Lacey
My hands are shaking as I take pictures of each letter and send them to Samantha. The phone rings not ten minutes later.
“Hey, baby,” Samantha purrs into the line. “Looks like you just got me the proof I need to get this paternity test done by tomorrow morning. I’ll keep you posted.”
“He hurt her,” I choke out. “He clearly hurt her. They need to arrest him.”
Her sigh crackles through the line. “Who?”
“Jack!”
“I know, but a judge won’t. She doesn’t name him. Simply hints. It could be a boyfriend or a neighbor or a friend. We don’t know without a shadow of a doubt that it’s Jack Henderson.”
Un-fucking-believable.
“He fucking kidnapped her daughter—our daughter! She’s out there pregnant with her stepfather’s kid, scared shitless of him, and you’re telling me we have no proof?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” she says in a calm tone. “But I’m going to speak with the PI. Now that we have an address, he can find out more information. Just let the law do its job for now. We’re getting Zella back for you.”
“What about Lacey?”
“One problem at a time, Terrence.”
Penny
I’ve spent all evening, while Jack was off doing whatever it is he does, trying to coax out answers from Zella. I know she likes and trusts me, but she clams up any time I mention her mother. It breaks my heart for her.
“Does your dad ever hurt you?” I ask, hating that I even have to refer to Jack as her father.
Her brows furl and she looks down at her lap, shrugging.
“You can trust me. You know that, right? We tell each other secrets.” I take one of her small hands in mine. “You didn’t tell on me that you already knew me. You call me Penelope instead of Penny when your dad is around. I won’t tell anyone.”
When she doesn’t speak, her body trembling, I know it’s from fear. She’s afraid he’ll somehow find out. It pisses me off that he’s got her mind warped so badly.
“Did you know daddies are supposed to be kind and gentle and funny?” I ask, squeezing her hand. “My dad is a hero. A doctor. You were going to see him once, but then your dad got mad and took you away. Remember?”
She nods, her brown eyes lifting to mine. It kills me how much she looks like Terrence. Same soulful eyes filled with pain. With Terrence, he nearly died from an accident and remained in a coma. It’s his reason. Hers is Jack. It’s terrible that a child should be so afraid.
“Want to hear a bedtime story?”
Her lips curl into a sweet smile. “Yes.”
“Once upon a time there was a beautiful queen. She had blond hair,” I say, tugging at one of her curls. “She found a handsome king with skin the color of yours.”
A small giggle escapes her, warming cold parts of my heart I never knew existed.
“One day, they had a lovely little princess who had hair like her mother and skin like her father. Everyone thought she was the most beautiful girl in all the land, especially Knight Penny.” I grin at her. “Then something terrible happened. An evil dragon stole the queen and princess. He took them far, far away. The king was under a magical spell, fast asleep, so he didn’t even know they were missing!”
“That’s sad,” she whispers.
“It’s okay. The king was strong and he woke up. He made a friend with Knight Penny and together they decided they would slay the dragon, save the princess, and find the queen.”
Her brown eyes twinkle. “What happened? Did they live happily ever after?”
The front door slams, rattling all the windows in the house, making us both cry out in surprise.
“It’ll have a happy ending,” I quickly reassure her. “I’ll tell you the rest another day.”
I turn off her lamp and nearly run into Jack as I exit her room. He peers into the darkness. “Was she well behaved?”
“A perfect little princess.”
“Hmph. Right.”
“Shh,” I admonish. “She’s asleep.” I pull the door closed and start for the living room. It creeps me out that he follows me, but it gets him away from Zella’s room, which makes me happy.
“The other day I was drunk,” he says. “I didn’t drink much tonight. Didn’t want you to think I was always an asshole.”
I force a smile. “Okay.”
He studies me for a long moment and then pulls some money out of his pocket. “Zella likes you. I like you. You might just become a permanent fixture one day.” His words are meant as a joke, but I don’t like them.
“It’s late. I need to go home.”
He sighs. “I said I was sorry, Penelope.”
“Okay,” I say again, keeping my expression neutral. “See you around.”
His hand curls around my bicep, making the blood freeze in my veins. “I’m just a lonely man. I didn’t mean to hurt or offend you.”
“Good night, Jack.”
I tug my arm free and he lets go. My heart hammers in my chest as I race to my Jeep. There has to be a way to make my story come true for Zella. I want to be her knight in shining armor who saves her from the monster in her world and returns her to her parents.
That sweet girl deserves it.
The door is unlocked at Cal’s cabin, but the lights are off. After locking the door behind me, I blindly find my way to Terrence’s room. Dad wasn’t keen on me spending the night again “with Charlotte,” especially after this weekend and then today at school, but I wasn’t asking. I was telling. He knows I do what I want.
Light shines from the crack under Terrence’s door. Relief floods through me that he waited up for me even though it’s almost midnight. I push open the door and frown to see the mess everywhere. Terrence is sitting on the bed, leaned against the headboard, a stack of letters in his hand. He’s shirtless and in his boxers, which is distracting because he looks so good, but it’s his face that draws my attention.
Something about his expression kills me.
Despondent.
Devastated.
Hopeless.
I drop my bag and keys to the floor after closing the door and walk over to the bed. He doesn’t stop me as I clean off all the mail and move the box off the bed. His eyes don’t lift, even when I shed my clothes and crawl into bed next to him, wearing nothing but my panties.
“Hey,” I murmur, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “What’s wrong?”
He hands me the letters in his hand. “She’s been trying to reach me.”
I take the letters and read the first one. It takes me a few moments to read through them all. Dread twists inside me for reasons unknown to me.
“This proves you’re the father,” I say softly. “Zella is yours.”
“Which we already knew. You saw her that day,” he reminds me. “She looks just like me. I hate that she’s there all alone with him. We don’t know what kind of shit he does to her.”
I have a pretty good idea.
And she’s not always alone. Sometimes she has her knight.
“Samantha can do something with this, right? She can help?”