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Mr. Veeny was a dead motherfucker.
He couldn’t do that to her, not when she’d been so happy since they moved to Sweden. She was always laughing and smiling now, and she loved being within driving distance of everyone. His duty was to keep that smile on her face, which meant he would keep this from her for as long as he feasibly could.
“Theo had another nightmare,” he said. “I found him hiding in the pantry.”
“Oh, God.”
“I’d like it if you and Josiah came tonight. I’d feel better if you guys came before it gets too late, and you’re here when Theo wakes up.”
Her bed frame creaked. “Okay. We’re coming. I’ll go wake Josiah, and I’ll see you in—”
“Don’t hang up.”
He listened as they packed their things, Josiah’s maturing, sleepy voice asking if everything was okay with Theo. He heard Ayesha reassure him that everything was fine, but there was no way Josiah believed her with the way she sounded.
They drove to his house, and he didn’t allow her to disconnect until he heard the garage door close. When she appeared in the bedroom doorway, his anger cooled.
“Where’s Josiah?” he asked.
“He’s half asleep, so he went to his room.” She flicked a thumb behind her. “You said he had his room picked out, but I didn’t realize it was a finished room.”
“Almost finished. He needs a desk and some other stuff.”
“There’s wall paneling, Joel.”
Ever since moving to Sweden, he’d decided they would one day live together. Theo also had a room, but after he started having night terrors, he didn’t do as much there as he’d done in Josiah’s.
Ayesha kicked off her shoes, slipped off the pair of leggings she’d tossed on under her cotton nightgown, and climbed into bed.
She lay next to him and reached across his body to stroke the soft curls on Theo’s head. As if suddenly remembering something, she rose and blessed him with a light kiss that eased the remainder of his need for violence.
“And you said that Giorgio doesn’t know anything about this ‘veeny’ thing, right?” she asked.
“No,” he lied.
Giorgio had immediately connected “veeny” to Theo’s drawing as the name of the black figure.
She stared at Theo, eyes glistening.
“Ayesha, I have something to tell you, and I don’t know if you’ll like it.” It wasn’t what he needed to tell her, but it was something she needed to know.
“Theo asked to call you Daddy, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell him he couldn’t.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I mean, I guess it’s because I don’t hate it? I know how that sounds, and I’m sorry for doing that without consulting with you first, but he had me read this ‘I Love You, Daddy’ book, and I got caught up in all the feels.”
“An ‘I Love You, Daddy’ book?” She looked up, meeting his gaze. “And he brought that to you out of the blue?”
“He asked his teacher for a book he could read with me,” he said, rubbing his chest.
“Joel, you’ve been an active part of Theo’s life for…almost as long as I have. I’m surprised it took him this long.”
