“Instead of buying her groceries, I brought her lunch. I made sure she had at least one good meal every day. Then I took the trash with me so my dad never knew.”
“Is he the person you hurt?”
“No,” I said, my jaw tightening as I held her gaze steady. “I wanted to, but my mom wouldn’t let me.”
“Are they still together?” Frankie asked quietly.
“No. My mom died a little over ten years ago,” I said flatly, my voice low and rough.
“He killed her, didn’t he?”
I nodded, unable to say the words to her out loud. She died never knowing she had a granddaughter. I wondered if that would have been enough to make her leave. It was an answer I would never get. Another reason the guilt ate away at me.
“My dad almost killed my mom.” Her voice was so soft I barely heard the words. I closed my eyes, praying I’d heard her wrong.
“What happened?”
The door opened before she could answer, and Kat stepped outside with us. I looked over my shoulder at her, and my breath hitched. She was damn gorgeous in her tight jeans and snug top.
“Frankie, what are you doing? Zero will be here any minute.”
“I don’t want to go,” my daughter argued, and I clenched my hands together to keep from reaching over and pulling her against me.
“Frankie, we talked about this.” Kat heaved a sigh, and her shoulders slumped.
Frankie stood and stomped up the stairs, slamming the door behind her. My eyes never left Kat.
“You’re going out with him again?”
“He asked about a movie, and there’s one Frankie’s been wanting to see.”
“Doesn’t sound like she wants to see it that badly,” I muttered, standing up.
“Why are you here?”
“I was walking by and stopped to talk to Frankie. She looked sad,” I answered, my eyes swinging to the door she’d stomped through.
“She was hurt.”
My eyes snapped to Kat. “Hurt how? Who fucking hurt her?” I heard the anger in my words, but I couldn’t pull it back. Whoever had hurt my little girl would fucking pay for it. “Did Zero do something?”
“You, asshole.Youhurt her.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me.
“What? How the fuck did I hurt her?”
She shook her head. “You’re so fucking stupid, Derek. You’ve been hurting her. First, you rejected her invitation to eat with her. And then, at the restaurant, you had Charlie on your hip, and you took the twins and walked by without even saying hello.”
She was right. I was so angry seeing them there with Zero, I couldn’t speak to either of them without raising my voice. I didn’t want to scare the girls, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Fuck.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I didn’t mean to ignore her.”
“Why are you walking down my street? You don’t live here.”
I looked down the street at Haizley’s house. For about half a second, I thought about telling her the truth.
“I was visiting a friend.” It wasn’t a complete lie.
“You need to go,” Kat said as Zero’s truck pulled into the driveway. I heard the door slam behind me, and the muscles in my body tensed, bracing for the impact.
