by RJ Blain
“Better than I should, I suspect. At the risk of sounding stupid, what day is it?”
“Tuesday. You napped right through the weekend, and I’m pretty sure you don’t remember a thing about yesterday. I think yesterday’s episode convinced Mireya you were on route to ICU again.”
I leveled my worst glare at Dr. Glaskow. “Explain in small words I can understand without a dictionary.”
“You have an aversion to a certain class of stimulants, which are now listed in your record to be avoided. You were a menace. In small words you can easily understand, the average toddler was better behaved than you were, and you found the idea of climbing the walls fascinating. It’s a form of psychosis. Part of today’s testing was to make certain those drugs were out of your system. I’m pleased to report you emerged without incident.”
My boss laughed. “You weren’t a menace, Mackenzie. You were just really hyper and didn’t want to stay in the hospital.”
“I’m pretty sure that means I was a menace, Douglass.” Damn it. I hadn’t thought I’d been under for so long. “Any problems?”
“Beyond your unexpected trip to the ER, no. Mireya made some new friends this weekend, when we could convince her to leave the hospital. The first twenty-four hours were the worst, but you had stabilized at the club; one of the members is a strong waveweaver, and they kill the AC when he’s there, but the staff’s trained accordingly. There was some concern your throat was damaged, but you sound all right.”
“There was some abrasion but no substantial damage,” Dr. Glaskow reported. “The potential for injury was part of the reason I opted to hold off on reversing the sedatives until Monday, however.”
My daughter sniffled, wiggled on my lap, and shoved her head under my arm, the first sign she was nearing the end of her episode. As long as I pretended like there was nothing wrong, she’d follow my lead. “What happened to the rental?”
My boss chuckled, grabbed a stool, and sat nearby, reaching over to give Mireya’s back a rub. “I took care of it. Also, Mireya and I went shopping with her new friends on Saturday. You’re now the proud owner of a company car selected by a herd of children. It’ll be ready tomorrow evening. We also discussed road trip options over a rather lengthy dinner, where your daughter regaled us with tales of other kingdoms.”
“Thank you for taking care of her.”
“I’ll confess, I didn’t even have her for two of the nights. She attached herself to her new friends and refused to leave. Their parents didn’t have a problem with her staying over, and I trust them. She was safe the entire time. I excused her from classes on your behalf. The school complained, but I threatened an audit of your account with them, which shut them up.”
I clenched my teeth at the reminder of the school’s behavior. “I have two hundred and fifty thousand reasons, plus fees, to be angry at them right now.”
“I took the liberty of requesting Mireya’s records from the school on the grounds you’d be unavailable for an unknown period of time. I have a copy of her transcripts from kindergarten to current. It’s an official copy, so you can use it if you decide to transfer her to a different institution. Of course, they didn’t think that was why I requested them; I merely stated I wanted to have a better understanding, and as my son attended the same school, I already knew how to read the certified transcripts.”
“You’re a sneaky man, Douglass,” I complimented.
“I am. That leads me to the next issue.”
“Should I be worried?”
“I’m borrowing your child on Friday, as she has an appointment for placement testing.”
“What? Placement testing? Why?”
“I’m afraid the father of her friend made a comment about the current state of the medical industry in Texas. He was a lamb to slaughter, Mackenzie. Mireya destroyed him in front of his wife and an entire herd of children. He was thoroughly educated on the errors of his ways. If he’d been defending his thesis, he would’ve failed. She’s very intelligent, and she’s ahead of her current placement.”
“I know that. She knows it, too. We decided, together, she wouldn’t go into advance placement,” I hissed, holding tighter to my daughter. “Anyway, she’s been to the hospital too many times because of me. She talks to the doctors and nurses sometimes, so she picks things up.”
“This went far beyond the basics, Mackenzie.”
