“Maybe so, but at least with me I know she gets given the bare necessities.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means.” I take a step forward.
Chaos leaves the room, but not before giving Reno a warning look that tells her to be gone when he gets back.
“She doesn’t have proper school clothes, Reno.” I turn my head a little, anger pulsating beneath my skin. Skin that feels too tight. Too hot. “Does she have all her books? Pencils? All that shit she needs? Or did you spend the money buying more clothes for yourself to get men to fuck you?”
Her palm flies through the air.
I catch her by the wrist, doing all I fuckin’ can not to break my rule about hands on women.
“How fucking dare you,” she breathes. “How dare you judge me for what you made me.”
“I didn’t make you anything!” I drop her hand and step back, putting distance between her and me the best idea. “You were no different when you first walked onto club grounds. You were just younger and more naive.” I stride over to the window, staring out to the yard briefly before spinning back to face her. “Ain’t nobody to blame for how you are now but yourself.”
She regards me with pure surprise, tendrils of blonde hair framing her wide eyes. “Are you fucking serious? When wasthe last time this fucking club actively encouraged one of their property to further herself? Huh? Sure, nobody had a gun to my head and said I had to fuck your miserable asses for board and food, but hell, Fang, nobody cared to help me do anything different.”
“You never showed any interest in being different,” I counter. “You’ve left the club. You aren’t property anymore, Reno. And what are you doing? Still selling your fucking body! Tell me again howyouwant to be different.”
“I don’t have any other skills,” she hollers, taking a step toward me. It’s the most genuine I’ve seen her, like this, in her anger. “What the hell elsecanI do?”
I open my mouth to reply, yet stall when Vanessa steps through the doorway to the dining room. “You might want to take it elsewhere,” she suggests. “Molly can hear everything you’re saying.”
“Good.” Reno strides out of the room to presumably collect our daughter. “Let her hear what her daddy’s really like.”
She’s got another thing coming if she believes she can walk out of here without anything having changed.
“Fuck.” I run a hand over my head. It always happens like this: we yell, we throw knives, and neither walks away unharmed.
It’s why things are the way they are. It’s why I can’t do it all over again, with another woman.
“Don’t take her words on board too heavily,” Vanessa offers, crossing to where I stand, torn. “She has other options. She can wait tables. Like I do. She could clean. Choose to study a low-cost course and do office work. She’s a smart woman, capable of a lot more if she really wanted to.”
I glance at her. “Thanks.”
She nods once and backtracks to the kitchen.
Chaos leans on the doorframe, coffee in hand. He fixes his stare on me, yet there’s no malice in it. Just encouragement to sort this out. For me. And for Molly.
Problem is, I don’t know if I can.
My daughter’s voice erupts from the rear of the house, upset and pleading not to leave. Reno’s harsh directives mingle with hers, ordering her not to cause a fuss. She has every right to make a fucking show of it. Her momma doesn’t care enough to give her a good start in life, and her daddy’s no better.
I’ve failed my daughter up to this point, all care and no responsibility. Sure, I funnel regular money Reno’s way, but for what reason? Guilt. Because I sure as shit never went over there to check that it was being spent the way I thought it should.
Where the fuck was I when she needed shit for school? What stopped me from being the one to take her shopping?
I stride through to the foyer and stall Reno in her tracks. “She doesn’t want to go.”
“I don’t care.” Hand to Molly’s shoulder, she steers her toward the door while asking, “Where’s the rest of your stuff, baby?”
“In Daddy’s room.” Tears track my daughter’s cheeks.
I lift her from Reno’s control and hold her to me. Molly buries her face against the crook of my neck, hiccuping breaths as she tries to calm herself.
“You can’t take her from me, Fang,” Reno growls. “You have no right.”
