There’s nothing quite like home. Rolling out of my own bed in the morning, using my own bathroom. It feels real fucking good. What feels even better is coming downstairs for breakfast and seeing Sophie sitting at the table. Every time I go away for business and come back, I tell myself it was the last time. I look at my daughter and wonder what kind of monster I must be to leave her for months at a time.

I tug on the back of her ponytail slightly and sit beside her. She looks up at me with way more seriousness than a girl her age should be able to muster.

“Daddy. You know when you pull on my ponytail like that, you’re making my hairline recede. Right?”

“No biggie,” I say, putting my fingers in her hair and pulling her scalp toward me a little. “Damage undone.”

She tries to hide her smile, but I see the corner of her mouth pull up. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Well,” I say, leaning back with a sigh. “I tried. But hey, you’ll be the most beautiful, prematurely balding fifth grader at school.”

“That’s just a myth,” says Aubrey. “Pulling on a ponytail won’t make your hairline recede.” She’s emerging from the kitchen with a plate of pancakes and bacon. She’s wearing clothes that are entirely too concealing for my tastes--another cardigan and an oversized shirt with dark jeans--but her light brown eyes demand all of my attention anyway. They flicker to me and then away, but in that moment she tells me so much. I know she’s interested, but for some reason she’s trying to convince herself she’s not. Well, tackling challenges has been my life’s work, and I’ll gladly tackle her… challenge.

“Fun police,” I mutter under my breath to Sophie, who giggles.

Aubrey sets the plate down a little too hard and turns to leave.

“You’re not going to eat with us?” I ask.

“I can’t yet. I have to bring Roxanne her food because she’s not allowed out of bed until after ten.”

A slow smile spreads across my face. “You believed her?” I ask.

“What do you mean?” asks Aubrey.

“Mom always tells the new caretakers that. She’s just lazy and wants breakfast in bed. Seriously, give it ten minutes and she’ll wheel herself out here.”

Aubrey frowns. “She made it up?”

“You’re surprised?” I ask, grabbing a strip of bacon and biting off a chunk.

Aubrey sinks into a chair. She stares off toward the patio like a soldier who has seen too much. I can practically see her replaying all the mornings she must have waited to eat her breakfast because she had to wheel a cart all the way to mom’s room at the other end of the house.

“I guess I shouldn’t be,” says Aubrey.

“Grandma is tricky,” agrees Sophie as she piles four pancakes onto her plate and empties half the jug of syrup over them. “But predictable,” she adds thoughtfully.

I quirk an eyebrow at Aubrey, who grins back at me. A split second later, she wipes the smile from her face and clears her throat, pushing her chair back and standing.

“Hey,” I say. “I should mention. My doctor says if my feet aren’t massaged by noon, it could cause a fatal problem with my circulation.”

“Bluff,” Sophie states without looking up from her plate.

I glare at her. “C’mon, Soph. You can’t backstab me like that.”

Sophie smiles in satisfaction. “Daddy. I like you, but Miss Aubrey is nice. I don’t want you to scare her off like the others.”

“Well,” I say, reeling back a little at that. “I wouldn’t say I’ve ever scared anyone off.”

Sophie gives me a dry look. “They all leave for some reason though, don’t they?” she asks with mock confusion. “Usually a couple days after you come back.”

“Whose side are you on, anyway?” I ask.

“I’m on whoevers side keeps Miss Aubrey here,” she says before shoving half a pancake in her mouth and chewing contentedly.

I look to Aubrey, who looks as surprised as I do. “But two days ago you said you hoped a jellyfish wound up in my bathtub,” she says slowly.

“Yes,” agrees Sophie, not seeming to see any problem as she pours even more syrup over her pancakes.

I check my phone and am reminded of the voicemail. Fuck. I can’t put it off forever, as much as I might want to. I excuse myself and step outside, listening to the message.

