk,’ he added dryly.
She gave a small grimace. ‘It’s okay. It did look pretty damning.’
‘The thing is, Kenzie—’
‘Are you watching?’ Poppy called.
They both turned just in time to see Poppy jump … and completely miss the first bar. She landed on the ground with a sickening thud.
‘Poppy!’ Kenzie yelled, running to where the small child lay crumpled on her side.
‘Don’t move her,’ Ewan said, holding Kenzie back as she went to roll their daughter over. He slipped three fingers into the collar of Poppy’s shirt, feeling for a pulse against her neck. ‘She’s breathing, but she’s not responsive. Call an ambulance.’
Kenzie fumbled with her phone, her fingers too stiff.
‘It’s okay, I’m calling them now,’ a woman with two small children reassured her, crossing to her side of the playground from where she’d been sitting.
Kenzie kneeled beside Ewan and fought to keep herself together.
‘She’s just knocked herself out,’ Ewan said calmly. ‘We’ll keep an eye on her breathing until the ambulance gets here.’ ‘They’re on their way,’ the woman said, moving closer, still talking to the operator.
It was only minutes, but it felt like hours before she saw the two uniformed paramedics racing across from the carpark.
Poppy was making little sounds and crying softly by the time they arrived.
They carefully assessed her, checking vitals and soon realised there was a possible fracture to the arm she fell on and prepared to lift her onto the stretcher and take her in for X-rays and further tests.
‘You go with her. I’ll meet you at the hospital,’ Ewan said, helping Kenzie into the back of the ambulance.
Kenzie managed to nod, holding Poppy’s hand and trying for a reassuring smile while the paramedic sat beside her and placed an oxygen mask over her little face.
Don’t cry, don’t cry. Kenzie didn’t know if she was hoping for Poppy or willing it for herself.
When they finally reached the hospital, they were taken into a waiting room where a triage nurse went over Poppy again, before leaving them to wait for the doctor.
Because of her age and some tenderness in her belly, they immediately took her for an X-ray before returning her to the waiting room.
Then there was more waiting for the doctor and the results.
Kenzie’s heart ached as she watched her little girl cry. For all the rollercoaster of emotions of the past few weeks, there was no worse or more helpless feeling in the world than being unable to help your child in pain.