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Valentina was shocked.
“Sit back down right now,” she told her. Roxie looked at her and Valentina held her gaze with a firm expression. She may be a woman feeling for these kids right now, but she was still a cop and here to do a job. To catch a criminal, and now, to make sure these kids weren’t being abused and neglected.
“Why?”
“Because I told you to, and because if you don’t, I’m going to make your life a living hell.” Valentina didn’t know what came over her. She felt so protective of these kids right now. She was disgusted with this mother and what she was doing to them, or not doing to them. It wasn’t right at all.
Roxie sat back down and Valentina saw the expression on her face. She had a bad feeling in her gut as she rocked the baby in her arms, who began to fall asleep.
A glance down at the four- and six-year-olds and she saw them closing their eyes, too.
Valentina looked at Roxie.
“You want a better life for you and for these kids, then you tell me where Samuel is hiding out. Because right now, my boss and the detectives working this case aren’t giving me any more time with you. I’m pushing for you, Roxie. Thinking that you’ll come to your senses and put yourself and your kids before Samuel and potentially jail. Do you want to go to jail for holding back information leading to the arrest of a felon? You have other charges pending against you, I understand, from the detectives. These kids, and keeping them with you, have provided you more than a second chance.”
“You think you can threaten to take my kids from me and put me in jail? I don’t care. Take them. I can’t take care of them anyway. Don’t want to, either.” Valentina held back her temper.
“I don’t believe that. Samuel knows that you’re taking care of his kids.”
“He’s the only reason I do. He takes care of me. Not you, not some detectives or even the snobby bitches in this place that try to tell me what to do and want me to work. With Samuel I don’t need to work. I can spread my legs, give my man all he needs, and take care of his kids.”
“This is taking care of them? Beating the hell out of you? Breaking Tye’s little arm, bruising up Lena? That’s a good father to you? What will he do to Grace? She’s a baby, too. You’re their mother, start acting like it and get rid of this guy. Let us lock him up and help you get a new start. You can stay here and start working, taking some classes and learning a trade. They hook up plenty of women and help them and their children live a better quality of life.”
Roxie stood up. “I told you I could care less about those kids. Without them, Samuel doesn’t come back to me. They serve my purpose.”
“They’re babies. They deserve better. They deserve a mother and a father who care about them.”
“Give me her.” Roxy grabbed at Grace, making the sleeping baby stir in Valentina’s arms.
“Easy, Roxie, you’ll wake her or hurt her,” she said to her.
“She’s my baby,” she said and took her from Valentina’s arms. The baby began to cry as Valentina tried to gently release her to her mother.
Roxie reached down and grabbed the little boy Tye by his hair, pulling him away from Valentina. She then gave Lena, the four-year-old, a smack.
“Get here with me now,” she yelled at the child and then looked at Valentina.
“I won’t tell you anything, and if I were you, I’d watch my back, cop. Samuel is never far, and he always knows where his babies are. Always.”
The kids were all crying and their faces, and the fear in their eyes as their mother pulled them away and out of the room, was enough to make Valentina sick.
She had seen this type of situation time and time again as a cop in the city. It was the children who were going to suffer. She watched as the social worker followed Roxie, and Valentina knew that the social workers would try their hardest to teach Roxie how to treat her children. The problem was that Roxie was abused by Samuel, and she in turn abused the kids, and it was a vicious cycle.
But God, how Valentina wished there was more she could do for them. This was out of her control. She was a cop investigating a case and trying to get a bad guy. The one woman who could put him away and save herself and her children downright refused to do so. How terrible was that?
* * * *
Lois watched Kenny run to Valentina as she walked up along the side of the house. Immediately, Lois saw her sad expression and then the smile as Kenny called out her name.
Val lifted him up in her arms and hugged him tight.
“I missed you,” he told her.
“I missed you, too, munchkin,” she replied and then set him down and caressed his hair. Lois could tell she was deep in thought.
“What’s going on?” Lois asked.
She shook her head at her.
