“She blackmailed you?” Robin gasped.

“No,” I shook my head. “She was too smart for that. But she would ask for things or expect things. She would hold stuff over my head. She was smart, you know. She knew how to word things to make you wonder and feel sorry for her. And I fell for it.”

“She doesn’t seem like a very nice person.”

“Oh, she wasn’t.” I sighed and shook my head. “She wasn’t a nice person at all.” I stared into Robin’s eyes wanting to tell her everything so badly. But I was scared. I had made that mistake before and it had nearly cost me everything. I couldn’t risk anything going wrong at this point. “Excuse me a second,” I smiled at Robin as my phone rang and I answered it. “Hello, Lucky.”

“Noah.” Lucky’s voice was low. “You need to come home.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” I said quickly and with worry. “Is it Zane?”

“No.” She took a deep breath. “Zane and I did something.”

“What did you guys do?” My heart pounded with fear and all I could think about was when Lucky had taken my phone a couple of days ago. “Did you call my mom?”

“No.” She paused. “Zane, please you have to come home.”

“Why, Lucky? Why?”

“Noah, Skylar’s here.”

I almost dropped the phone on the floor as shock fell over me. What was going on? “What do you mean Skylar’s there? There’s no way. How could she get there by herself?”

“She’s not by herself.”

“Oh, God.” My face turned pale and my heart started beating fast. “Oh, my God.”

“I’m sorry, Noah.” She gulped. “I didn’t know. We didn’t know. We thought this would be good for you. I’m—”

“What did you do, Lucky?” I shouted in the phone, angrier than I had ever been in my life.

“Please just come home.” She sobbed. “I don’t want to be here alone with her.”

“Where’s Zane?”

“He’s not at home.”

“I’m on my way.” I ended the call and turned to a worried-looking Robin. I pulled her up and towards me and looked her straight in the eyes. “I’m sorry, I have to go.” I kissed her hard and tried to remember the taste of her lips and the smell of her hair as I held her close to me for a few moments.

“What’s going on, Noah?” She looked at me with a scared expression. “What’s wrong with Lucky?”

“I have to go.” I said wildly grabbing my car keys. “My ex is here.” I looked at her shocked and hurt expression but I didn’t have time to explain everything to her. “I’m sorry but I have to go.” I ran out of the door, without looking back and ran to my car quickly. I needed to get home before anything happened. I jumped into my car in both excitement and fear. I was excited that I would finally be reunited with Skylar but I was extremely worried about what else might go down. I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. No matter what happened tonight, I wasn’t going to let Skylar get hurt again. No matter what!

* * *

I walked into the house slowly. I was scared about what was going to happen. I didn’t even really understand how they had both gotten there, but I had a feeling Zane and Lucky were to blame. I thought back to two days ago in the kitchen when I’d had the conversation with Skylar right in front of Zane, and how minutes later Lucky had conveniently wanted to borrow my phone. Then I remembered the call she had received in the car, and the new number she had taken down to call. It all clicked into my head. I was pretty sure I knew how they had gotten her. Zane and Lucky had most probably tried to help me out, but they had no idea what the situation was. They had no idea that they had most probably made the situation worse for me and Skylar. They had no idea who she was to me.

I had only been in the door for a few minutes when someone came running into my arms. “Noah, Noah, it’s really you.” She cried tears of joy as she jumped into my arms and I picked Skylar up and swung her around.

“It’s really me, angel.” I sat her down and kissed her on the cheek, staring at her beautiful and innocent face. She looked just the same as I remembered her, with her big wide blue eyes, the little button nose, and a big gap in her front teeth. I crouched down so that I was on eye-level with her and looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry that I left Palm Bonita without saying goodbye.”

“You never came back to see me.” Her eyes were wide and wet. “I thought I made you mad at me.”

“You could never make me mad at you. I love you. You know that.” I gave her a huge hug and my heart melted as she hugged me back tightly. As I hugged her, I wondered at the love I had for this child. This child who wasn’t mine, but who had completely stolen my heart the very first time I’d met her.

“Well, now, now. Isn’t this a cozy scene?” Monica walked up to us and gave us a haughty stare. “I always love to see my ex hugging my little bastard of a stepdaughter.”

“Monica, not in front of Skylar.” I covered the child’s ears and glared at her. As I stared at her beautiful but evil face, I wondered how I had ever been taken in by her. She was most probably the worst person I had ever had the misfortune of dating. She had drawn me in with her smile and acting, but she had shown me her true colors pretty quickly after that. I’d wanted to break up with her a few months after we started dating, but I had already established a relationship with Skylar and I also knew that the only way I could look after Skylar and spend time with her was to keep on dating Monica.

“I don’t know why you love that brat of a kid so much,” she sneered at me, and then looked around the house with wide greedy eyes. “This place is so much more than I thought it would be. I guess you’re as rich as you said.”

“What do you want, Monica?” I glared at her before looking back down at Skylar. “Hey, honey, want to go play in the backyard?”

“Yes, please.” She hugged my leg and then ran to the back. “Can I pick some flowers, Uncle Noah?”

“Of course.” I beamed at her and waited until I saw her walk out the French doors to turn back to Monica. “What do you want?” I glared at her, and let my distaste show through.

“You better ask your new lover, Lucky. She’s the one that called me.”

“Lucky is my brother’s fiancée.” I shook my head in disgust.

“I’m sure you’re fucking her.” Monica leered at me as she stepped in closer to me. “Or maybe you’ve been missing me. Is that why I’m here? Been missing you.”