I’m not surprised when I hear my ex-wife Julianne’s voice through the phone. “Liam,” she says in a clipped, businesslike tone. “We need to talk. It’s about Sophie. I think… I think I might be ready to be involved in her life again.” She sniffles. “Well, anyway. I’d love to meet you over dinner so we can talk it through. How about Enzino’s? Okay. Please call me back.” The phone clicks and the message ends.

I close my eyes, taking a deep breath. As much as I want to tell her to fuck off, I know how much it would mean to Sophie if Julianne made any show of affection toward her. It would mean the world to her, and I can’t deny her that just because her mom is a cold-hearted bitch. Every little girl needs a mom. Damn it. I just wish I could stand being in the same room with the woman for more than a minute.

Either way, I guess I’ll just have to grit my teeth and suffer through it for Sophie. I’d walk through fire for that kid, and I’d do it with a fucking smile on my face. Yet you won’t stop going away for business, whispers a small voice in my head. I clutch the phone tighter, glancing inside the house through the patio doors. Sophie is leaning forward, speaking quickly with no expression on her face to Aubrey. Aubrey is wearing an expression of abject horror and disgust, and I chuckle to see it.

Maybe this will really be the time I stay. Maybe...

I jab Julianne’s number into my phone, grimacing as I wait for the ringtone to go through, all the while locking my eyes on that kid of mine who constantly seems to make me do shit I don’t want to. Somehow I can’t begrudge her for it, though. I guess that’s love.

“Hello?”

“We can meet tonight. Enzino’s at seven.”

“Great. How are--”

I hang up the phone, feeling nothing. I’m past feeling anger or frustration with Julianne. All I feel when I talk to her is an absence. It’s like every feeling in my body shuts off and I go numb to her. Nothing she says or does can so much as touch me, which is probably for the best, because she has certainly made an effort in the years since I divorced her.

The patio door slides open and Aubrey steps out, pressing her back to the glass and staring out across the pool, eyes slightly wide. She jumps a little when she notices me standing there. “S-sorry,” she blurts, “I forgot you came out here, I’ll just--”

“Did Sophie get you with one of her stories?” I ask.

Aubrey pauses, hand at the door. She turns to me, nodding. “Yeah. I still haven’t gotten used to those.”

I chuckle. “Sophie has always been advanced for her age. She was reading books before preschool. Even before she could crawl, there was always this… wisdom in her eyes. It’s hard to explain, but--”

“No,” says Aubrey, nodding and relaxing a little. “I’ve seen it. I know what you mean. She was telling me about these female spiders that have sex with the males and then eat them when it’s over. She, um, described the eating part in great detail.”

I laugh. “Yeah. Don’t take it to heart. I think Sophie has just become really selective about who she’ll let in. Maybe all the crazy shit she does helps keep away people who wouldn’t care about her for the long run. Hell if I know,” I add, shaking my head.

Aubrey tilts her head slightly, smiling. “I think you’re right. You know your daughter well for someone who--” She opens her mouth and then snaps it closed, pressing her fingertips to her lips. “I don’t know what I was saying, I’m sorry,” she says quietly.

I force a smile and walk past her, heading inside. She was going to say I know my daughter pretty well for someone who’s never home. She’s not wrong, but hearing it from outside my own thoughts makes the truth sting all the more powerfully.

Enzino’s is crowded by the time I arrive. It’s a tablecloth and candles kind of place, complete with servers wearing button-down white shirts and black slacks or skirts. There’s a quiet murmur of conversation and the muted din of silverware against plates and glasses clinking. The hostess leads me to Julianne’s table, which is tucked into a corner of the restaurant.

It has been a few months since I’ve seen her, and though I can’t put my finger on it, I can tell she’s had more plastic surgery done. Her face looks unnaturally tight and her eyes are slanted upwards when they never were before. Her lips look fuller than I remember and her tits are definitely fake, but I had already seen all of that. Maybe her nose is different. Fuck if I know--or care. Most of the plastic surgery is subtle enough that I’m sure men fawn all over her, but I can see right through it.