“She educated me on the reproductive system of my own gender, Miss Little,” Dr. Glaskow contributed, grinning at me. “I’m going to have to side with Mr. Smithson. She’s exceptionally intelligent.”
Since my daughter hadn’t protested and her sobbing had quieted, I poked her in the ribs. “Did someone get a big fact or a little fact wrong this time, spawnling?”
“Big,” she sniffled. “Very big.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire big?”
“Yep.”
“Did you provide proper citations?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Good girl.”
My boss sighed. “And that explains so much.”
I shot both men a glare, and Dr. Glaskow wisely retreated, lifting his hands up in the air. “I only verified the accuracy of her knowledge on the male reproductive system.”
“Mireya,” I wailed. “You didn’t.”
“He’s an unacceptable sperm donor. He’s already married with children.”
My face burned. “Mireya!”
My boss tossed his head back and laughed. “I’m so sorry, Mackenzie—”
“Babysitter for life,” I hissed.
“You better tell her, Mr. Douglass. She’ll get mad if you don’t.”
Huh. “You finally got her to call you Douglass?”
“It took bribing. It took disgustingly expensive bribing. I let her win the car war.”
“It wasn’t a war. It’s my mommy’s car, and she deserves the best car for a long, comfortable drive. Baby is that car.”
“You also picked a custom color.”
“Baby deserved to be only the best color.”
“Fully loaded.”
“Baby deserves to be the best car possible.”
A headache brewed behind my eyes. “Douglass, did you get hoodwinked by a bunch of kids?”
“Yes,” my boss confirmed.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“Nonsense. It’s a legitimate business expense. You should have had your own company car years ago, especially with the number of trips you make to Congressional Hall. We’ll see how it plays out. And yes, Mireya is aware there are circumstances that might prevent an epic road trip this year. I’ve been forced to promise she will get at least one substantial road trip in Baby within the next year.”
“It’s her car and I’m just the one stuck driving it, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Sorry, Mackenzie.”
“Mr. Douglass,” my daughter whined. “Tell her.”
“All right. You better tell me before she lectures us.”
My boss sighed. “It turns out Mireya asked for permission from her teacher to go home with her new friends. Their driver assured the school they would take Mireya home. Her friends got permission from their parents, and in the excitement, someone forgot to get your permission.”
“Sorry, Mom,” Mireya whispered.
I patted Mireya’s back to reassure her. “It’s fine, spawnling. However, are you seriously telling me the school knew?”
The silence spoke volumes, and I clacked my teeth together. My boss finally sighed. “They didn’t approve of their friendship, so they decided to cause you problems.”
Fury burned through me, and for a long moment, I considered whether to strangle the life out of the school staff or take a different approach, like lighting the entire building on fire. A chill spread through my chest. “And I have zero recourse.”
“You do, actually. Your contract with the school prohibits persecution due to your caste. You pay for this exemption, and they directly violated it. You’ll be eligible for a r
efund of the entire exemption fee plus damages. Considering you were hospitalized as a result of their efforts, these could be substantial damages. We can nail them for breach of contract and discrimination. If you or Mireya develop even the weakest talent, we can pursue an additional lawsuit.”
In truth, I’d given up hope years ago; someone didn’t just develop magic later in life. Magic belonged to the young and ambitious, to those who had their whole lives ahead of them. Children chasing their dreams discovered the spark hidden within them, the magic their parents gifted to them.
One day, because of Dylan, Mireya’s spark would flare to life, and I would remind her of that truth each and every day if I had to. I wouldn’t be like my parents, who had decided for me I’d be a null for the rest of my life.
Mireya tugged on my shirt. “Mom?”
“Sorry, spawnling. Mom’s tired.”
I spoke the truth. I was so, so tired. I was tired of the lies, the hopelessness, and the desperation. Everything I wanted for Mireya, I couldn’t provide. Money couldn’t buy happiness, nor could it buy hope, equality, or magic. Money offered a lot of false promises and lies, and I questioned how much my daughter hadn’t told me.
