Nichols?”

I looked up at the volunteer who called my name and stood. “I’m Nichols.”

“You have a visitor. Please gather any personal items and follow me.”

I picked up my duffle that I’d used as a pillow and grabbed Bee by the hand as we followed the lady to a small room. When she opened the door, I let out a long sigh.

“Yia Yia, did you come for us?” Bee ran to Christine and threw her arms around her.

“Aww, Beetsa, of course I came for you. Have a seat, Katy.”

“How’d you find me?”

“You were so upset last night after you picked up Bee from Sophie’s that she made Carter follow you so that we knew you were safe.”

“Well, I’m safe. You can let them all know.”

“We thought maybe you’d gone to a hotel.”

“Really? I don’t have a job. I can’t burn through my savings. I have no clue how long it will take me to find one.”

She nodded slowly as if she understood and then reached for the bag sitting next to her. “You hungry? I brought some food.” Christine pulled out a Tupperware container. “I even brought pancakes since they’re Beetsa’s favorite.”

“Thank you.” I took the container, opened it, and slid it over to Bee, who didn’t hesitate to start eating. “Why are you here? Truthfully?”

“I’m here for you.”

“Christine, I don’t know if you’re aware, but last night Damon and I decided that we weren’t going to see each other anymore.”

“What?” Bee let the fork drop as she stared at me, her bottom lip trembling. “But he promised to go to the daddy events with me at school next year. Yia Yia promised she was throwing me a birthday party and Harlow and Gianna were coming. I’ve never had a party with people.” I wrapped Bee tightly in my arms.

“Shhh, Bee. I’m sorry. I will make it up to you.”

“Will you let me finish?” Christine reached out and lightly rubbed Bee’s back. “I’m here because from the moment I met you, I knew that you were family. Did I want you to marry my son? Sure. What mother doesn’t want to see her son happy and married to such a great woman? But I didn’t say you were family only if you married my son. I said you were family, and you are. That’s why I’m here. We have two rooms set up in our house for you and Beetsa. We are family regardless of what happens between you and Damon. Will it be strained? At first, I’m sure, but you will both adapt. You work together, so you’ll have to.”

“Oh no, Christine. I’m not working at Christakos Construction anymore.”

“What? He fired you? Just wait until I get ahold of his father.” She bent to reach for her purse.

“No. No. No, it’s me, I can’t work there. It’ll be too hard.”

“You’re family. You don’t get it, do you? Family isn’t disposable. Once you are part of a family, you’re there. You may get mad at each other, but you don’t stop being a family—you just become silent family, which is sometimes for the better. I raised four boys, so believe me, I should know. I look at you as a daughter and whoever you marry someday will become part of our family, just as whoever Damon marries will be part of our family.”

I felt that one right in the pit of my stomach, and I sucked in a sharp breath to try to counter the pain.

“I’m sorry, did I say something that upset you?” Christine lightly squeezed my hand.

“No. No, I’m fine.”

“You know, I don’t blame you for breaking up with Damon.”

“You don’t?” I was shocked to hear a mother talk like that.

“Nope. He was always the one who had to make sure everyone was okay and could handle everything. When Sophie’s dad died, she was only five. He helped her and Kayson understand what was going on. When Ian got his heart broken for the first time and went and got drunk, Damon was the one to go take care of him. They sat outside and talked about girls and why Ian was better off without her for hours before he helped Ian get into his room without us supposedly knowing. Of course, I knew because I know everything that happens with those boys. The man is always trying to help other people, it’s just who he is.”

“He set up a camera in the model homes and watched Bee and me.”

“I heard. I can understand why he would do that, after all, someone was there without permission, but that didn’t give him the right to try to fix a situation he wasn’t welcome in. Still, all this time he could have told you about that camera.” Christine shook her head clearly upset with her son.

“I know, right?”

“Look at how many times he could have gotten the cops involved or child protective services? Good thing he didn’t. But still. What’d he do, put it in your bedroom?”

“Oh no. Just by the entry door.”

“Ahh. He wanted to keep tabs on you.” Christine drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “He wanted to know where you were at all times. Controlling ass.”

