Her stomach growled.
As she reached toward the laptop to close it down, an update dinged. The permission to access Rue’s birth certificate came through. Curiosity got the best of her, so she immediately accessed the TxEVER system, a secure database, and got a name.
Blaize Wilde. She rolled her eyes.Now that sounds like a stable person.
Taking note that the last names didn’t match, Carys located his cell number and made the call, hearing the first ring and waiting for voicemail to click in. No one ever picked up calls from strangers.
“Hello?” Blaize’s deep masculine voice caused a visceral reaction in her body.
“Mr. Wilde?”
“Speaking.”
Carys mentally shook off the shock of hearing his voice. “My name is Carys. I’m afraid I have bad news. Are you sitting down?”
“Don’t need to,” he said on a loaded sigh. “Go ahead and get it over with. Tell me the reason you called.”
“I work with Child Protective Services, and your daughter, Ruby Lark Wilde, is in my custody.”
“Excuse me?” The degree of shock in his voice said this was likely the first time he was being told about his daughter. And now he was going to have to learn someone he cared about might be dead.
“My apologies if this is the first—”
“You have the wrong person,” he said. “I never fathered a child.”
“Your name is listed on the birth certificate, Mr. Wilde. And I’m quite certain that—”
“Sounds like someone has been drinking from the outside hose too long,” he said and then hung up.
What kind of irresponsible jerk fathered a child and then walked away, leaving the mother to raise a child on her own?
That bastard.
He was also Rue’s only hope of not being turned over to an orphanage tonight since there was no other next of kin to be found.
Biting back a slew of curses, Carys tapped the phone icon on her screen. She hitRecents, tapped the number at the top of her screen, and clamped her mouth closed.
When he answered this time, he would get an earful. The call rolled to voicemail.Of course it did.
“Listen here, you total piece of…” She took in a deep breath, reminding herself that she was leaving a recorded message that could be used against her later. “I have a sick baby in my custody who needs her father to step up to the plate or she’ll be left at an understaffed orphanage after losing the one parent who loved her enough to stick around.” Realizing she’d gone too far, she ended the call and prayed those words wouldn’t be the reason she was fired.
As she set the phone down, it buzzed.
He was calling back.
Chapter Two
“I just saw that you’re leaving a message, so you might as well tell me what it says.” Blaize barely got the words out before a grunt came through the line. It was quickly followed by an apology along with a plea to delete the voicemail without listening to it.
He said he would.
“Here’s what I know so far—I have a baby girl in my custody who I’m about to be forced to take somewhere that won’t be a good place for her right now, and you’re the only parent I can locate.”
“What happened to her mother?” He wasn’t a jerk. He might not have the first clue how his name ended up on the kid’s birth certificate, but he cared what happened on a basic human level.
“There was a car accident.”
“Oh.” He sat with that for a moment. “Hold on. You said that I’m the only parent you can locate. To be clear, the kid isn’t mine. But what happened and how did you get my—”
