“So backstory, Cedrick and I started dating, and he shared that he had a daughter. Her name is Simone, and she’s so beautiful. I loved her from the moment that I met her.”
“Okay,” I pushed. “Hurry this along, honey. We need to get you to the ER.”
Because there was no doubt in my mind she wasn’t doing well.
She needed to be at the emergency room three hours ago.
“So I get home, and I was so excited because I knew that Cedrick was getting Simone from his ex for the week because of the holiday. Christian dropped her off this morning, and so I was going to get a quick little cuddle. So I get home unannounced and I walk in and the house is quiet. But Cedrick’s car is in the driveway, so I know he’s here.”
I didn’t like where this was going.
“I get into the bedroom, he’s alone with Simone…”
I closed my eyes as she told me the rest.
It was worse than I could’ve imagined.
I forced myself to listen, but it made me physically so sick to hear.
“He was hitting her. Shaking her. Making her cry. Every time she’d try to get away, he’d pull her right back. She kept saying she wanted her mommy, and Cedrick would only hurt her more.”
I cracked my neck, hoping it would ease the tension.
“I just lost it. I attacked him.”
Good.
“The next thing I remember is waking up in the guest bedroom and…nothing.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, willing my voice to sound strong, but knowing it was anything but. “We’re going to the ER. Then we’re calling the cops.”
“We c-can’t…”
Well, we’d be dealing with that part later.
In the meantime… “Come on.”
The drive to the hospital took a lot more time than it should have. Every bump in the road made her whimper.
“You need to call Simone’s mom,” I found myself saying. “If you don’t want to call her, I will.”
“She won’t believe me, though.” Harlow brought her hand up to touch her face. “She hates me. And I think she hates me because Cedrick makes her hate me. It didn’t make sense that she would hate me. I’ve never done anything or said anything to make her hate me. Simone loves me. But she made a comment about me and Simone the last time I dropped Simone off with Cedrick, and Cedrick cut off the line of conversation so quickly that I didn’t quite catch it all. But I’ve been thinking about it for the last three hours, and I think that Cedrick is making her hate me.”
“Regardless,” I said. “If she loves her daughter, she’s going to check.”
Women who loved their children didn’t abandon them. They also didn’t not follow up on a possible threat. This Christian woman would definitely follow up.
“I don’t have her number,” she admitted. “Cedrick never shared it with me, and I didn’t think anything weird about it.”
All the more reason to tell the police.
But it was clear that Harlow wasn’t thinking right.
Just because this man was a cop didn’t give him carte blanche to abuse his child or his girlfriend.
And we had enough evidence here that we would be able to prove that Harlow hadn’t beat up herself.
But first, get her to the ER.
