I groaned when I saw who was calling me. There was some sort of fuss going on with the royal Cobb family today, from what I’d been hearing, and I had no interest whatsoever in letting my ex barge back into my life with whatever current issue he was having.

Hell, I wasn’t even sure why I still had his number in my phone. It had been years now, and our lives had been going in very different directions for a very long time. Maybe it was fondness, or apathy. Two sides of the same coin, neither of which really held an answer for me about what was happening right now.

Why in the hell was James Cobb calling me? Surely there were countless other people he could bother? Maybe he was drunk, and lost in the midst of a bout of nostalgia.

I let the call go to voicemail and went back to what I had been doing, which was pondering what I was going to do with this daughter of mine. Her marks were terrible. She was on the verge of failing two classes, and was doing less than satisfactorily in all the others. I’d tried so hard to help her, but there seemed to be nothing I could do but wait and hope that she worked through this on her own. After all, we were both hurting right now, and I would be a hypocrite if I asked her to do something I wasn’t able to do myself.

Sighing, I rested my head in my hands. Haley was in her bedroom, which was where she always was these days unless she was eating or watching TV. She was so quiet, so distant, I often had to check in on her just to reassure myself that she was still alive.

Things didn’t used to be like this. She was my miracle baby, born in an age when everyone was losing the ability to have children. Denmark had never been known for its high birth rate anyway, and now we, like dozens of other countries, were going down in population at a rapid rate. Haley’s second grade class only had seven kids in it, for fuck’s sake.

But now, my miracle, my little angel, she was so far away. The death of her father one year ago had done that to her. As much as I hadn’t yet recovered, she was far worse off.

The phone started ringing again. When had it stopped the first time? I hadn’t been paying attention to it, not after I saw who was calling. My heart ached, heavy and sorrowful in my chest.

I heard the door to Haley’s room open, then shut again. I also heard the bathroom door, its distinctive squeak differentiating it from the others down at that end of the house.

I need to go to her. This has gone on way too long. I need to keep trying.

Maybe it was time to break the normalcy I had been working so hard to provide for her. We should go out for pizza and ice cream tonight, and I should let her stay up late and skip school tomorrow. We’d watch a few movies and have lunch.

Maybe I would be able to tease a smile out of her, show her that it wasn’t the end of the world because her father was gone. We could have fun together, too.

I could show myself it wasn’t the end of the word because Alexander was gone, even though it felt that way. The man who’d made me smile even when I cried, who consoled me even after his death with a half-written love letter I had found tucked in the pocket of his favorite shirt.

The phone rang again and I snapped, shoving it up to my ear and snarling, “Why can’t you take a hint?”

“Because I knew you would give in eventually,” a smooth, cultured voice responded. James’s voice, like butter. Rich enough to almost be tasted through the phone. “Hello, Reid. I have a proposition for you.”

“I don’t want anything you’re selling,” I said. “My day has been bad enough without having to deal with you.”

Insults never bothered James. He actually seemed to consider them a compliment, as if it were a matter of pride for people to care enough about him to get riled up over what he did and said. And he seemed very unbothered now, his chuckle warm and infuriating in my ear. “What if I was to tell you that dealing with me will be enough to change your whole world?”

“Sounds like I’ve heard this spiel before.”

“Ah, but I am a different man these days.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear so he wouldn’t hear me snort. He certainly was different. He was worse.

His sense of entitlement and his ego had gone through the roof, leading him to create scandals left and right. I could hardly believe I’d used to think his smugness was attractive, that his self-absorption was the same thing as sexy confidence.

“Reid,” James said. “I’ll pay you if you have my kid. I’ll pay you a lot of money.”

I stared off into empty space, trying to figure out what in the hell he could possibly mean. “Excuse me? What?”

“Turn on the news,” he suggested. “And maybe you’ll figure it out on your own.”

“James, why can’t you do something for yourself for once? Just talk.”

“If you turned on the news, you’d realize the act of me calling you is something I’m doing for myself.”

That doesn’t make any sense.

I knew James. He wasn’t going to back down on this. I’d still be standing here, listening to him breathe on the other end of the line, for a thousand years, and he wouldn’t tell me what he wanted from me at the end of it. He’d want me to turn on the TV, even if it was an apocalypse and I had to build one from scratch.

I sighed loudly into his ear, letting him know how displeased I was, then went into the living room and found the remote. I turned on the TV, flipping through the channels until I found my favorite news source, since James hadn’t specified which one I should go to.

In the end, it probably didn’t matter. Every person in the country would be talking about this. The media would let no other topic break through this wall of interest.

After a minute of watching, I had the gist of it. The Queen, James’s grandmother, was abdicating the throne in favor of her first grandchild to have their own kid.

James had always had his eye on the throne. This was his chance, and he was going to do everything he could to ensure he got it, even if it meant using another person as a tool. That was how he was.

I’d been right to be wary of answering this call from him. He wanted to use me, and I had no doubt he would drop me again the moment he had what he wanted from me.

“Reid? Did you see? I can hear the TV.”

I brought the phone back to my ear. “I saw,” I said. “And I can tell you already that my answer is no. I’m not a baby factory. I am a human being.”