“I’ve missed you as much as a good man misses hell.”

“Noah, you’re back.” Lucky ran down the stairs and gave me a despairing and apologetic look.

“Yes.” I nodded coldly.

“Where’s Skylar?” She looked around wildly and I grabbed her arm.

“She’s in the backyard.” I nodded towards the back.

“She’s a kid.” Lucky looked at me with big eyes. “Skylar’s a kid.”

“Yes.”

“So you really didn’t miss your ex, did you?” Lucky chewed on her lower lip and I sighed.

“I told you that I didn’t miss my ex.” I sighed. “I told you you didn’t really understand.”

“I’m still here, bitches.” Monica interrupted us. “Where the fuck is my money?”

“What money?” It took everything in me not to physically harm her.

“My money to go to Aruba,” she sneered at me. “And no, I don’t want you to come with me. You missed your opportunity.”

“I have no interest in going with you anywhere.”

“But for fucking Skylar, you’d go to the moon, right.” She looked at me with thin eyes. “What a fucking weirdo you are. I should have known when you had to move to Palm Bonita you were a sicko.”

“Skylar is like a daughter to me.” My voice was low and angry. “I was the one who took her to the park, I was the one who took her bowling, I was the one who took her for ice cream. I was the one that made her feel safe again.”

“You’re also the one that left her crying for weeks on end.” Monica looked at me with a gleam in her eye. “But I shut her up.”

“You shut her up?” I frowned and then it hit me and I grabbed her arms and pushed her against the wall. “Did you break Skylar’s arm?”

“She bumped into a chair.” She looked at me with a blank stare. “And get your fucking hands off of me before I call the police.”

“You’re an evil bitch.” I hissed at her before letting go of her arms.

“Noah!” Lucky walked up to me and grabbed me. “Calm down. Don’t let her win.” She whispered in my ear.

“I hate her so much.” I said out loud. “You know how I tell you that all the dregs of society moved to Palm Bonita, well, she was the worst of them all. She is a thief, a con artist, an abuser. When I met Monica, I thought she was a victim of domestic violence. I thought she had fled an abusive husband. But I was wrong. Her husband was dead, had died in a car accident a few years before. Left her a couple hundred thousand. She spent that money then spent Skylar’s college fund. Then she took jobs cleaning people’s houses but she was also cleaning out their houses. She also conned several families out of their pensions with her schemes. Monica didn’t flee to Palm Bonita because she was afraid of her ex-husband finding her and killing her, she fled because she was scared the cops would find her and imprison her for life.”

“That’s why you needed the private jet.” Lucky’s eyes popped open as she stared at Monica. “It wasn’t because of your fear of flying with other people at all, was it?”

“Ding, ding ding. Your lover’s a smart one,” Monica cackled. “And I never lied to you, Noah. The very first day I met you, I told you there were lots of bad people in town and that you had to be careful. It’s not my fault if you didn’t listen to my advice.”

“So what do you want, Monica?”

“I told your brother when he picked me up from the airport. He’s very handsome, isn’t he? So much more handsome than you. I’m sure he’s better in bed as well.”

Lucky glared at her, and I grabbed her hand so that she didn’t try to slap Monica.

“What do you want?” I asked again, only this time my voice was a lot harder.

“What I’ve always wanted.” She stared at me with a light expression. “Money.”

“Why would we give you money?” I stared at her with hate.

“Because you love Skylar,” she laughed, “and you don’t want to see anything bad happen to her.”

“You leave her alone,” I moved forward to grab her again, but this time she reacted quickly and got out of the way.

“I’d be happy to leave her alone forever,” she smiled at me, “for a million dollars.”

“What?” My heart beat fast at her words. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll sign over custody to you.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal. “I couldn’t give two shits about raising her. You love her so much then you can have her. Just give me a million dollars.”

“I don’t have a million dollars.” My heart thudded as I stared at her. “My dad is the rich one. I don’t have access to that kind of money.”

“Oh, well, I guess it’s back to Palm Bonita we go. Hopefully the next sucker to move to town can take care of me a little better than you did.”

“Leave Skylar.” I asked softly. “Leave Skylar with me. Even you have to know that’s not the town for a little girl. And you’re just not ready to be a mother.”

“I’m ready to be a mother. I love kids,” she screeched. “I want kids.”

“Well, you’re a mother now and you’re not doing a great job.” I shook my head.

“I’m not a mother.” Monica gave me a look. “That little brat is not my kid. I married her dad after her mom died of breast cancer. She’s not mine.”

“She was your husband’s child.” My voice rose. “She is still your family. You should still love her. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the same blood. You can still love someone with all your heart, even if you aren’t biologically related.”

“Oh, shut up, Noah. You always were an obnoxious prat. Save your holier than thou shit for church.” She glared at me. “Where the fuck is my money?”

“I don’t have a million dollars to give you, Monica,” I sighed and shook my head. “Isn’t there another arrangement we can come to?”

“I want a million dollars or Skylar leaves with me.”

“I just told you. I don’t have a million dollars.”

“But I do.” Zane’s voice boomed as he walked into the room. I hadn’t even heard the front door open, I was so wrought with emotion. I stared at him as he walked up to me with a caring expression.

“Zane, you’re back.” I smiled at him weakly and he squeezed my shoulder. Lucky ran over to him and he put his arm around her holding her close.

“I have a cashier’s check for you.” Zane looked at Monica. “But get one thing straight, you’re not getting this check until we go to an attorney and get the legal documents signed and taken care of.”