“Blake, go wait in the kitchen,” the older woman stated, her tone part authority, the other half love and adoration.
I felt my mouth still hanging open. And for someone who considered themselves unflappable, it was a strange sensation.
“Hi, I’m Tuvy and this is Donovan. We’re looking for Valerie.” Tulya took over, a slight smile on her face, her eyes directly on Valerie’s mother…and the grandmother of my brother’s baby?
“She is not here. I’ll let her know she had some visitors…”
With a frown on her face, she went to close the door. All of a sudden, I was less worried about Valerie and more concerned over the child. I needed access right now.
Tulya
The woman started to close the door in our faces. My heart pounded in my chest and the back of my neck burned from the pain rolling off this woman, yet I couldn’t let her shut us out. Don’s face had gone pale, and I could almost hear the venom pulsing in his neck.
“Can we wait? Will she be back soon?” I set my palm on the door, stopping it, and caught Don side-eyeing me. He raised an eyebrow, perhaps unsure of my aggressive stance.
The woman, who hadn’t told us her name, shook her head.
“We don’t mean any harm,” I lied, but catching sight of the little girl changed everything. Much more was on the line—Magnum presumably had a half-human child.
“I don’t believe you. Valerie is away for a while, and you’re not welcome to visit.”
If my feet were not keeping me planted in place, I would have swayed from the force of her words. They were equal to a slap in the face.
Next to me, Donovan cleared his throat. “I understand Valerie may have run and left those instructions, and if I hadn’t laid eyes on the little one, I might have turned tail and come back another time…” He paused and set his palm on the door next to me, pushing it the rest of the way open. “But, since apparently the child is my brother’s, therefore being my blood relative, I’m coming in.” He began walking over the threshold.
“You can’t do that,” the unknown lady protested.
“I can and I am.” He started to strut forward with the confidence of a man who hadn’t just foreseen the demise of his family’s name…
“She’s not your blood.”
Don stopped in his tracks at the woman’s baseless words and opened his eyes wide. “Two words. Malachite green.”
He pushed on, taking my hand and dragging me with him.
As soon as we wormed our way to the back of the house we hadn’t been invited into, Don looked at me and spoke quietly. “I need you to talk to her.”
I nodded despite our touch and go in the car; this clearly wasn’t the time to hold a grudge when it came to Donovan.
Blake, as the woman had called the girl, sat at the table coloring, her brown curls falling around her face. When we appeared, she looked up.
“Hi, I’m Tuvy,” I said, slipping into the chair across from her.
I could hear the grandmother yapping on the phone in the other room, chanting, “I tried.” She must’ve been explaining the predicament to Valerie. Perhaps she would have been better off monitoring us, but this woman had proven to not be the smartest, allowing a child to answer the door.
“And this is Donovan,” I added, sliding out the chair next to me.
“Hi, I’m Blake. You look like my daddy.” She stared straight at Don, and the tension hung heavy in the room.
“He’s my brother,” Don stated, matter-of-factly.
“What’s your grandma’s name?” I asked Blake, thinking I should request this woman to be present. No matter how I felt about Valerie or what Magnum had done, this child should have some sort of advocate.
“That’s Mimi Marley,” Blake said. “She’s watching me because Mommy went to visit a friend, before we leave to go live with Daddy.”
“Blake!” Marley entered the room and yelled the girl’s name. “Remember, Mommy said don’t tell anyone.” She tried to temper her tone, but it didn’t help much.
The girl nodded, then added, “But this is my daddy’s brother. Daddy told me Uncle Donovan lives near him, and look, now he’s here to see me.”
