Orlando stalked away, not wanting to hear another word. The memories of how everything had gone down with Dani assaulted him once again as he got in his truck. Her walking into the shop all done up the day Nine offered her a job on the spot and even Orlando’s dumb ass had been so easily swayed by her child-therapist-student crap. How instantly Baby O had taken to her, and all the baby whisperer, bullshit. More than anything though was that phone call he’d overheard.
We were in love you know.
Yeah, it still burned him to remember the fucking phone call. He’d hardly gotten any sleep that night. Things had happened between him and Dani felt a little fast, but it’d also felt genuinely organic. She’d been so honest about everything else. Why would she keep something so huge from him? Still, this asshole wouldn’t know anything about it if what he was saying wasn’t true.
He got in his truck, zooming past Ted, who was still bent over by his car, coughing. Hitting speed dial, he called Felicia. “What did you tell Ted?” he asked as soon as she answered.
She was quiet for a moment before responding. “Danica’s ex?”
“Yeah,” he said, squeezing the steering wheel.
“I saw the commotion at the courthouse the other day, so when he got in the elevator with me today, all I asked was if everything was okay. I mentioned knowing you and Danica, and then he started asking a million questions, even offered to buy me breakfast. I was in between deliveries, so I took him up on the offer, and we went to IHOP. I tried not to be too detailed, but the man knows how to interrogate. He was very interested in the baby and how Danica came to work for you. But I kept it very basic.”
“You told him the baby had been left at my door?”
“Well, yeah, I knew that wasn’t a secret. It’d been on the news even.”
“That’s fine. What else did you tell him about it?”
“He just asked how much you knew about the baby’s mom and how and when Danica started working for you. Why?”
“The fucker just showed up at the shop, asking more questions. I just wanted to find out how much he knew and why. Sorry to get you involved in this shit, but he mentioned running into you, so I just thought I’d ask.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. Just trying to get it all straight.”
Orlando was off the phone with Felicia just as he turned the corner onto his mom’s street. He picked up the baby and headed out, his mind still reeling over everything. He didn’t bother stopping for food. The way he was feeling his appetite was shot anyway. He headed straight home instead as what Ted had said about Dani continued to baffle him. She’s a master manipulator. There was no way. Not his sweet bumbling cook—Mrs. Magoo driver. His heart thudded as he drove up to his house and saw her car in the driveway. Seeing her at the door had his heart swelling, but Ted’s comments about them both being saps who were at her mercy, made him inhale deeply, close his eyes, and try to keep his head in check.
She walked out as he got out of the car and met him at the backdoor of his truck to help him with the baby. “He’s out,” Orlando whispered as he pulled the carrier out of the backseat and handed her the baby bag. “My mom said she fed and bathed him, so he’s ready to just be put down for the night.”
Dani smiled, looking genuinely enamored as she glanced down at the baby. Ted’s words came back to him. He’s who she’s really there for. As hurt as he wanted to be with her for not telling him, how could he hate her? She loved his son. It just hurt like a bitch that her feelings for him might’ve just been embellished for the sake of being in the baby’s life. After all the red tape he’d gone through to get custody of his boy back, he knew and understood the desperation and how easily he would’ve been tempted to do or say anything to get him back. They put him down in his crib and walked back to the kitchen. Orlando grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge to wet his parched mouth as she started their conversation with small talk about the latest on the panaderia.”Aren’t you gonna eat something?” she asked when she noticed all he was having was water.
Unable to take it anymore, he turned to her, looking right into her eyes. “Were you really the one who left my son at my door?”
Chapter 27
Danica
Barely able to catch her breath, Danica stared at the profoundly intense eyes that bore into her. Her mind raced to find the best words to respond with, but she had none. The whole ride to his place and even as she’d waited for him to arrive, she’d gone over what she’d say to him, but none of the speeches she practiced explaining to him how and why she’d done what she’d done felt even remotely justifiable.
“I . . .” She cleared her throat as that first word squeaked out. “It’s what I wanted to talk to you about tonight.”
“You dropped him off and then came back and lied your way back into his life?”
“I never lied,” she said, shaking her head, feeling stupid because she knew he wouldn’t understand. Still she tried to explain. “I mean I planned on it, but I was never able to. I couldn’t lie to you.”
“What are you talking about, Danica?” he asked even louder. “You kept the truth from me all this time. That’s lying. You pretended to need a job—”
“I did need a job!”
“But that’s not why you walked into the shop the night you did. You had ulterior motives from the very beginning. Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”
“Because I was terrified to.” She shook her head, feeling the tears stream down her cheeks. “The day I walked into that shop I was just hoping to get a glimpse of him because I hadn’t seen him since the day I dropped him off. I missed him so much.”
“Why?” Orlando asked, peering at her, as his voice went a little softer. “He isn’t yours.”
“Oh, but he is,” she whispered, swatting tears away as she explained quickly. “His mother Angie—my roommate at the time—suffered from severe postpartum depression. She wouldn’t even hold him almost from the moment he was born, so it was all me from the very beginning. I cared for him day and night, took him to all his appointments because most days she couldn’t even get out of bed she was so bad. Before I knew it, my heart had claimed him, and I completely fell in love with him. I was terrified of leaving him alone with her. She was all alone. Her single mom had smothered her younger sister to death when Angie was just six, just a week after giving birth to her sister, for the same reason—postpartum depression—and she’s been in some detention facility for the mentally ill ever since.”
“Did Angie overdose because of the depression?”
Danica felt her face scrunch as the pain of finding Angie dead assaulted her. “I think it was accidental. Ted insisted she’d done so on purpose because she’d struggled with addiction in the past, but she’d overcome it.” Orlando seemed ready to hug Danica at any moment, but he also appeared to be waiting for the rest of her explanation and hanging on her every word, so she went on. “I’d really bonded with her and my other friend Juanita, the one I told you, about while I was in jail. They’re the two friends I mentioned bonding with and staying in contact with even after we were all out. When Juanita died of a heroin overdose, Angie swore off drugs, and she’d been clean long before she ever got pregnant. But her depression was horrid. The doctors called it puerperal psychosis. It’s the severest kind of postpartum depression there is, and she was just desperate to feel normal. The morning she died was a bad one. The baby had a doctor’s appointment, and when I left to take him to it, she’d been almost hysterical. I’d forced her to eat a little and gave her, her anxiety meds, assuring her she’d feel better as soon as they kicked in. Danica squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the ongoing tears stream down her face as she shook her head. “I should’ve never left her pills on the nightstand. But it’s where she always kept them, and it never even occurred to me that she might overdo it.”