Ariel ran down the hall and shook my arm. She gave me a frantic look as if she had done something wrong.
“Daddy, is Willow okay? Did I scare her away?” she asked, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. I bent down to her and cupped her fat cheeks.
“No, why would you scare Willow away, princess?”
Ariel closed her eyes and said, “I called her Mommy. I don’t think she liked that. She told me to just call her Willow. Then she left. And now she’s upset. So I scared her away, I just know I did.”
She gripped her dress. I loosened her hands and kissed them.
“Oh, honey, come here.” I hugged my sweet daughter. She had a heart of gold, unlike the one in the woman she came from. “You didn’t scare her, it was something else. She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it. Let’s get you all ready for school.”
I couldn’t help but find it touching that Ariel had wanted to call Willow “Mommy.” But I had no time to dwell on that now. My mind couldn’t stop racing around. Where was Willow off to? If I hadn’t been in my office for so long I’d have known. I packed Ariel’s lunch and drove her to school.
It was dangerous for her, or anyone, to drive while she was that upset. I feared for her safety, gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles grew white.
When we arrived, I drove up to the front so she could open the door. She stayed still, looking down at her feet. It wasn’t normal to see Ariel like this.
I placed my hand on her forehead. There was no fever. She was clearly just feeling unwell emotionally, not physically.
“Okay, princess, do well. Daddy’s always proud of you!”
She didn’t answer me.
“Ariel? What’s wrong? Are you still upset about what happened this morning? That wasn’t your fault.”
“Daddy? That mean lady that hurt Willow… she hurts me too.”
She rubbed her eyes. I turned around more in my seat to look at her face.
“What? What do you mean she hurts you too?”
“She… she locks me in rooms and never talks to me.”
“Morgan?” I began to grip the steering wheel harder with one hand while the other curled up into a ball and shook violently as it rested on the arm rest in the middle of the car.
“Uh huh.” Ariel kept her eyes off of me.
I pulled over into the parking lot, afraid I might accidentally break the brake pedal from pressing it too hard. I was still worried about Willow, but Ariel came first. Always.
“Look at me, Ariel. Tell Daddy everything and you’ll never have to worry about seeing her again.”
Ariel wiped her eyes again, and I helped.
“She’s so mean, Daddy! She barely even feeds me. And her house always stinks!”
Now one more question. It was hard getting the words out of my mouth, only because I was afraid of what the answer would be.
“Has she ever hit you?”
“No.”
“Ariel, tell me the truth!”
My chest tightened into a tangled mess. Blood began to rush through my head. My daughter, my loving princess.
“She pulls me around, and holds my wrist really tight, and jerks my arms so it hurts. But she won’t hit me. I’m a good girl, so she doesn’t hit me.”
“Okay, princess, let me walk you inside. Daddy will make sure that Morgan never ever goes near you again.”
“I want Willow as my mommy!”
“I do too. Come on.”
“Jerry!” I yelled, charging into his office. There were three men in his office looking over paper work as Jerry stood before them speaking. He looked up at me like I’d lost my mind.
And for a second I did.
“What the hell?” a man said, turning around
The other men turned their heads too and looked up at me. Screw them. My daughter came first.
“Uh, gentlemen, I’m going to need a moment, I’m sorry.”
They got up and skittered out of the office, closing the door behind them.
“Darien, what the hell? What’s going on?” he asked me, sitting down in his chair and rocking back.
“That— that beast is abusing my daughter!” I growled, pacing his room like a hungry lion. “I want her head!”
“Shit…” He rocked forward and rifled around until he found a yellow legal pad. “Hate to be a pain in the ass, but I’m gonna need details.”
“She’s starving her, locking her in rooms and pulling my kid around like a fucking rag doll!”
“Fuck, this isn’t good.”
“I want my daughter to stay with me! I’m not giving her back next week. I refuse. I don’t give a fuck what the courts say.”
“Darien, this could get child protective services involved. That could potentially get Ariel taken from both of you. I mean, it’s not likely, but it’s always a possibility I like to warn clients about in contentious cases such as this.”
“What? Jerry, I’m Darien Thrilling. I am no abuser!”
“And I know that. But the media wouldn’t care, and all Morgan would do is throw a false accusation at you to balance things out. That’s probably been her plan for a while. Think about this. The divorce is almost over.”
“I don’t care. Ariel is not returning to that crazy bitch’s house.”
“Look, I got some tricks up my sleeve. Usually I don’t use them until things get messy, but let me handle this.”
“Well I’m going to handle this too.”
I marched over to the door, and Jerry ran over, throwing himself in the way.
“Darien? Don’t do anything stupid!”
I wasn’t going to hurt Morgan. But I sure as hell was going to warn her ass.
I leaned in close to him and snapped, “She hurt my daughter, so I’m going to talk to her. Or else this will get really messy.”
“Wait!”
“Out of my way, Jerry. Do you even have children?!”
“No. But—”
“But, my ass. Ariel was the only good thing that came out of that farce of a marriage. Morgan is harming my only daughter as a means to hurt me.”
Jerry stood behind his desk.
“I understand, but if you do something reckless, Ariel will lose you. You don’t want that. Do you?”
“I’m too rich to lose her.”
“Don’t be cocky, Thrilling. I’ve been a Thrilling family lawyer for twenty five years. Money won’t let you get away with everything…”