Chapter Thirty-Nine
DAISY
It had been several days since Daisy had been discharged from the hospital. It had also been several days since she had talked to Gabby. It had been days since Daddy and she had really sat down and just been together like they were before he left to oversee the expansion.
Daddy was tiptoeing around her. He was making sure she was okay and had everything she needed, but he wasn’t the same. It was almost like he was worried she would break.
“Daddy?” Daisy called as she looked up from her computer.
They were in his office, as usual, while they both worked. Daddy didn’t want her out of his sight, and Daisy didn’t want to be away from him too long.
“Yes, Little Flower?” Daddy looked up from his work.
“Do you not want to be with me anymore?” she couldn’t help but ask.
Daddy’s eyes went wide as he stared at her. “Where is this coming from?”
She shrugged.
Daddy stood up and walked toward her, then knelt in front of her.
“Where did that come from?” Daddy asked once again.
“You have just been different since the hospital,” she mumbled.
“I don’t think I’ve been different.”
“You have, though. You don’t discipline me when I do something naughty.
You don’t tell me to go to bed at a certain time.
You haven’t been paying attention to what I’ve been eating very closely, and you don’t tell me no whenever I want a cookie.
You don’t leave me alone when I’m perfectly capable of being on my own.
It’s like you’re worried that something bad is going to happen to me,” she explained.
“You have just been really different. It’s almost kind of like you don’t want me anymore.
If you don’t want me, can you please tell me so I can find a place to move into? ”
Tears had already started to form in her eyes as she thought about it all. Was Daddy really giving up on her?
“Little Daisy—” Daddy gently said.
“I know it’s going to hurt, but I don’t want to keep holding on to this hope if you don’t want me any longer,” she interrupted him.
“I know I’ve moved in with you now, and everything seemed to be going okay, but everything’s different.
Maybe it’s moving in, or maybe it’s because I was in the hospital, but either way, something’s different.
I don’t feel like you want to discipline me anymore when I’m naughty. ”
“I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to make you faint again,” Daddy said.
“But Daddy, that doesn’t—” but she stopped herself from speaking any further.
It wasn’t her place to tell him something like this. He was the Daddy, and she was the Little. But something needed to change.
“I need to go potty,” she whispered as she stood and walked out of his office.
Tears ran down her face as she walked down the hallway. What was she thinking, bringing it up? She knew better than to do that. What if Asher decided he didn’t want to be her Daddy anymore? She wouldn’t be able to live without him.
“Whoa there,” someone said as they grabbed onto her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
She looked up to see Dominic in front of her. Daisy nodded, then quickly shook her head, before nodding once again.
“That was a lot of nodding and shaking your head. Do you want to think about it?” Dominic asked.
She didn’t know Dominic well, but she knew that he was a bouncer at the club and that Elsha had a thing for him. Or maybe they had a thing for each other. But she didn’t mind because she tried not to get involved in other people’s business.
“Daisy,” Dominic gently said. “Do I need to go find your Daddy?”
She quickly shook her head as her eyes went wide. She was trying to run away from Daddy, not go to him.
He hummed. “Then do you want to talk to me about it? I think I should go talk to your Daddy and make sure that you’re okay.”
“Please, don’t,” she whispered.
“I don’t like that.”
She pulled away from Dominic and bit down on her knuckle, trying to stop herself from bursting into tears even more.
Everything was becoming too overwhelming, but she couldn’t do anything about it.
Daisy shouldn’t have brought it up to Daddy, but she had, and now she was paying for the consequences.
“Why don’t we get you a little snackie?” Dominic said as he placed his hand on her upper back. “Let’s get you some chocolate, or maybe Trent has made some cookies you can have with some milk.”
He guided her toward the kitchen, tears still streaming down her face. Daisy didn’t know how she was going to survive this much longer. She wanted her Daddy back, and she didn’t know how to go about it.
Daisy had thought that without punishments, she would enjoy her life. But now that it was here, she was miserable and just wanted Daddy to discipline her. She wanted it to be like before he left for Virginia for the expansion.
It didn’t seem like she was ever going to get that.
“Daisy? Dominic? What are you doing in here?” Trent asked.
Daisy looked down at the floor, not wanting anyone else to see that she was bawling her eyes out. How embarrassing.
“I found her in the hallway, crying,” Dominic explained. “Doesn’t want her Daddy, so I brought her here to see if you had any cookies or chocolate.”
