“Why did she come to you?”
My heart sinks as I read her expression.
“As I said, she asked Darra over the summer and she wouldn’t answer her. Told her you were her dad now and she should forget about it. Lottie also knows I had an absent father. She asked if I’d ever been tempted to meet him,” she says, dropping herself onto the bed next to me.
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her the truth. I met him and it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. That just because you carry someone’s DNA doesn’t mean they’re someone you want in your life.”
I turn to face Pen.
“You met your dad? I didn’t know,” I say slowly.
We talked about it at uni. Pen was always blasé about her dad, but I felt there was more to it. Had to be.
She shrugs, and I suddenly feel the chasm the years between us has formed.
“Why would you? Even Mum doesn’t know.” She pauses. “Look, I was hoping Lottie was going to do the grown-up thing and speak to you.”
“She’s fifteen,” I say.
“Exactly. She’s fifteen. She’d be classed as a woman in some cultures. She’s not a little girl anymore.”
“From the woman with so much experience in raising children.”
I know I’ve said too much by the look on her face. Taking out my frustration on Pen is not something I should do, but Lottie’s my daughter. Not Pen’s. She should have told me!
Pen looks at me, her voice quiet, monotone.
“I may not be a mother, no. I haven’t been that blessed. But I was once a fifteen-year-old girl, one who didn’t have a conventional upbringing, spent a lot of the time on the outside looking in. Lottie may have had a mother and a father, but her life has been far from conventional, and what she found out… before you sling mud and your frustration in my direction, maybe you need to take a good hard look in the mirror. Both you and Darra.”
“Pen—”
“Don’t. I’m going to make us both something to eat before the police arrive.”
She walks to the bedroom door without looking back.
Fuck!
But I can’t worry about Pen’s hurt feelings. I have to think about my daughter, about finding Lottie.
I pick up my phone and begin calling around.
Everyone agrees to meet at my apartment within the hour.
I get dressed.
CHAPTER 56
PEN
It takes all my willpower not to slam the bedroom door. I know and understand Elijah is panicking. I am too. Lottie is missing, God only knows where.
I lean against the wall outside the room and close my eyes, inhaling deeply, trying to calm my racing heart. I hate conflict, but I will not be used as a scapegoat for thebitchhe married. The years of having to put up with her snide comments and bitchiness are well and truly over.
I head into the kitchen and flick on the coffee machine.
“Where are you, baby girl?” I say to the air as I make my way to Lottie’s bedroom.
