“She’s probably right. You should give yourself every opportunity for success.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “She could become a Satanist and say she was going to sacrifice Billie, and you’d agree with her.”
“That’s not true,” he said, although it was most definitely true. He would do anything, pay any price to have things back the way they were. (Also, he’d never been particularly fond of the dog.)
“Sure it is,” Ivy answered. “Not that our family believes in telling the truth anymore.”
There was no way to argue with her about that. He and Sienna turned them all into liars. So, he returned to scooping the ice cream into the pitcher.
He was digging around in the carton when he heard Poppy say, “Yuck.”
“What’s the matter, Poppy Seed? You don’t want ice cream in the milkshakes?”
“Why do you have pictures of that ugly baby?”
Zane’s heart stalled. He’d forgotten to hide the framed pictures Claudia had mailed him of Elliott, along with a note that she ‘…hopes he’ll enjoy seeing his happy little guy. Doesn’t he look exactly like you?’ Instead of putting them in his dresser drawer like he meant to do before they got here, he’d left them in a pile next to the other mail.
Ivy walked over and leaned down to get a look at her new baby brother. “Oh,nice, Dad. You’ve got pictures of him but none of us?”
“I didn’t take these. They were sent to me.”
“Well maybe you should’ve gotten some of us too. Mom has, like, a thousand of them all over the house.”
Zane scrubbed the back of his neck. “You’re right. I need to do that. I’m sorry.”
“Whatever,” Ivy answered with a roll of her eyes. She picked up the handwritten note from Claudia. “What an idiot. Writing a note like this. What if your housekeeper saw it and blabbed to the tabloids?”
“Good point.” Zane snatched the note out of her hands, ripped it up and threw it in the garbage. “Look, I know this is hard, girls. I do. It’s a horrible thing to ask you to keep a secret like this, but it really is the best for everyone. Especially you kids.”
Ivy gave him a glare. “I’d say it’s especially good for you.”She glanced down at the photos again, her jaw tightening. “He’s not very cute, is he?”
Oh crap. How was Zane supposed to answer that one? After all, Elliott was his son, too. Not some stranger’s child. “Do you think so? I thought he looked a lot like Parker at that age.”
“Parker was an ugly baby too,” Ivy said.
In his quest to carefully stand up for his youngest, Zane failed to notice that Poppy’s eyes were filled with tears and her little fists were balled up at her sides. “I hate you, ugly baby. I wish you would die like Uncle Mike!”
Zane gasped, his body heating up with instant rage. “Poppy June McCreight! That’s enough,” he said in the firm tone he normally saved for his older children.
“Oh my God, Dad! June ismymiddle name!” Ivy spat out.
“I know that!” he yelled. “I’m just so upset I got mixed up. Her middle name is…”Shit.His mind went completely blank. “Joy! PoppyJoy.”
He glared at his little girl’s red face, a wave of guilt feeling like it might knock him over onto the floor. But she couldn’t talk like that about her little brother—an innocent baby, for God’s sake—and he couldn’t let her get away with it. “You can’t say things like that. It’s awful. None of this is baby Elliot’s fault.” Softening his voice, he said, “If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me.”
Poppy scowled up at him, tears spilling from her eyes. “I don’t care. I wish he was dead! If he wasn’t alive, our family would go back to being normal again and we could have movie night with Mom!Shenever burns the popcorn!”
“No, Poppy. Youcan’tsay that about a tiny baby!”
“Jesus, Dad, chillax,” Ivy told Zane. “It’s not like a baby can O.D. or something.”
“Yeah, well maybe not, but we don’t wish people to be dead. Especially not a baby. That’s a terrible thing to say.”
“She’s seven! She’s trying to tell you she’s upset,” Ivy said, picking up Poppy and hugging her. Poppy’s long skinny legs hung halfway down Ivy’s calves, but she still looked very vulnerable in her big sister’s arms. Ivy gave her a kiss on her forehead, the same way Sienna would, then said, “Come on, let’s go hang out in our room. We didn’t want to watch that dumb movie anyway. We’ve already seen it, like, ten times.”
As they disappeared down the hall, Zane heard Poppy say, “I only saw it once.”
Zane dropped onto the stool at the island and put his head in his hands. “How to fuck up your life in one easy step,” he muttered.
