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“Um, yeah, I turned on the floor warming system.” She shrugs as if it’s nothing special, and maybe it’s not but at the same time, it so is because she clearly did this for us. For my family and I don’t know what to think of it.
“Daddy,” Victoria whispers, pulling my arm and eyes off my very confusing fake girlfriend slash boss. “Daddy.”
“Yeah, Angel?”
“That’s the mermaid from last night! I thought it was a dream because you know I always dream about mermaids because they are the best, but she is like real-real.” The little brown eyes bulge out as she is talking, and I have to hold back my grin.
I have the cutest daughter ever. Period.
“No, honey, Miss Clark is not a mermaid.” I almost say she’s the bad guy in your cartoon, but hold my tongue. No need for Vee to be terrified the same way I am. “She’s my boss. She owns that restaurant where I work, and she’s letting us stay in her home for a little bit while we are looking for a new place.”
“Kira.” Our eyes snap to the boss in question. “Please call me Kira, not Miss Clark, okay?” Is that a smile on Kira’s face? I mean, it’s more like a grimace, but I think she means to smile. At my daughter.
“Hi, Kira. I’m Sophie, Vassar’s sister.” Sophie extends her hand out for a handshake, that blush still there. “I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself last night.” She drops her voice to a whisper, “Thank you for letting us stay here, and I’m definitely not his girlfriend. I mean, ew!” Sophie twists up her face in disgust while Kira giggles.
Yes, giggles.
What in the world?
Maybe she did get fucked stupid today? Or I fucked a whole new personality into her?
“I don’t know about ew…” she answers my sister with a mirroring blush I like all too much on her face.
“Jesus, please don’t.” I hold up my hand to stop her as Sophie’s eyes grow larger and larger, and I know I am in for a grueling interrogation later.
“I knew it!” she shouts. “You little liar.”
“Nope. Never lied. This…this.” My finger keeps dancing between Kira and me. Shit, how do I call this?
“Are you going to be my new mom?” my daughter blurs out, out of nowhere. Nonchalantly, like she didn’t just make three adults freeze and drop their jaws to the cold marble floor. “Cause I need one. The one I had before left daddy, and I—and I love my dad; he’s like the best, but all the girls in my school have a mom, and I don’t.”
Never knew my heart could shatter from a few words…
Sophie’s eyes instantly water, and she turns slightly to hide them from Victoria, who is still looking expectantly at me and Kira. My boss, on the other hand, looks like she is about to have a panic attack, and a huge one at that. Or she might faint. Her naturally creamy white complexion turns deadly pale.
I see her hands clench into tight fists right underneath her ribcage. She is squeezing so hard her fingertips turn red while the rest stays white from all the pressure. The only sign of life seems to be her blinking eyes, but inside, they are void of emotion. Of life.
“Um…” I crouch, clearing my throat. “No, Angel. Kira is just my…” I look over to her. “Friend. Okay? But why didn’t you tell me you were feeling like that this whole time?”
“Because when I say something about mom, you get really sad, and I don’t want you to be sad.”
“Oh, Vee.” I wrap my arms around my daughter, crushing her in a deep hug. I always knew she was preceptive, but I never knew it was this much. “If you’d like to talk about your mom, we can.” It will rip me apart, but for my daughter, I’ll do it. She is too little to understand why that woman doesn’t deserve to be called a mother, and there is nothing to miss, but maybe one day she will.
“I don’t want to talk about her. She left.”Or not so little.“She didn’t love me anymore, and I don’t want to talk about her. I only want a real mommy now.”
Fuck…she knew it this whole time. She could tell.
“I-I need to go,” Kira’s voice breaks through the load Victoria just dumped on me and rushes out the door.
I gulp, staring at the door where Kira just disappeared behind, and have the strongest urge to run after her. To sneak inside that complicated mind and figure out what triggered her just now, but at this moment, I have a different little woman who needs me.
“Vee, I need you to understand that it wasn’t about you. Your mother, Viola, had some issues and she didn’t know how to deal with them. You are the most lovable mermaid in the world, and maybe one day, there will be someone who you will call your mom. Maybe there won’t be. But you and I”—I motion to both of us—“We are a team, okay? And we tell each other everything.”
“And you have me too, honey.” Sophie crouches right next to me, swiping the stray hair from Victoria’s face.
“But now we have Kira, too, right?” my daughter asks, her eyes full of pleading hope.
Damn it, I knew moving in here would be a mistake, but I never could’ve imagined that my daughter will take to the heartless witch from first look.
