7. AVERY #3
“Why are you leaving?” Iris looks at her with letdown written all over her face, and while I feel guilty for being part of the reason she feels that way, I don’t say anything.
“I have to go home, sweetie, but I’ll see you real soon. Okay?”
Iris nods, making me want to snatch her up and run away from here as fast as I can.
“How about I go watch you swim again when you come back home?”
Iris pulls completely away, holding on to me so tight that it’s impossible for me not to wince. Looking up at me, teary and blinking wildly, she murmurs, “I don’t want to go back.”
I don’t bother saying anything else to Kayla. We’re done. Closing the door in her face, I sit on the bottom step, sitting Iris on my lap as I hold her to me, hoping that things can only get better.
I’m not sure how long we stay like that, but by the time we head back into the family room, Callie is standing at the breakfast bar waiting. The envelope in my hand feels heavy, and when I look at it, the glint of my wedding rings is a sharp stab in the gut.
“I’m going to run a bath for Scarlett before dinner,” Callie tells me before focusing on Iris. “You want to use the big tub in my room? It’s got jets that make amazing bubbles.”
“It’s amazing. Best bath ever.” Scarlett takes her upstairs as Callie and I follow behind, taking the bags Kayla brought with us.
Once the girls are happily soaking in the tub, we sit out in the hall outside her bedroom door so they don’t hear our conversation while we can make sure they’re okay.
“First of all, it’s not your fault that she’s a skank. Secondly, before you look at whatever bullshit is in that envelope, what do you want to do?”
“Disappear.” That’s the first thing that comes to mind, and then I catch sight of my rings and a rage I didn’t know I had inside flames hot and violent. “That’s not true,” I murmur, twisting the rings off my finger. “I want him gone. I want him out of my life and away from my daughter.”
“If he’s hurt you like this before…”
“He hasn’t—not in this way. I mean, he was always heavy-handed and short-tempered. But not like this.”
“I know you don’t want to press charges or report this—”
“It’s not about what I want, Callie, it’s about protecting Iris. I failed to protect her already, and now I can’t even talk to her about it because I’m scared that she’ll hate me or that I’ll screw her up.”
“At the end of the day, it’s your decision and I’ll support whatever you decide…no matter what. I don’t want you to regret what you didn’t do because you’re scared. You have no reason to be scared.” Threading her fingers with mine, she squeezes my hand. “I’ve got your back.”
“I know,” I tell her as I rip open the envelope.
I only have to read the header of one of the top DC family attorneys to know that my hope has let me down once again.
Hope…hope is a fucker. A liar and a thief. And as hard as I try to hold it together as I read through the document, I can’t.
“He’s going to take her away from me,” I whisper to myself. It’s loud enough that Callie hears and takes the letter from me. “I didn’t kidnap my own daughter. I took her away because he hurt me. He hurt me in front of her, and I… He said he would kill me, Callie.”
She’s on her feet and pulling her cell from her pocket in a flash. “We’re going to fix this.”
I hear what she’s saying, and stupid hope has me almost believing her until the pale lines on my finger glare up at me, and I realize that I’m stuck.
I’m never going to be free of Carl and his crap.
And while it’s a great notion that everything will work out and it will be okay… he’s still the one calling the shots.
“Rowan’s going to talk to Alison. I need to take a photo of the letter and send it to him so she can read it.”
“Alison?”
“She works for Northward Tactical Ops, and Rowan said she’s at your disposal.
” Pausing in front of me, she gives me a wicked grin.
“Trust me, Alison’s great. She’s a kickass attorney, and she knows pretty much everything about everything, and if she doesn’t, she knows someone who does.
Point is, we’re going to nip this shit in the bud stat. ”
“God, Callie, you don’t need to do that. Mike already said that he’ll help me with whatever I need. I feel terrible enough for intruding into your home and family.”
“Shut up!” She knocks my knee with her foot. “You’re here because we’re friends and I want to help you. It’s been a while since I got to stick it to someone or something. I don’t want to lose my touch, so you’re doing me a favor.”
Trust her to find a way of making me smile right now. If not for any other reason than the certainty that she really will do everything she can to stick it to Carl with me.
“I can’t lose her. She’s my baby, the only good thing to have come out of the last eight years. I can’t let him hurt her.”
“And we’re not going to let any of that happen. We got this. Trust me.”
I nod, even though I’m suffocating at the possibility that if I don’t return to DC with Iris, the authorities that are meant to protect us will rip her from me and hand her to a father that doesn’t even love her.