“Blitz!” I cry. But I don’t try to get out of the car or help Denham. I can’t do that. My allegiance is with Blitz. It has to be.
My mind is a whirl. Denham isn’t my brother. My father was lied to. We all were.
It’s too much. I take great gulps of air while Blitz nudges Denham with his foot, waiting for him to come around. He’s out cold on the pavement by the door. Thankfully no one’s in the parking lot of the academy right now to see.
“How did you know where to hit him?” I ask Blitz.
Blitz barks out a sardonic laugh. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now?”
I look down at Denham. The space over his eye is swelling a little where he hit the door of the car on the way down.
“The rest is too much for me right now,” I say. I’m barely holding it together. I have to get past this moment with Denham on the ground, and Blitz in an angry posture over him. I have to get away so I can sort all this out.
“I was supposed to be on some action TV show,” Blitz says. “Artists and Outlaws. We were dancers who fought crime. Dumbest premise on the face of the earth. We shot a pilot but nobody took it. I had to train in combat for it.”
This random conversation helps my mind settle. “I’m sorry the show didn’t happen.”
“I’m not,” Blitz says. “Probably would have destroyed my career.”
Denham shifts his arm and groans.
“Lover boy is back,” Blitz says. “What do you want me to do with him?”
“Move him out of the way so we can leave?” I say, more of a question than a suggestion.
“All right,” Blitz says. He bends down to drag Denham away from the car, but Denham shakes his head and rolls over.
He presses his hand to his forehead. “Damn, dance boy,” he says. “I didn’t figure on you being a heavy.”
“I figured on you being an asshole,” Blitz says. “I should have done it sooner.”
Denham struggles to his feet, his hand on the back of his neck. He takes a step toward me, but Blitz moves in again.
Denham holds up his hands. “All right, all right. Simmer down.” He tilts his head so he can see me around Blitz’s body. “This isn’t over, Livia. I’m going to find that baby.”
He glances up at the giant letters of Dreamcatcher Dance Academy. “And I know where to find y’all.”
Denham turns and stumbles off. He opens the door to a beat-up dark green pickup truck and sits down.
Blitz closes my door and walks around. We wait a moment until Denham starts his truck and screeches off down the street.
“You okay?” Blitz asks. He reaches for my hand and lifts my fingers to his lips.
I manage to nod. I’m so scared he will be freaked out by what he’s learned about me. Nobody’s ever known who Gabriella’s father is, except my parents. They wouldn’t even tell the doctor, and I knew from eighth-grade science that a baby from related people could have problems.
But we weren’t related. It had all been a lie.
I shake my head. So much to sort out. I want to talk to my parents, but they aren’t speaking to me right now.
And…as for parents, I am supposed to meet Blitz’s in a few hours.
Is that still on?
Is he still on?
His warm lips against my fingers seem to indicate we are fine. I glance over at him. He watches me with concern. “You want to talk about it now?” he asks.
I don’t, but I know I have to.
“Denham showed up one summer, a couple months before my fifteenth birthday,” I say. “His aunt brought him. Didi. She was old and pretty sick. And Denham was wild. His mother had not been very involved in his life and had overdosed on something. Her heart stopped, I think.”
My grip on Blitz’s hand is like a lifeline. “The aunt met with Dad privately, and then left Denham with us.”
“Your mother let that happen?” Blitz asks.
“She wasn’t happy about it, but Dad said he was homeless, that he was a distant cousin’s kid. We only had to have him two years, until he graduated.”
“Was he an all-right kid?”
Remembering Denham the way he was then softens me. I can breathe again. “He was larger than life. Wild, for sure. He came in with his big black boots and silver chains and a tattoo even though he was underage. But he was a charmer, you know?” I realize I’m gushing a little and add, “Even though he’d been kicked out of two schools.”
“So obviously something happened between the two of you.”
My body goes cold. I can’t talk about that with Blitz. They are my most private memories.
I decide to keep it simple. “Yes. It went on for a couple months and then one day Denham just couldn’t take it anymore. He told me my dad was his father too.”
“God,” Blitz says. “I can’t even imagine what that felt like.”
“I ran straight to them. Dad exploded and kicked Denham out. He drove him back to the aunt’s. I didn’t see him again.”
“So you didn’t know you were pregnant then?”
“Not for another several weeks. I was upset, not eating, pretty distraught. Anything that would have been a pregnancy symptom was just mixed up in my distress.”
“And then you moved.”
“Dad brought us here so no one would know about the baby. He was so shamed. So angry. No one would talk to me. I was hidden from everyone.”
Blitz leans over the center console and takes me in his arms. “That must have been incredibly lonely.”
I shake my head against his shoulder. “But it wasn’t. I wasn’t alone, you know? I had the baby with me. I could feel her moving. It was like a miracle. I would talk to her and sing.”
“Then you gave her up.”
I pull away just enough to look into Blitz’s face. “I did not want to. But I had no choice. My parents just did it. I had no way to take care of her. I didn’t know anything. If I could do it all over again, I would have refused. Run away. Found a shelter. At least tried. But I didn’t then. I was too scared.”
“I told you, I can call my lawyer. You were underage. Coerced.”
“No,” I say. “I could never do that to Gwen. She already lost her husband. I couldn’t take Gabriella from her.”
He holds on to me again and we sit listening to the wind howl outside the car. I can still hear Denham’s shout, “WHERE IS OUR BABY?”
And fear slices through me.
“Do you think he can find Gabriella?” I ask. “He didn’t sign anything giving her up.”
“Who did you list as the father?” Blitz asks. “On the birth certificate.”
“My father wrote down a name. I think he made it up. It wasn’t Denham.”
“Then we’re okay for now,” Blitz says, but he looks behind us, out the back window to the front of Dreamcatcher Dance Academy.
I know what he’s thinking.
All he has to do is see Gabriella, and he’ll know. We’ve led him right to her.