James jumped in almost before I was done speaking. “Reid, I’m not hiding anything from you, and I’m not going to take advantage of you. I’m having a contract drawn up as we speak.”

“That contract probably ensures I don’t take advantage of you, not the other way around.”

He ignored me, which was what he always did when he didn’t want to admit that someone had him figured out. “You have a kid. You can have another one. Let me talk to your husband, if that’s the problem.”

Anger burned in my chest. “If my husband was alive to talk to, I wouldn’t have him waste his time on you.”

“Oh.” James paused. I felt smug that I’d managed to catch him off guard. “I’m sorry for your loss. How long has it been?”

His consolation caught me off guard. “A year.”

“I’m calling at a bad time, then. It’s just, Reid, I need this. And I know you, and you aren’t some freak who’ll try to murder me in my sleep.

It’s the best arrangement for me. And it’s the best arrangement for you, because of the money. It’s all no effort for you, and you get paid at the end of it.” He added, “Times must be tough right now.”

“Having a baby is not a low effort thing, James.”

I could practically hear him shrug. “Then, when you see the contract, you can decide whether or not there’s enough money in it for you. If there isn’t, state your terms, and we’ll adjust the contract. See how easy that is?”

“I am really going to need to think about this.”

“What’s there to think about? This is the best offer you’re going to ever get! The offer of a lifetime!”

I hung up on James as he tried to cajole me into agreeing. I dropped my phone on the couch and followed it, collapsing against the cushions. The springs groaned under my weight, the frame quivering.

Having a kid was rough on furniture. We needed a new couch. Haley needed new clothes, a new uniform for school. She was also in dire need of a tutor, or therapy, or involvement in a group of some kind.

I needed new clothes, too. The car was making an odd sound, which I needed to get checked out before it burst into flames. There were house payments to make, and Alexander’s debts to take care of, and I had to buy supplies for work.

The list went on and on, endlessly. Things that needed doing, that I could not do.

I thought of the offer of money and trembled a little on the inside. That asshole James, striking me when I was weak, taking advantage of his discovery of Alexander’s death.

I heard the bathroom door finally open in the hallway and lifted my head. Haley had been in there a long time. I was about to call out for her. She beat me to it, rounding the corner and crossing the living room to get to me. She slid up onto the cushion at my side, in that slippery, graceful way of children, and leaned her head against my arm.

I touched the top of her head, feeling for a fever. I found nothing, not that I really expected to. Some sicknesses attacked the heart and not the body.

Haley nudged her head against my hand and I stroked her fine blonde hair, which had a pure, delicate Scandinavian texture. Alexander had been the epitome of a Danish man, a rare thing when so many bloodlines were mixing, and he had passed his features on to Haley.

She looked so much like him, acted so much like him. His spirit lived on in her, which hurt me and also made me glad. As long as she was here, I felt like I hadn’t really lost him.

“You feeling okay, Princess?”

“You sounded angry,” she said.

“Did I? I guess I did. Is that why you took so long?”

“I didn’t know you could get mad. It was a little scary.” Haley stayed snuggled up to me. I wrapped my arm around her thin shoulders, keeping her close to me.

“I didn’t mean to scare you. I was only arguing with someone, is all.”

“Who?”

I shrugged. “A silly man who can be very snotty and pouty. Like a baby who doesn’t get his way.”

Haley said nothing, didn’t even give me a ghost of a giggle.

“Anyway, I doubt I’ll be talking to him again.”

No, I knew I wouldn’t give James even another moment of my time. He’d taken up far too much of I already.

“Was it about money?” Haley said suddenly.

I stared down at her, my heart starting to pound. Biting my lip, I tried to keep from freaking out, which would let her know how right she was. After managing to rearrange my features into what I hoped resembled a normal look, I said, “What?”

It wasn’t very smooth, but kids were all about directness from adults. If I tried to talk around her, she would know something was wrong.

“You get unhappy about money a lot,” she said.

I took that back. She already knew something was wrong. No, she probably knew everything was wrong.

Stroking her hair, trying to sound normal, I said, “You just let me think about the money stuff, okay? It’s nothing you have to worry about, and it isn’t bad at all.”

I was lying, and she knew I was lying. Neither of us could do anything about it.

Haley was all about pizza for dinner, but she rejected the offer of ice cream and went to bed on time so she could go to school in the morning. She wanted to go, even though she hated going.

I understood that. Even though I was her dad and shouldn’t have approved, I did understand. It was better to just get caught up in the flow of life, rather than letting yourself stagnate.

I hated so much that my little girl should have to learn such harsh lessons so early in life. It wasn’t fair. I wanted her to live a life so much better than this.

When I was certain she was asleep, I crept to my office and took out the two bills I had received in the mail that morning. They were pink, covered with dangerous phrases that were all the more threatening for how innocuous they seemed. I needed to pay these. They were long overdue.

There would be more like them coming in the next couple of days.

I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes, biting my lip as emotions tangled up inside me. All of my troubles were tugging on the strands, knotting them tighter and tighter, choking off my breath.

In the morning, after I saw Haley off to school, where she would undoubtedly learn all about the new Queen and her announcement in her Current Events class, I picked up my phone.

I bit my lip until I tasted blood.

Then I called James.