I hugged her close, and for the first time in my life, I was grateful for my allergy to the cold.
Without it, I would’ve sent Mireya back to school, secure in the false promises they offered. I’d find another—a better—way to give my daughter the tools she needed to survive in a world that didn’t value her.
Through the auction and with Senator Forester’s help, I had the tools to do something about it, if I decided to take the battle to the congress.
I would.
Chapter Thirteen
My boss drove me and my daughter home with a pit stop at the pharmacy. I’d miss the three hundred extra a month on prescriptions, and that was after the discount from the drug plan, which covered the vast majority of the treatment.
I would need to dip into Mireya’s schooling fund to help pay for it.
Replacing both emergency pens did significant damage to my savings account. Since I was already dealing with the hassle of filling prescriptions, I enrolled for birth control, which was an automatic approval and added five minutes to the process.
I had no faith in the daily pills, but I’d take them anyway.
However much I wanted to deny it, Dr. Glaskow’s comments had hit home. If Mireya was fishing for information on reproduction, she’d seen something she wanted in her friends, and it meant it was something only I could provide her: siblings.
I hated her new friends for putting the thought of siblings in her head, and I hated myself for not wanting to deal with the truth.
Mireya deserved a father. That led to more dangerous waters, too.
Maybe I deserved something better than lonely days and dreams filled with a man I could never have.
Hell, maybe I’d turn the tables and, just like my mother had wanted for me, I’d use the auction as a way of testing those waters and finding a man willing to become Mireya’s father. Without knowing what had become of Dylan, if he still lived, I couldn’t afford to wait forever praying for luck or a miracle.
No, I’d already gotten the only miracle I truly needed. Dylan had given me Mireya, and I could never repay him for that. If I could have turned back time, I would’ve done something—anything—different. I would’ve thrown out my pride and asked him to find me in the future to say hello.
Something—anything—to help close the distance between us.
Armed with my new prescriptions, I staggered back to my boss’s car, stifling yawns. He watched me with a frown. “The lethargy’s already kicking in, isn’t it?”
“I will egg your car and toilet paper your office if you ban me from work tomorrow.”
Mireya cackled from the back seat. “This is great. Mom, you wouldn’t do that.”
“Try me. I’ll have you get the eggs out of the fridge for me, just to be safe. I bet they’re rotten by now.”
“If you come to work, you will bring Mireya with you. If you happen to take a nap on my couch, I’ll look the other way. I’d rather have you in the office supervised than test the limits of Mireya’s patience and calm watching over you.”
“I can watch her, Mr. Douglass. It’s not that hard. I just have to check to make sure she’s still breathing every now and then. It’s easy. If she stops snoring, then I know to check on her.”
“I don’t snore,” I protested.
“It’s more of a purr, true. You purr rather loudly. It’s a pleasant sound,” my boss teased.
“I don’t purr, either.”
“You do kinda purr, Mom. Sorry. It’s nicer than Mr. Douglass’s snort snores. It really is. I don’t mind your purrs.”
Since I had no doubt I couldn’t win, I buckled my seatbelt, slumped in my seat, and sighed. “Fine. I’m going home, and I’m going to purr until tomorrow. You’re going to babysit my daughter while I’m busy purring, Douglass.”
“I’ll make sure she has dinner and gets to bed on time. Please stay home and rest.”
“No.”
“Give it up, Mr. Douglass. She’s not going to say yes, and now she’s going to go in to spite you, and she won’t take a nap on your couch because she has a point to prove. Good job.”
“Mireya,” I warned.
“She’s just wielding the truth like the lethal weapon it is, Mackenzie. Eat something before you go purr until tomorrow. Mireya, text me with what you want delivered for dinner, and your wish is my command.”
“Score!” my daughter squealed. “Can I have yams and chicken again?”
“I can’t have that delivered,” my boss complained.
“I bet you could.”
