Daisy clears her throat. “I want Adele back.”
My heart races. She wants to steal my baby. I can’t live without Adele. She’s my pride and joy.
Ice fills my veins. No one is taking Adele from me. Not even her so-called mother.
“Why?”
“Why?” Daisy’s nose wrinkles. “Because she’s my baby.”
“A baby you haven’t once asked to hold since this whole charade began,” Sloane mutters.
“She was your baby when you left her with me,” I remind Daisy.
She sighs. “I had finals. I didn’t have time for a baby then. But now I do.”
I fist my hands before I wrap them around her neck and choke her. She didn’t have time for Adele, so she abandoned her? Adele is her daughter. She should have made time for her baby.
“Adele isn’t…”
Daisy holds up her hand to stop Sloane. “I don’t understand why you’re speaking. You don’t have anything to do with this situation.”
Pain flashes in Sloane’s eyes before it’s replaced with anger. She grits her teeth. “I’m the woman who’s been caring for your child while you’ve been goofing off.”
“Goofing off? Are you deaf, old lady? I was studying for finals.” She sniffs at Sloane. “You probably wouldn’t know whatthose are. You don’t strike me as the type of person to attend college.”
“Here.” Sloane hands me Adele. “I can’t beat Daisy to a pulp with a baby in my arms.”
She marches toward Daisy but I shackle her wrist to stop her. “I thought you were anti-violence.”
She rears back. “What made you think such a thing? Was it the way I wield a baseball bat at guys hitting on me at the bar? Or how I got in trouble in high school for shoving Patsy into a locker?”
“Anti-violence in front of the baby.”
Her shoulders drop. “Oh, yeah.” She shuffles back to me and I bite my tongue before I laugh at her. This situation is not a laughing matter.
“You are fucking,” Daisy announces.
I growl. “What Sloane and I do inside our house is none of your fucking business.”
“Language,” Sloane mutters.
“I promise I’ll start a swear jar tomorrow, but I can’t deal with this bitch without using some strong language.”
“Bitch!” Daisy squeals. “You can’t call the mother of your child a bitch.”
I snort. “I can when the ‘mother’ abandons her child.”
“Would everyone stop saying I abandoned my daughter?” she yells.
“Waaah!” Adele screams.
Sloane takes her from me. “I don’t blame you for crying. All this yelling. Why don’t we go into your nursery and play?”
She glances up at me and I nod at her. “Go ahead.” I kiss Adele’s head before Sloane wanders off with her.
Daisy beams at me. “Finally.”
“Finally, what?”
