"She went with that girl."
"Whatgirl?"
"The one with that was prancing around your house in her underwear a few months ago."
My head isn't clear right now. Who the fuck is she talking about? Underwear? Couple of months ago?
"Blake?"
"I don't fucking remember her name. The one with purple hair!"
"Blake." I'm more confused now than I was a second ago.
Why would Blake take Clover? From Jade's house? It's then that I hear music in the background on the other end of my phone.
"Jade. Where are you?"
"My house. She barged in here with some guy, and they just carried her out of here like it was their own goddamn kid."
"I gotta go."
"What? Kass?—"
"I'll call you back! Text me if you think of any more details."
I finally have my head screwed on enough to throw on some sweats and a sweatshirt. I run through the house, grab my keys, and run out the front door. I didn't bother putting on shoes, so I'm running across the driveway barefoot. I have no clue where I'm going, but I get in my car and call Blake's number.
She answers almost immediately.
"Kass?"
"Blake! Do you have Clover?"
"I do. How do you?—"
"What the fuck is going on?"
"Kass, everything's gonna be okay. She's safe. She's with me. We're on our way back to your house. We'll be there in five minutes. I'll explain everything when I get there."
I'm stunned into silence by this fucked up sequence of events. How did the woman who ripped my heart out end up taking my daughter from the house of a girl I used to hate but recently started to trust? Man, if I wasn't mentally fucked up already, I sure as hell am going to be now.
I look down at my phone and realize that Blake hung up on me. What the hell am I supposed to do now? I start by climbing out of my car and walking to the front door that I'm now realizing I left wide open. My whole body is on autopilot. My feet carry me inside, my lungs pump air in and out, my hands close the door behind me, but my mind is somewhere else. My mind is still in panic mode, struggling to come up from the hell it was just plunged into.
I thought I had lost her. I thought someone had taken my little girl. That is a new level of pain that I never want to feel again. The closest I've ever felt to something like this is when I got the call about Daisy. It took me over an hour to gather my thoughts before I was able to confront Clover about it.
I find my way to the couch, and my body collapses onto the cushion. I place my hand over my heart to reassure myself that it's still beating. It is.
As I lay there, staring up at the ceiling, my mind is blank. Only moments ago, it was running wild with horrible and endless possibilities; now there's only silence.
Time passes—as it usually does—and before I know it, I hear a car in the driveway.
Shooting up and off the couch, I run outside, still barefoot. This time, I stop on the porch. There's an SUV that Idon't recognize. Unless Blake got a new car in the past couple of weeks, then it must belong to the man that Jade mentioned, the one who was supposedly carrying Clover out of her house.
The first person I see is Blake. I haven't had time to process anything, let alone the fact that she's the one who has Clover right now. She holds her door open, and Clover steps out behind her. I check her over for any injuries. None that I can see. The odd thing is, she doesn't look as excited to see me as I am to see her. Her head is down, and she can't even look at me.
"Are you okay, Lovie?"
She nods without looking up. A whirring noise alerts me to the fact that the driver’s window is being rolled down. A man, one I don't think I recognize, asks Blake a question.
