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“That’s not the way it works,” Aimee said to her. “And you can’t come strolling into my house whenever you like. How did you even get in here? You know what? Maybe I should call the sheriff’s department and tell them that you’ve broken into my house. We’ll see how much you like a jail cell.”

Ammo very much doubted that the sheriff would put his own niece in jail, but it was a nice thought.

“I didn’t break in! Charlie gave me a key,” Kelly-Anne said.

“Charlie wanted her to have access,” Sally-Anne said. “So you can’t call the sheriff on us.”

“Kelly-Anne, your name isn’t on the deed to this house so it’s illegal for you to have a key to it. Give it to me.” Aimee held out her hand.

“No. I’m not giving you my key!” Kelly-Anne said. “I have a right to look over my property.”

“It’s not your property,” Aimee told her. “When are you going to get that through your head? You need to have a DNA test to prove that baby is Charlie’s. Once you do that, and it is proven to be Charlie’s, then we can talk through lawyers about what happens next. Until then, you need to get out and give me my key. Oh, and you should know that we don’t take it lightly that you lied about Ammo assaulting you. There’s video footage as well as witness testimony. You’re not going to be able to just sweep this under the rug, Kelly-Anne. This time you’re going to pay.”

“You’re threatening her,” Sally-Anne said, taking a step forward.

“Not a threat when it’s a fact,” Aimee replied. “Get out of my house, or I will call the cops.”

Kelly-Anne let out a huff and took a step forward. “You’re both going to pay for this. And, anyway, why would I want a key to this dump? Look at this place. You should be ashamed about living here.” She took a key out of her pocket and slammed it on the table. Then the three of them stormed out of the house.

Ammo moved after them, shutting the door behind them and locking it. Then he turned to Aimee, who was standing there, glaring at the door after the women had left.

“Those bitches,” she said. “How dare they? Who do they think they are coming in and sneering at my house? They just walked on in here, and they only did it because they thought you were in jail. They figured either I wouldn’t be here or I’d be here on my own. Who knows what they would have done if no one was at home? I have the urge to follow after them and teach them a lesson.”

He didn’t think he had ever seen her this fired up. Very different from the girl that liked to run and hide from her problems.

And he was proud of her for that.

Until she started toward the door, and he realized she was serious, so he moved into her way.

“Get out of my way, Ammo. I’ve got a right to do this. After everything she’s done to us, I’m gonna teach her a lesson.”

She attempted to get around him, but he just kept stepping in her way. Finally, he got sick of doing that dance and grasped her around the waist, lifting her up high.

Her feet moved in the air back and forth as he held her up.

“Hey, hey. Put me down. Put me down right now!”

“I’ll put you down if you stop acting like this. You’re not going anywhere, especially dressed like that.”

She glanced down at herself, then let out a huff.

“Shit, you’re right.” She ran her fingers through her hair, scratching at her scalp. “I just can’t believe that happened. Is there any time where we’re not going to have one disaster after another?”

He set her down, pulling her close and rubbing his hand up and down her back.

“Things are going to get easier.”

“Are you sure about that?” she asked. “Because right now, nothing feels all that easy. Everything feels really hard. It all feels impossible, like I’m never going to manage to get out of this life. Get out of this town and away from all of these people who just seem like they’re out to get me, you know? And I know there are a lot of good people here. Kirsten’s one of them. The people that I worked with at the supermarket are another. They all walked out on their job because of me. But it just feels sometimes like the bad outweighs the good.”

“I promise it’s not going to feel like that always.”

“I don’t think you can make a promise like that, Ammo. You can’t know what’s going to happen in the future.”

“Sure I can. I’m going to make sure that nothing bad happens to you ever again.”

She just stared up at him and shook her head with a small smile. “I like that you think that. I think I’ll go and have a shower. Maybe I’ll call Matthew and let him know that Kelly-Anne had a key to the house and just walked on in.”

“I’ll get something out for dinner. You have a shower and rest.”