I take my seat, nodding toward her. Julianne’s blonde hair is meticulously curled and bleached dry. She wears a business-formal kind of women’s suit and does this thing with her lips she took up after we divorced, like she’s pressing them together for a kiss, but trying to look thoughtful. To me it has always made her look like a confused fish, though.

“What did you want to talk about?” I ask.

She smiles, tilting her head and flashing two rows of perfectly white teeth. “Straight to business, Liam? Why don’t we order a drink first.”

“Let’s just cut to why I’m here. You said you wanted to be involved with Sophie again.”

Julianne’s thin veil of polite manners falters, but she recovers with a smile. “Please. Let’s have a few drinks and an appetizer before we talk about all of that.”

“You mean before we talk about your daughter? And the possibility that you might be ready to stop being a fuck up?” I ask. “No. I think I’d rather talk about that sober. Thanks.”

“Fine,” snaps Julianne, discarding the smiles and show of manners. Her fangs are out now. “I called you here because I need more money.”

“Unbelievable,” I say, pushing my chair back to stand. “This was a waste of fucking time.”

“Wait,” she warns. “You will want to hear me out, Liam.”

I shake my head in disbelief, looking at the woman I once thought I loved. I’m still amazed by how much of a fucking idiot I was, but at least Sophie came out of the train wreck that was our marriage. More money. Of course she wants more money. She took a couple dozen million in the split and instead of doing the smart thing and investing it and living off the interest, she decided to prove to the world she could be a businesswoman. Problem is Julianne never had any training in business or paid any real attention to what I was doing. I guess she thought the time I spent in college and the years I spent learning to do what I do were unnecessary.

Now it looks like her “business” has already burned through all the money she got from me. That, or the ridiculous house she bought is running her dry. I would laugh if it wasn’t so pathetic.

“You told me you wanted to spend more time with Sophie to lure me into meeting with you. Give me one good reason not to walk the fuck out of here right now and never look back?”

“Because if you do, I’ll take Sophie from you.”

I scoff. “Yeah, because a judge is going to look real favorably on the mother who has declined her right to be involved with her own daughter for half a decade.”

She raises a taunting eyebrow. “No, but they might look favorably on the poor, intimidated wife of the relentless businessman who threatened to ruin her if she tried to get custody. And they might agree that a single dad who spends months away from home is hardly better for a girl than her own biological mother.”

My fingers dig into my palms and I stare at her, feeling a hot hatred break through the normal numbness I feel toward her. “You’re blackmailing me?”

She shrugs, wearing an infuriatingly smug look on her face. “You can call it whatever you want, honeybuns. It’s simple, though. You give me the money I need, or I get custody of Sophie.”

“Do you even know how to raise a kid? Do you even want her?”

Julianne leans forward, narrowing her eyes. “Every time I think about that little brat I think about you. I can’t look at her without remembering how you fucked me over.”

“Fucked you over?” I ask. “You mean when I divorced you because you made it clear the only thing you ever cared about was the money?”

Julianne doesn’t even bother to deny the truth of it. “It’s simple. I don’t want her. I can’t stand the sight of her. But I can pay for a fucking nanny. All that should matter to you is I’ll do everything in my goddamn power to take her away from you if you don’t give me what I want.”

I stand up, feeling something sick boiling up in my stomach. To think I married this psychopath. “You’re not getting anywhere near her,” I growl, leaning down until I’m inches from her face and can smell the overpowering stench of her perfume. “You won’t lay a hand on her head. Do you understand me? That’s my daughter. If you decide someday to stop being a fucking basket-case, maybe, then maybe I’ll let you see her. Supervised,” I add. “Until then,” I scoff, shaking my head. “Nice try,” I say without looking back as I leave.

I hear her footsteps rushing after me. I push out the front door of the restaurant and do a double take when I see Aubrey hurrying inside. Just as I’m about to say something to her, Julianne catches up with me and slaps me hard across the face. The pop rings out, stinging my ears almost more than my face. She’s not worth it though, so I just head to my car, barely noticing Aubrey, who watches me pass by without a word.