I blinked. “Yams and chicken?”
“The father of her friend makes it, and she loves it. I’ll see what I can do, Mireya, but no promises.”
“I want some for Mom to try.”
My boss shot me a look, started the car, and backed out of his spot. “You’re going to use those sad eyes on me again if I don’t bring you yams and chicken for dinner tonight, aren’t you?”
“I suppose it could be for lunch tomorrow.”
I was beginning to believe I needed to give Mireya my job. She’d get bills passed with ruthless efficiency if she continued to develop her negotiation skills. The moment my boss broke and caved in, he slumped in his seat. “All right. I’ll call and beg.”
“Thank you, Mr. Douglass!”
“Played,” I whispered.
“Don’t remind me,” he begged.
Having gotten her way, Mireya remained quiet the rest of the twenty-minute drive to our condominium, and my boss waited in the no parking zone for Pete, one of the daytime security guards, to come out, handing his keys over. “I’m going to take Miss Little upstairs and make sure she’s settled before coming back for my car.”
“I’ll keep an eye on it, Mr. Smithson. Welcome home, Miss Little,” Pete replied.
I meant to thank him, but I yawned instead.
“Sorry, Pete,” my daughter chirped. “Mom’s tired. She means thank you. She’s just talking in Yawnese right now.”
“Yawnese?”
“It’s a you-only language that happens before you have coffee,” she informed me.
Great. I was so unintelligible in the morning my daughter had assigned my communication skills a new language. “I’m going to bed. You two are jerks.”
“Mireya, make sure your mom eats something before she goes to bed,” my boss ordered, walking us to the elevator. Not satisfied with ensuring I made it to the top floor, he hounded me all the way to my condo, glaring at me while I fumbled for my keys.
“I’ll also make sure she doesn’t choke while I’m at it.”
“Good girl. Get sleep. If you don’t feel up for coming into the office tomorrow, we can survive without you for a day. We can survive without you for an entire week, although Louisa may cry by the time you return, as she’s currently fieldin
g your phone calls.”
“Thank her for me,” I mumbled, finally winning the fight with my door. Instead of the chaos and clutter I expected, someone had cleaned everything until it sparkled, and I suspected my boss had hired a maid while I’d been in the hospital—or Mireya had developed a serious case of cleaning frenzy.
Once I made it through the doorway without falling on my face, my boss saluted and headed for the elevators, leaving me in the care of my daughter, who closed and locked the door. I flopped on the couch with a tired groan. “I hope you didn’t like your teacher too much, spawnling. I’m totally imagining her pants on fire right now.”
It wasn’t quite true; I didn’t imagine much of anything at all, not even in my dreams. “No, not fire. Fire ants. In her pants. Oh, even better. Wasps. Wasps should keep her company for the next few days, and whenever she lies, she should get stung.” I thought about it, aware I was spouting gibberish due to my exhaustion. “Yeah. Forget the pants on fire thing or the fire ants. I sincerely hope whenever she lies to someone, she’s stung by a wasp—for at least a week. That’s fair, right?”
“That seems fair to me. I really did tell her, Mom. And my friends’ parents gave their permission for me to go with them. I swear.”
“It’s not your fault. Next time, text me with the details so I know.”
“But Mom—”
“Mireya, as long as there’s adult supervision, I don’t care if you go out with your friends sometimes. Keep your grades up and stay out of trouble. If you can do that, I trust you to go on outings with your friends. Just check your calendar first for anything you can’t miss before you commit to an outing.”
“Stop being so reasonable!” my daughter shrieked before storming to her room. She even slammed the door.
“Kids,” I muttered, shaking my head and staggering towards my bedroom to catch up on some much needed rest.
My subconscious had an unfair fixation on Dylan, and he laughed at me from the moment I became aware of him until I tried my best to kick him in the shins. As always, he put his masculine strength to good use, further entrenching himself in my twisted fantasies.
