At the Whittington dining table, Lavender had stilled, the silver serving spoon still between her fingers and suspended midair. No one but me noticed this as a quiet shock had passed around the table. Bad enough that Lavender brought home a surprise husband, but one with my kind of baggage? I guess I should beglad I didn’t make my announcement while the carving knife was still on the table.
Lavender eventually brought the spoon to my dish, and the hush was eventually broken. By Primrose, of course.
“That’s classic!”she’d said with unmitigated glee.“Lavender, the wicked stepmother!”
What a fuckup.
“I think I’m just processing.”
Lavender’s quiet voice snaps me back to the present moment. I flick the blinker left and turn out of the quiet residential street. Her gaze briefly meets mine, and I find myself jarred by the fact I can’t even guess what she’s thinking.
When she ordinarily wears her moods so obviously.
“I can’t imagine you as a parent.” She accompanies her statement with an uncomplimentary glance. “I mean, I don’t know you all that well, but it’s still weird.”
“Technically, I’m not her parent. Just her uncle.”
“Yeah, you said. Was it the shock factor you were going for by announcing it at the table?”
“That wasn’t my intention.”
I had qualified it by briefly explaining the situation. That my seven-year-old niece lives with me as her primary caregiver, but she also has contact and visitation with her father. A father who, up until my sister’s death, was not part of her life. He makes his living as a DJ of all fucking things.
I kept the details to myself, failing to mention what a piece of shit he is. I also let them assume my sister and I were close, as they are themselves. For all their petty squabbling, the Whittington clan is obviously tight-knit. But the truth is, I didn’t even know I had a sister until my father died. And then Adrienne died in a car crash just as we were getting to know each other. Daisy was left parentless, and her father was nowhere to be seen. So of course, I took her in.
And then her father resurfaces to the detriment of all parties involved. But mostly Daisy’s.
“You’re sure?” she asks, not shouts. Her reaction is unexpected. “I mean, I had to roll with it. Play along at the dinner table. And you got to avoid telling me in a quiet room where you expected me to, what? Go off my nut?”
“It was unintentional,” I repeat harder. Yet my pulse quickens; I actually feel it hammering viciously in my throat.What is that? Worry that I’ve upset her?I push the thought away. “I should’ve told you earlier.”
“Before we made a deal.”
A deal. Is that how she’s selling it to herself? Maybe it’s better that way. She gets to keep her power. But it was blackmail. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat, which doesn’t explain how I’m feeling right now.
“No,” I admit. “I wouldn’t have told you before. It would’ve given you leverage.”
Her expression reflects her surprise. “You think I would use a child? Someone innocent in this?”
“It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. She’s not your responsibility. She’s mine. And I will do what I need to protect her.”
“Including marrying someone you barely know, apparently.”
“I know enough.” I know more now than I did. That’s not to say Lavender hasn’t been a surprise in many ways. And one of those ways is her reaction right now.
“Remember when I asked you if this was about an inheritance?” She turns in her seat to face me, her knee bent, her shoulder against the seat.
“I remember I said no, but in a way, it is. I’m trying to protect Daisy’s future.”
“Okay, I get that. But then I asked if your reasons were for something criminal. You said no again, but that’s not true, is it?”
“I’m not asking you to break the law.”
“Just lie to the courts.”
“Looks like I was wrong on both counts.” I slide her an unrepentant glance. “She should be with me, but as it stands, the system favors the father.”
“That’s the way it should be, though. He’s her blood.”
