“Child neglect. Child Endangerment. And Child abandonment.” The woman next to him said with a haughty sneer as my world crashed down around me, with every eye inthe room staring at me like I hadn’t been friends with everyone in the room for the last three decades of my life.
“There has to be some sort of mistake.” I said, grabbing the envelope and ripping it open.
But there in black bold ink on the first page were the allegations and words I never wanted to read about myself.
Unfit mother.
Neglect.
Abandonment.
Risk to minors.
My hands shook so hard the paper rattled.
“Bullshit.” The growl came from beside them, making both agents flinch across the bar.
Travis.
Stepping up so fast, his stool screeched across the floor. His chest rose and fell as if he were holding himself back by a thread.
Eli wasn’t holding back at all. He was already behind the bar, slamming his fist down on the bar top, “You walk in here, in front of the entire fucking town, and you throw this at her. Who the hell would make up these claims?”
“Sir, we’re just—” The man in the official jacket that mocked me held his hands up, stepping backward toward the armed guards they brought with them for their late-night visit.
“No,” Travis’s low, lethal voice interrupted him as he came to my other side, “You’re not doing this here. Not like this.”
“Now, Travis,” The chief of police, a man my mother went to school with, stepped forward with a fatherly tone dripping with authority and disappointment, “Let the agents do their job. They have to investigate the claims; they’re too compounding to be brushed off.”
“I don’t understand,” I cried, closing my eyes as tears welled up in them. I felt like I had landed in some alternate universe and couldn’t get my feet underneath me. “What exactly is beingclaimed against me? By whom? My kids aren’t neglected. I haven’t abandoned them.”
“Where are your kids currently, Ms. Blake?” The female agent asked, raising one unimpressed eyebrow at me.
“At home. Sleeping.” I answered.
“And who’s watching them?” She fired back instantly, “While you’re here—” She eyed up the massive crowd.
“Working.” I clapped back in anger. “While I’mworking, they are at home, in bed, with my mother watching them until we get home.”
“We.” The man said, flipping through his file. “Would that include a Mr. Travis Hayes and a Mr. Elliot Torres?” He looked up at the two men flanking my shoulders with open disdain, like he was counting the marks against me and just found two more.
“Yes.” I ground out through my clenched teeth. “Is that against the law?”
The man tsked, and Eli’s hand settled on my back, like he was trying to offer some sort of comfort under the man’s blatant judgement. “It is if you’re subjecting your children to depravity and indecent behavior.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered in horror. “It’s Danny.” Trav looked at me with murder in his eyes as Eli’s hand tightened around my back. “We should have—” I felt despair trying to pull me under into hysterics as I realized just how fucked I was. “He went to them first, which means they’ll never believe me.”
“Shh,” Eli pressed his lips to my temple as I fell into his support. “He’s not going to win this.”
“So, help me God, if you believe the blatant lies of Danny Masters over this whole situation, you’re as dumb as you fucking look walking in here and throwing this bullshit at Frankie. She’s an incredible mother, and you don’t even know the half of the shit that piece of trash has done to her!” Trav roared, losing his normal grip on his control and dissolving.
“Ma’am,” Agent Andrews ignored Trav’s outburst and glared at me, “As part of our investigation, we’ll be placing the children,” He opened his file again, “Emmaline and Toby Blake into protective custody.”
“No!” I broke, falling completely into Eli’s arms. “You can’t take my kids! That’s insane, you can’t take them! Based on one person’s claims? That’s absurd! They need me!”
“Then why aren’t they with you?” The woman scorned me, and I felt every shred of humanity slip from my body as I realized I was already guilty in their eyes.
“Ma’am,” Andrews interrupted again. “We’re going to let you go with us to collect the kids, but we’re placing them in the care of their father under an emergency custody ruling until this investigation is complete.”
