Page 78 of His Daughter

"I know that now."

"She left Lena alone. The front door was unlocked. Mrs. Parrish found her crying in the crib with no one in the apartment."

My hands dropped to my sides. The air in the room pressed against my skin. Lena was still crying, the sound climbing, and I wanted to take her, hold her, press her against my chest until she stopped, but the inch was still there, and Declan's body was still angled away.

"You don't understand what's at stake." He shifted Lena higher on his chest. His hand cupped the back of her head. "This isn't about today. This is about the custody case. We are under a microscope. Kira has lawyers. If her team finds out that Lena was left alone in an unsupervised apartment — even for twenty minutes — it's over."

"I know — "

"Add that to what she's already accusing me of. The payoff. The negligence. A baby left unattended in a penthouse with an unlocked front door." His jaw flexed; the muscles at the hinge were visible. "We lose custody. Do you understand that?"

"I understand. I made a mistake. I trusted my mother, and I shouldn't have." I kept my voice level, but my nails dug into my palms. "But you don't get to talk to me like I'm one of your employees who missed a deadline. I have been here every night, every feeding, every fever, every cry that nobody else could stop."

Lena's wail climbed. She was rigid in his arms, responding to the frequency between us.

I reached for her again. This time he didn't pull back. I lifted her from his arms. She came to me. The crying thinned to whimpering, then silence.

I rocked her. My hand on her back. My eyes on Declan.

He was watching me hold his daughter. His face was tight. His hands were at his sides, empty now.

"You don't have legal standing here, Thea," he said. Like a fact. "If this goes wrong, I'm the one who loses a daughter." A pause. "You can walk away from this. I can't."

The words entered the room, and the room changed temperature.

I stood very still. Lena's breathing was slow against my chest. She was calm. I was not. The warmth drained out of my face. I could feel it leave. But Declan knew I was the woman who never had standing, and he just said it out loud.

"You're right." My voice was polite. "She's not my daughter. I'm sorry I forgot my place."

I transferred Lena to him carefully. Lena stirred. Her fingers grasped at the air for a moment, reaching for me.

I let go. I turned. I walked down the hallway, went into my room, and closed the door.

The door clicked shut. The room was quiet. Nothing in this room was mine. Nothing in this apartment was mine. Nothing in this arrangement was mine, and he'd just reminded me of that.

I sat on the edge of the bed. My hands were in my lap, shaking. He said the thing I'd been afraid of hearing since the day I moved in. I had no claim. I could walk away. I wasn't the mother.

I picked up my phone, scrolled to a name, and pressed call.

Lorraine picked up on the third ring. "Hey, baby! Is everything —"

"What is wrong with you?" My voice came out different than I expected. "You left a baby alone in an apartment." My hand shook around the phone. "A baby. Alone. You said you'd watch her, and you left."

"Thea, honey, I just had to step out for a minute. Ray called, and he needed me to — "

"Ray called." I closed my eyes. "Ray called, and you left a four-month-old in a crib in a penthouse on the fortieth floor with the front door unlocked."

"She was sleeping, Thea. I was only going to be gone for — "

"Can you hear yourself? Ray called. I'm not even surprised." My voice climbed. "Your boyfriends were always more important. You've been doing this my entire life, Mom."

"Thea — "

"You show up when it's convenient, and you leave the second something better calls. I was that baby. Nina was that baby. We sat in that house and waited for you to come back, and half the time you didn't, and the other half you came back with a new boyfriend and expected us to be happy for you."

"That's not fair." Lorraine's voice was smaller now. Wounded. "I did my best, Thea. I was a single mother. I did everything I could for you girls."

"You left us in the house while you went out with men who didn't stay. You came home and talked about them for hours and never once asked how we were doing. You made me your therapist when I was twelve years old. You called me to talk about your boyfriend when I was sitting in an adoption agency losing my baby." My voice cracked. I pressed my fist against my mouth and breathed through it. "And today you left a baby alone because Ray called, and you walked out the door without a second thought, because that is what you do. That is what you have always done."