Page 35 of Made for Mayhem

I stepped toward the hallway, but she lifted a hand, stopping me in my tracks.

“Wait.”

She glanced over her shoulder at Junie sprawled in a tangle of blankets on the couch, then stepped inside and closed the door behind her. The soft click of the latch felt louder than it should have.

“We need to chat,” she said.

I shoved my hands into my back pockets and forced a steady nod. “All right.”

She exhaled as if she was steadying herself. “Tomorrow we have the custody hearing for Junie. But I need to know what the plan is for tonight.”

“I already told you,” I said. “You’re welcome to stay here, or I’ll come with you to Violet’s house. But I’m not leaving Junie. Not tonight.”

Something flickered across her face—surprise, maybe. Sadness, definitely. “Ty, I… I appreciate what you’ve done. I know this has been a lot. But just so we’re on the same page, I intend to get custody of Junie tomorrow. She’s my niece. I came here for her.”

I clenched my jaw. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to stay in her life, for as long as she wants me in it.”

Her brows knit. “I don’t get it. I mean… you’re not family.”

My breath punched out rough, the words sharper than a blade. “I’ve been here.” The words came out too harsh, edged with everything I’d kept inside. “For months. How many nights do you think she’s slept in that room down the hall while Violet was in the hospital? How many mornings have I made her breakfast? How many days have I driven her to school or brought her to practice with me or stayed up when she couldn’t sleep because she was worried her mom was dying?”

Her lips parted, but nothing came out.

“It’s been me,” I bit out, hating how emotional I sounded. “I’ve been fighting for her before there was even a fight.”

The silence that followed was heavy with grief. Daisy’s eyes shimmered, like she was holding it all in by the skin of her teeth. And why wouldn’t she be? We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if her sister weren’t gone.

I hadn’t meant for it to sound like an attack, but fear had a way of sharpening everything. Of turning the truth into something that could wound.

“Daisy—” I started, her name rough in my throat.

She shook her head, swallowing hard. “I just… I need a second,” she whispered, and looked away.

The air between us buzzed with everything neither of us knew how to fix.

She was grieving for her sister.

I was terrified of losing Junie.

And this—whatever this undeniable thing was between us—had nowhere to land.

“Daisy,” I tried again. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. None of this is simple. Losing Violet…” I dragged a hand over my jaw, trying to find the right words and failing. “It’s heavy. For all of us.”

She let out a sharp, disbelieving laugh that caught at the edges. “You think I don’t know that?”

Her voice cracked open, raw and loud in the stillness of my room. “Violet was my sister, Ty. My sister. And now I’m supposed to figure out how to be a parent while I can barely wrap my head around the fact that she’s not here. Junie is literally it. She’s all I have left. And yeah, I wasn’t here before, but I am now. And I’m not leaving her alone.”

Her words hit like body blows. Not because they were unfair, but because they were true.

There was no bad guy in this. Just two people standing in the wreckage of someone else’s life, trying to grab hold of what was left.

“Fine,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say.

“Fine,” she echoed, chin lifting stubbornly.

The air between us burned, hot and brittle, both of us too strung out to soften.

I blew out a breath. “I’ll show you to the guest room.”