AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What’s your price,” I ask. “We all know you need it. Just say the amount.”
His eyes focus on me, as he contemplates the insult I just threw at him. It’s not that, it’s only a fact. He’s blown through so much on booze, and now with no job, he’s broke. He grabs the bottle off the end table beside him, taking a huge swig from it.
“Five hundred thousand,” he says, and I want to punch him again. And again. It’s the same feeling I get when another player has landed a dirty hit on me or a teammate. When blood curtains your vision and you tunnel in on causing pain and chaos for a brief moment. But hitting him won’t just land me in the penalty box for a few minutes. It won’t do any good, even if it feels amazing.
Damian laughs, startling my father out of his stupor.
“You’re more pathetic than I thought,” he says.
“I said you couldn’t afford it,” my father replies, and Damian laughs harder.
“I’ve known Callie for a day, and it was long enough to know she’s priceless. You’ll get one million,” Damian says.
“And you won’t try to contact her or interfere in her life in any way,” I add. “Do you agree?”
My father takes another large drink from the bottle he grips like a lifeline. Then he nods. As easy as that. I feel relief invading every tendon in my body. Callie is coming home.
Damian pulls the legal documents out of the manilla envelope he’s been holding.
“I’ll handle this part,” he says. “Go speak to your mother.”
I find her still in the kitchen with Willa, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Mom.”
“Oh, Zander,” she says, wiping her face with shaking hands.
“You have a choice to make,” I tell her, grasping one in my own. Rubbing my thumb in her palm does nothing to ease her. “He’s agreed to give me guardianship over Callie.”
She bursts out in sobs, but something tells me it’s not all sadness. This decision needed to be out of her hands. I think she’s realizing that, just as I am.
“You can come too, Ellen,” Willa says. “That’s the choice you need to make.”
“I don’t know…”
“You don’t need to know just now,” I say. “A trust has been set up for you. It only has your name on it and it’s all yours the day you leave him. Or the day he dies. It’s enough, Mom. It’s more than enough.”
Damian brings the documents in, setting them down in front of her.
“Until you decide, you need to sign these,” he says. “Let us keep Callie safe.”
“Promise me,” she says through hiccupping gasps. “Promise me she’ll be happy.”
“The happiest,” Willa says. “We’ll take the best care of her.”
“With everything I am, I promise. She’ll want for nothing, Mom.”
She presses her palm to my cheek, blinking through the tears as she takes me in. Takes in the honesty of my vow. Her sobs subside the smallest amount and then she picks up the pen.
Soon, we pull into Katie’s driveway. I texted Callie before we left my parents’ house to let her know I was on my way. She comes running out of the front door in her excitement to see me.
“Z!”
“Hey, baby girl,” I say, catching her as she jumps into my arms. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”
“You’re here now,” she says, looking up at me. Her hair falls back and I see the bruise, a nebula of colors on her cheek. It’s healing some but that only makes it uglier. I’m proficient in bruises; I’d say she’s got a few more days before it really starts to fade.
“I should have been here sooner,” I tell her, choking on my own tears.
