Focusing back on the dance steps, she showed her struggling students how to do them. The class finally came to an end, and everyone clapped. She praised her students and waited with them as their parents came to pick them one after the other. However, when after thirty minutes Lili’s parents didn’t come to pick her up, she grew worried.
Searching for her assistant, she asked her if she knew anything about Lili’s parents. Shrugging, Molly told her that Lili’s dad was the one who dropped her off. Gritting her teeth, Kaiya asked her to try contacting him. She couldn’t wait to give the man a pep talk and remind him that this was not a daycare center.
Also, she wanted to get home soon since she had a new couch being delivered. Seeing the poor child seated all by herself, Kaiya retrieved a board game from a side table, and she walked up to her.
“Hello, Lili,” she called as she sat on the floor with her, yoga style.
“Hi, Kaiya,” the sweet child returned, looking down at her fingers.
Sensing how shy the girl was, Kaiya decided to draw her out by asking her questions as they played checkers. She found out her age and basic information about her. A pang hit her heart as she realized that Lili was the same age that her son would have been.
Lili loved the way the girl repeatedly giggled as they talked about all sorts of things and their favorite Disney princesses.
“I like snow white,” Lili said, smiling down at the board.
“Oh, really? I think I prefer Rapunzel. When I was younger, I used to wish that I had hair as long as hers.”
Lili giggled.
What a cutie!Kaiya thought. She so much enjoyed talking to the girl and playing checkers with her.
“I also love Ariel,” Lili added quietly.
Kaiya shrugged. “I also used to wish I could sing like her.” Then looking around conspiratorially and leaning in to draw closer to the child, she placed a finger across her lips. “Shh, don’t tell anyone.” She looked around her as if she didn’t want anyone listening in. “I can’t sing. I’ll be paid not to sing if I dare open my mouth.”
Throwing back her head, Lili engulfed in a fit of laughter. The sound was so beautiful that Kaiya just stared at her until she heard the door open and shut.
“Lili, I’m so sorry I’m late.”
Freezing at the sound of the voice, Kaiya, in disbelief, turned around. Her eyes widened when she saw her handsome ex-boyfriend sauntering toward them with an apologetic smile on his face.
“Tyler?” Kaiya wanted to ask what he was doing there but paused. Then she put it together.
Lili was Tyler’s child! The child he had with Lena. The child he left their child to be with and to raise. Her resentment bubbled at the surface as she pushed herself to her feet.
Icy eyes regarded him as he reached them and hugged his daughter.
“I was caught up in traffic, Pumpkin,” he explained to the little girl who ran over to him and hugged his legs. He patted her hair.
Straightening, he presented Kaiya with a frosty stare of his own. Kaiya itched to slap his face. Of all the dance schools in Montreal, why had he chosen hers to register his daughter? Considering their history, she thought he would run a mile away from her. Why was the universe intent on punishing her?
“Sweetie, do you mind playing with the toys in the corner while I speak to your dad?”
She looked toward her dad, and after nodding stiffly, Lili smiled and ran to the toys.
Folding her hands across her chest, Kaiya regarded Tyler with enough frostiness to freeze an erupting volcano. “Your daughter is beautiful. While I enjoyed her company, you will do well to know that this isn’t in any way a daycare.”
Tyler’s face tightened as his gray eyes became darker as he stared coldly at her. “Because God forbid you spend time with her,” he said above a whisper. “You’re right though, this isn’t a daycare and you’re nothing to mydaughter. I was stuck in traffic and it won’t happen again.”
Seething as she registered his emphasis on the word ‘daughter,’ she almost yelled at him that he would have had a son, too, if he had lived. However, she controlled her emotions. It wouldn’t do well of her to yell at the jerk while Lili wasn’t too far from them.
Keeping her cool, she stepped away from his magnetic presence because she feared that she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from hitting him continually while she asked him why he left. Since he insisted on keeping his child in her school, she would have to switch Lili to another class. She didn’t think she’d be able to be around the girl knowing her own child died.
Smiling at Lili, she bade her goodbye and walked toward the door. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife, and it was beginning to give her a headache. If it wasn’t for the fact that she handled the 6-8-year-olds and liked Lili, she would have told Molly to switch classes with her.
“Kaiya!”
The sound of her name halted her steps.