“I always have cookies and chocolate. Why don’t you sit down right here, and I’ll go grab some? Do you want some plain milk or chocolate milk? Sadly, I don’t have any strawberry milk right now,” Trent said as he walked around the kitchen.
“Plain,” she mumbled, her voice clogged with emotion.
Things were not getting better. If anything, them taking care of her was making it worse. Daddy was supposed to help her with this. Daddy was supposed to be with her, telling her that everything was okay and that things would go back to normal.
Trent placed cookies and a glass of milk in front of her.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Trent asked as he sat next to her.
“I’ve got to go. Can you watch over her until I get back?” Dominic asked.
Trent nodded as Daisy looked up at them. Why was Dominic leaving? Did he not want to be around her, either?
“What are you thinking?” Trent asked as Dominic left the room.
“That maybe it would be better if I left the state,” she mumbled as she picked up the cookie and took a bite.
Tears continued to roll down her face, entering her mouth as she chewed, but she didn’t mind. She was over caring about whether she was crying right now.
“Nope,” Trent said. “You aren’t leaving. So many people would be sad that you left, especially your Daddy.”
She shrugged and choked on some of the milk, coughing when it went down the wrong pipe. Trent couldn’t be more wrong about that. Right now, it seemed like Daddy didn’t care about her one bit.
“I don’t think I like the way you are behaving,” Trent mumbled. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”
She shook her head as she sobbed, almost choking on the cookie in her mouth.
“You can get these back after you stop crying, but I’m not going to have you dying on my watch.” Trent pulled her glass of milk and plate of cookies away. “Spit out what you have into my hands.”
Her eyes went wide.
“Spit it out. Now,” he commanded. Before she knew what she was doing, the cookie mess was in his hands, and she started to sob. “Oh, Little One. That wasn’t supposed to make you cry.”
But it did, and it made her cry even harder than she had before.
“Come on. Let’s get you back to your Daddy,” he said.
She shook her head once more, placing a hand over her mouth as a sob broke free.
“Why not?” he asked.
Daisy closed her eyes super tight as she took a breath through her sob. Everyone kept asking, but she shouldn’t tell anyone about it. It should be something that Daddy and she worked out, but she didn’t know how to bring it up. How was she supposed to do something like that without offending him?
“Come on, it’s okay. Something is bothering you, and you don’t want to go to your Daddy, which means it has to be about him,” Trent deduced. “I know you probably don’t want to talk about it, but you need to tell someone. We can help you. Is he hurting you?”
“No!” she yelled before leaning her head on the table. “No, he isn’t. He would never.”
He wasn’t doing anything but telling her she was a good girl and taking her everywhere with him, so he could keep an eye on her.
“Where is Chilli?” he asked, looking around. “I just realized you don’t have her with you.”
“In the office,” she whispered, moving her head to the side so her cheek was resting on the counter.
She closed her eyes as she tried to calm her breathing. Her tears had finally started to slow, which she was thankful for. Daisy didn’t like to cry.
“Why is she still in there when you are out here?” Trent asked. “Your Daddy isn’t going to be happy about that. I know that’s one of your rules.”
“He won’t do anything,” she pitifully said. “He won’t punish me anymore.”
And those were words she never thought she would say in her life. She thought she would rejoice if she never had to get punished again.
“He won’t?” Trent asked.
Daisy shouldn’t be telling him about this, but the words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“Daddy hasn’t done anything like that since I got out of the hospital,” she whispered.
“He hasn’t scolded you since you got out? That was almost a month ago,” Trent said.
She nodded and kept her eyes closed. For the first week, she loved it. But she’d hated it for the last couple of weeks. This was no way to live, but she couldn’t just leave Daddy or tell him about it.
“I bet he is putting them in a book, so when you are fully healed, he can give you all the punishments,” Trent tried to reason.
Daisy cracked her eyes open and looked up at him. “Nothing is wrong with me. I left the hospital perfectly fine. The doctor even said that I could get spanked if I was a naughty girl.”
“Mike really said that?” Trent asked.
“Yes,” she whispered.
It had been so weird. She had told him not to say that in front of her Daddy, but now she wished she could go back in time and tell him to say it again and again so Daddy would listen.
“I’m sure your Daddy has a good reason for not spanking you,” Trent said. “Just give him some time.”
“I don’t think he loves me anymore,” she blurted out.