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“Oh my Gosh, Luna! Look at you! You’re so pretty! Do you know who I am?”
No. Fuck no. I stepped forward to scoop Luna up, but Val’s big mouth was ahead of me. “I’m your mommy!” she exclaimed, flinging her arms theatrically. “I finally came to see you! I’m so excited to get to know you, sweetie!”
Luna’s eyes bugged in disbelief, her face twisting to search my gaze. I kept my mouth shut. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going to come out of it if I allowed myself to respond. Punching a woman was not something I’d ever contemplated doing. But hell if Val didn’t make it difficult to not want to end her.
“All right, let’s get inside and have a nice cup of tea.” Camila was the first to move from her spot, her words tense, her eyes skating between Val and me. There was an edge to her tone which warned me that I couldn’t tell Val to fuck off like I normally would. That I couldn’t let a bomb drop on my kid and then go, “so, that was awkward, huh? Anyway, now that I’ve kicked your mom out, shall we see what’s on television…?”
We all went into my apartment, Val taking everything in, no doubt making inventory and calculating how much money she could milk out of the situation.
Suddenly, she turned around and produced a stuffed seahorse from her designer bag, handing it to Luna. “I heard you like seahorses, so I thought I’d give this to you.”
My heart missed a beat, the air stood still, and all I could feel was calamity seeping through every crack in the room, poisoning us like invisible gas.
Click, click, click, the pieces of the puzzle fell together.
Val didn’t have any point of contact with anyone Luna and I knew. Her mother, who lived in Chicago, gave up on her relationship with Luna before it had even begun. She was too busy with an ex-boyfriend-turned-inmate to Skype with her granddaughter. Val, therefore, had a snitch from my inner circle. Now I had to figure out who.
Luna’s eyes sparkled with surprise and delight, and she grabbed the seahorse, clutching it close to her chest. Luna smiled at her, and if there was such thing as a soul—mine blew up and scattered all over the fucking floor. Because everything had just become a million times more complicated. I hated Val for being so reckless. For telling Luna who she was. I hated her and knew she’d done it for a reason. She wanted something from me, and it wasn’t the kid full of hope and awe who stood in front of her, wearing a black leotard and an eager gaze.
“Hey, Luna? Daddy’s gonna go talk to a friend on the phone. You stay with Camila and Val here, okay?” I jerked my thumb toward my bedroom, purposely uttering Valenciana’s name. She’d done nothing to earn the title of Mom. I made eye contact with Camila to make sure she knew Val was not to be left alone with Luna at any point. She gave me a slight nod. I sneaked into my bedroom and called Vicious, who immediately said he’d contact Eli Cole, a family lawyer and Dean’s Dad, and that they would be on their way to me shortly. When I came out, I heard the front door slamming shut.
“Who was it?” I frowned.
“No one important.” Val let loose a sugary smile, patting Luna’s head as she explained to her something completely wrong and untrue about seahorses. Camila motioned with her head for me to follow her to the kitchen, her face twisted with anger. I looked between Val and Luna. I couldn’t leave them alone, even a few feet away from me, in the living room. Val caught up with the problem quickly.
“I need to go freshen up in the bathroom.” She straightened her spine, waltzing down the hallway like she owned the fucking place.
I mustered a small smile and offered it to my daughter. “Germs, can you do me a favor and go to your room for a few minutes? Daddy and Camila need to talk about something that concerns grown-up people.”
Germs. I called her Germs.
When the coast was clear, Camila turned to me, fire in her eyes. “Edie was at the door.” She exhaled sharply, rubbing her forehead, one hand on her waist.
“Not following,” I said, mainly to buy time, because what the fuck?
“She looked upset to see Val. What was she doing here? What’s going on?”
I looked up and offered her the answer she didn’t want to hear. It made no fucking difference if Camila knew or not. It’s not like she had access to Jordan or would ever tell him.
“Dear Lord, Trent, she is just a kid!”
I shook my head, tired of hearing the same old shit. “She’s more of a woman than the bitch who walked into my house two seconds ago and told my kid she’s her mother.”
