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“Oh, you mean like when you met the man of your dreams who just happens to be richer than sin, or when you found out you were having his kid, or—“
“Okay, okay, so some good stuff is happening too,” she conceded with a laugh. “But I’m talking about the whole losing my apartment thanks to a drug addicted roommate who was supposedly my friend, and this whole mess with that Mia chick. You have to admit those are both pretty messed up.”
“Yeah, they are, but what I was trying to say is that you’re much better off to focus on the positives than the negatives,” Daryl pointed out, always one to offer fatherly advice, whether she asked for it or not. It was usually not. “Life’s always got both good and bad things going on, you just have to pick and choose which ones you want to care about.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” she agreed. “Oh, the doctor blurted out which sex this baby is, by the way.”
“Really?” Daryl asked, his interest written all over his face.
“Yeah, but I’m not telling anybody until I tell Archer first,” she said with firm resolve. “Especially not his mother. She’d be telling him all about it before I’d even hung up the phone.”
“Well, I’m not going to argue that point,” Daryl chuckled, and then his voice turned conspiratorial. “But you could tell me. You know I won’t rat you out.”
“Oh yeah?” Kady scoffed, chuckling as she remembered another occasion where he did just that. “Like when you didn’t tell Archer that you’d taken me to Manhattan and followed me to Central Park? Yeah, I can sure trust you, Daryl.”
“Come on, Kady, you know I did it for your own protection,” he grumbled. “It isn’t safe trying to sleep on a park bench in there, especially not for a sweet young girl like yourself. Besides, if I’d kept my mouth shut you wouldn’t be where you are today, would you?”
“While I cannot fault your logic in that, the fact remains you did tell Archer where I was,” she pointed out, having way too much fun teasing the older man.
“Well, yes, but I don’t remember promising not to do so,” he pointed out. “Also, like I said, you were in danger. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt somehow. So I’m not even going to apologize. You know I did the right thing.”
Sighing, finally giving into his demands and the genuine affection in his voice, Kady said, “Fine, he’s a boy. Are you happy now?”
“I am, actually,” he chuckled. “Too bad I won’t be there to see Archer’s face when you tell him you were right and he was wrong. That would be priceless.”
Chapter 34
“I just hope all this stabbing doesn’t leave any lasting scars,” Kady complained when she told Archer about her ordeal with her new medication over the phone that night. “This really sucks. Why do I have to get good news and the worst news ever all on the same day?”
“Oh, there was good news?” Archer asked, picking up on her unsaid words, and she could tell he was smirking by the sound of his voice.
“In a way, I guess,” she said, dragging the words out teasingly. “The doctor accidentally let it slip out that we’re having a boy. I know we agreed not to find out, even though you wanted me to, so it ought to make you happy that you at least have your answer, even if he’s not a girl.”
“Kady, I don’t mind at all that our baby is a boy,” Archer said, the joy in his voice reaching her even through the phone. “I was only teasing you.”
“Well that’s a relief,” she chuckled. “I was beginning to think you’d have a cow over it.”
“Don’t be silly, woman,” he scolded. “You should know by now that I love you no matter what happens. Which reminds me, you’re never going to believe this. I had a letter from the welfare office stating that Mia has named me as the father of her baby, but that since my accounts are frozen they won’t attempt to charge any support at this time. How the heck can they charge support without even proving the kid belongs to the man being named or not? That has to be totally illegal.”
“Hmm, are you sure it’s a real letter?” Kady scoffed. “Maybe she had it forged just to mess with you some more.”
“I wonder if she’d actually go that far,” Archer speculated, but Kady had no doubt. After the way Mia attacked her in the lobby of Dazzle, she wouldn’t put anything past that crazy woman.
“Based on what I’ve seen her and the rest of them do so far, I’d give that a big, fat yes,” she said. “For all we know, that other woman who hangs around with her might even work at the welfare office and she’s the one who sent the letter.”
“No doubt,” Archer agreed. “Well, they’re about to lock us all in for the night so I have to get off of here. Hey, babe, don’t sweat the needle thing so much. It’s all for a good cause, right?”
“Yeah, right,” Kady sighed. “I love you, daddy, and baby kick says he loves you too with some really big feet. Damn!”
“Wish I could feel,” Archer sighed, the regret and sadness in his voice had her sighing as well. “Love you guys too.”
Kady laid in the bed unable to go to sleep for the next couple of hours. She couldn’t get it out of her head that she needed to know who the third woman of the Mia trio was. And also, why would Mia be stupid enough to think she could prove that the baby she was pregnant with belonged to Archer? Didn’t she know that once they did blood testing it would be obvious that she had lied? The woman must really be crazy to try a stunt like that.
Idly curious, she wandered out into the hallway and headed for her computer room, which was the room Archer had originally given her as her own bedroom on the night they’d first met, but which she’d transformed into a more useful room since she and Archer had decided to share his bed each night instead.
She went to a criminal record site and typed in a description of the woman she was wondering about,
and the computer found too many people to count. Patiently, Kady thought of different ways to narrow the search down. Not surprisingly she found Cheryl’s name and photograph with counts of petty larceny and check fraud. Then she spotted the other one.
