Page 29 of Justice

And I passed Storie’s room on the way to mine.

Her door was shut. And there wasn’t one bit of light underneath it. No line of gold along the floorboards.

I stood in that hallway one second longer than I had any business standing there, staring at that dark seam under her door, running math that would not add up. Then I made myself keep it moving. Because there were a hundred ways to explain that girl getting into bed quick. Only one of them scared me. And I was too tired to hold the scary one tonight.

In my room I sat on the edge of the bed and finally let my shoulders come down off my ears. My phone buzzed.

Justice: At the casino. Gonna be here late. Everybody’s down, Rita took her pills at nine. Just wanted you to know where I was.

I looked at that a long minute.

Just wanted you to know where I was.

He remembered. I’d asked that man for exactly one thing. A heads up. So I would never again wake up in a strange dark house with no idea where he was. And he listened to me.

I texted back quickly, before I had to look too close at the fact that I was sitting there grinning at my phone.

Me: Thank you for the heads up. We’re all good on this end. Get home safe.

Three little dots. Then:

Justice: Always do.

I set the phone down and lay back on a bed that wasn’t mine, in a house that wasn’t mine, wearing a name that wasn’t mine. And for one dangerous minute, before I remembered every last reason I couldn’t, I let myself feel like I was right where I was supposed to be.

16

JUSTICE

My baby wanted to be a princess. So today, God as my witness, she was gon’ be a princess.

Mehar found a real castle out in Forest Glen that was made of stone and had towers. It was straight out of a fairy tale out of a storybook.

She spent the last month and a frightening amount of my money turning that place into whatever a six-year-old sees when she shuts her eyes and dreams the biggest dream she could. Now I needed to get out there and put eyes on it before folks started pulling up. Walk it. Check it. Make sure every last thing was perfect.

That was the job I gave myself at every family function, the one nobody asked me to take. I didn’t hang streamers and I damn sure didn’t bake. I made sure nothing went wrong. And on the rare day something did, I made sure it got handled quiet, in the dark, before a single person I loved ever felt the wind off it.

I had my keys in my hand and one foot out the door when I passed the sitting room, and what I saw in there stopped me flat.

Skye had my baby up on a stool in front of the big mirror, doing her hair.

She had a rat-tail comb clamped in her teeth, a jar of grease cracked open on the table, and Dream’s tresses pinned up in a pretty elaborate updo. She was working slowly and carefully, ensuring not a single strand was out of place. It felt good to know that my baby had a woman to do the things for her that I couldn’t.

My Dream, who couldn’t sit still for the good Lord Himself, sat frozen solid on that stool, watching herself turn into somebody’s princess in the mirror with her face lit up like Christmas morning.

“Hold still, princess. I almost got it.” Skye said it soft, and my baby wiggled all the joy out her body and then held still like she was told.

I stood in that doorway and couldn’t make a move. Skye had a sweetness to her. The kind Dream never really got to experience. She was only three years old when Monica died. Her memory of her mother was starting to fade as she got older. And that shit hurt. She’d never know how much her mother loved her.

I could tell Skye truly cared about what she was doing. She wasn’t performing or doing this just for a check. There was a sincerity behind it that no amount of money could pay for. Dream needed this. A woman taking her time with her, doing the little things I couldn’t.

I could buy Dream anything she asked for. I couldn’t give her this.

Dream caught me in the mirror. “Daddy, look! I’m getting a crown in my hair!”

“I see that, baby girl.” She caught my eye in the mirror and held it. Long enough for me to know I wasn’t imagining this thing between us. “You’ll be the prettiest thing at that party.”

“Thank you! I can’t wait!” Her excitement was infectious. I couldn’t lie, I did not want to go to a princess party. I hated large gatherings but seeing how happy she was made me want to be there.