“Well, no. He just would know if we came back there and locked up safe, he wouldn’t be able to know anything else.”

“What about the cops? I heard they were called. Seems someone saw a blonde female and child running from one of the homes. They came out and wanted to do a full investigation, fingerprints, all of that stuff. But he told them not to worry about it and that he had security footage. Thank goodness, huh? They probably would have found your fingerprints and put them in the system.”

Christine fidgeted with the strand of pearls around her neck, rolling them between her fingers. “We have two rooms open for you and Bee. I understand if you don’t want Damon to know that you are at our home. So here is the garage door opener. Park in there, and no one will see your car.” She handed me the remote. “Lunch is at twelve, and dinner is at six.” She bent and kissed Bee before giving me a hug and striding out.

“Let’s go, Mom.”

“What? Go where?”

“To Yia Yia and Pops. We don’t have to stay here if we have family. You heard her. We don’t belong here.”

I pulled Bee into my arms, and for the first time in what seemed like a long time, I cried. I cried for saying goodbye to my childhood. Not having a prom. I cried for not walking with a cap and gown. I cried because I would still choose my girl over all of those, and I cried that I was forced to. I cried because I had someone who loved me, and I cried because I had been too much of a fool to see it.

Finally, when the last drops seemed to fall, I let go of Bee; she wasn’t sure what to say. Hell, I wasn’t sure what to say.

“Your mom is a Frruit Loop.”

Bee giggled and ran to the door. “Come on, let’s go to Yia Yia and Pops.”

“All right, all right.” I stood and gathered our things we had brought into the shelter with us, duffles, pillows, and blankets before heading out of the tiny room.

I looked to my left and to my right, but Bee wasn’t there. “Bee. Bee.” With each yell, my voice got louder.

“She just went with that guy.” One of the volunteers pointed toward the door.

I dropped everything and raced to the door, shouting, “Call nine-one-one.”

My knees were weak, but I sprinted for my baby. As I rounded a corner, I saw her, she was in the arms of Nina, my mother. Jim, another man, and two Orlando City police officers were surrounding someone being moved to a squad car.

“Oh my God, oh my.” Tears poured down my face. “Oh my, thank you. Thank you. How can I ever thank you? How? How did you know?” I gasped for air in-between each word. My body shook with fear as I reached out and swept my Bee bug up into my arms.

“Shhh. It’s okay.” Nina, my mother reached out and ran her fingers through my hair.

“You know the Santas?” Bee’s voice was a soft whisper.

“Yeah.” When the crowd moved away, that’s when I saw him and lost it, all hold on sanity was gone. Striding over to the squad car that held Presley Hayes in the backseat handcuffed, I shouted. “You motherfucker. I told you not to ever come near me. You tried to run me off the road, you tried to kill me while I was driving.”

“Mommy.” Bee lifted her hand to my cheek.

I turned to meet her eyes that were full of unshed tears.

I cut my gaze back to Presley. “I don’t have much but believe me what I do have, I will sell, my car, you name it. I will live on Ramen noodles for the rest of my life, gladly, but I will spend every penny I can scrounge to make sure that you never are able to come near us again.”

“May I take Bee over there to talk?” I looked at Nina as she reached out for Bee’s hand with one of hers and pointed across the parking lot with her other. “I think it would be less traumatic. I’m sure there will be some questions.”

I squeezed Bee’s hand. I didn’t want to let her go, but I didn’t want to scare her either. I’m sure between Presley grabbing her and my freakout, she’s been fucked enough for a while. I released my hold on Bee. As much as I hated it, I knew it was best.

Once Bee was a few steps away, I turned back to the asshole in the car. “I hope some big ass man makes you his bitch everyday for the rest of your life.” I turned my gaze to my father, who had sidled up next to me. “How? How did you know?”

“Last night when you told me about the Charger, it didn’t make sense. I’ve been hiring private investigators for years, and part of their skill set is going unnoticed. You’d been seeing that black Charger way too often. As soon as you left, I called Orion here”—he pointed to the ex-military looking dude—“and had him move on you.”

“Good God, was everyone following me last night?” I looked between the people gathered and remembered that Christine had said that Carter had followed me as well.

“Ms. Nichols.” I turned my attention to one of the officers. “We need to ask you a few questions.”

“Okay.”

“Well, I’ll get what I can here, but someone else will be in touch with you to get a more thorough statement. I know that today has been overwhelming.”

I tried to refrain from rolling my eyes but I wasn’t sure if I was successful or not. Overwhelming was an understatement. In under sixty seconds, I’d lost my entire life. I can’t exactly remember what happened except this feeling of utter hollowness.

The sound of doors opening and closing had me looking over to the black Charger. I watched as two uniformed officers removed items from the car and took pictures.

“Do you want me to call Damon?”

I looked up at my father. Damon. God, I’d love to have him here but this was on me. I hadn’t shared this with him. I’d never opened up about this and last night I was pissed for him keeping secrets. “No.”

“Can you tell me what interaction you’ve had with Mr. Hayes recently?” The officer interrupted my thoughts of Damon. I was being pulled from one conversation to another. I was having a hard time focusing and still keeping my eyes on Bee all the while not taking my eyes off Presley as he sat restrained.

“I haven’t at least not in over a year. I was staying here and he showed up. He wanted money but I told him that I didn’t have any. Hello, I was living in a shelter. He wanted to know why I hadn’t contacted my parents since they had a lot. I told him that I hadn’t spoken to them since just after I found out I was pregnant. That if he wanted money he’d be better off getting a job like the rest of us.”

“Did he say anything else? Were any threats made? Any arrangements to meet again?” The officer continued writing in a notebook as he asked.

“He said that by law he had a right to visitation. He knew that Bee was his. He thought that I was stupid for keeping her, he said…” I bit down on one knuckle to try and gain some composure. “He said that kids, especially young girls, go for a lot of money on the black market. That was it. I left. That night, Bee and I snuck out of the shelter and we’ve been hopping from place to place.”

“A year ago, that’s the last time you’ve seen or spoken to him?” The officer was at least seven inches taller than me, so I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. He had kind eyes. He was genuinely concerned, I could feel it, which was reassuring because the questions were making me feel as if maybe this was all my fault.

“Yes. Sort of, the black Charger. I had a creepy suspicion that it was him but I wasn’t positive. But no, we haven’t spoken.”

“You did not give him written, verbal, or any permission otherwise to visit with Bee, is that correct?”

“Oh God, no. Never.”

“If you could, please write that down for me, that you did not give him permission. Write as much as you can remember and as accurately as you can about tonight’s events. If you saw him, the moment you realized your daughter was missing to the moment you found her.” He leaned into his car and pulled out a few things. I took the form that he handed to me. “Also, here is a copy of the State of Florida’s Victim’s Rights. There is information inside on how to obtain a restraining order.” He handed the booklet over to me. “Will you be staying at the shelter tonight?”

“No, we have somewhere.”

“Okay. Why don’t you move over there and you can sit down and fill out that form. Do you happen to have your license on you?”

“I dropped my purse. Inside, oh crap, I dropped my purse and all of our stuff.”

“I’ll go get it.” The officer headed off but he didn’t get far before the volunteer who had informed me that Bee was gone handed my items over to him.

I gave her a weak smile. I couldn’t pull together more than that, not now. Reaching into my bag, I grabbed my ID for him.

When I was finished writing I was exhausted. I couldn’t believe that it was just lunchtime when all I wanted to do was curl up somewhere and call it a night. I had no clue what to tell Christine and George, let alone Damon. I should have called him but in all fairness I’d been handling this part of my life alone. Maybe this was the last part of the old me. Maybe it was the whole when one door closes, another one opens bullshit.

When all was done, I wrapped Bee into my arms and thanked Orion from the bottom of my heart. Then looking over to Nina and Jim, “Thank you, we’ll talk. I need to take all of this in, okay?”

“Katherine—”

“Mrs. Santa, my mom’s name is Katy.”

“My mistake, Katy, we’ll be there for you when you’re ready. However you will let us, we’ll be there.” My mom, shit that felt so foreign just saying the words. My mom reached out and placed a hand on my arm.

What I wouldn’t have done to have heard those words over eight years ago.