Daddy's Sweetheart Parts 1-5: The Complete Collection

by Rachel Burns

  “Okay, let’s get started. Can you guess what we want to do today?”

  I nodded.

  “First things first, no nodding or shaking your head no. We need you to say the answers. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Nanny looked so surprised that I had spoken. She even turned away and wiped a tear out of her eye.

  “Amelia, what we have brought with us is a lie detector. Have you ever seen one of these before?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Really? When?”

  “Last year before Christmas.”

  “Just that once?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He smiled at me, and Nanny moved in closer to me. She didn’t approve of the way he was looking at me. If they would end up fighting, I’d bet on Nanny. She really wasn’t to be underestimated.

  “Fine let’s get started. What is your name?”

  “Stop, don’t answer that,” the other man called out. “The identity of the family is to remain a secret.”

  “Fine, how old are you?”

  I closed my eyes, remembering my birthday. “I’m twenty.”

  “Now I need you to lie to me. How old are you?”

  “Thirty-five.”

  The man started firing questions at me. He wanted me to answer as quickly as I could, and I did. He asked about Adam and how many men I had been with.

  I answered him truthfully and very quickly. I wanted this to be over with.

  I wanted Daddy to know that I still had never lied to him. Even if he never wanted to see me again, he should know the truth; that Adam had been his.

  The men cleaned everything up, packing away their things. Nanny was crying into her hands. She sat on the sofa and just cried her heart out.

  I stayed sitting on my chair. “Do I get to go home now?” I asked the men.

  They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

  Nanny was crying even louder than before.

  “I’m sorry. We don’t know. That isn’t part of our job. We just do the test, but you were able to prove that you didn’t lie.”

  After they left, I went to Nanny and took her hand again. I pulled her out to the beach. I wanted to be able to tell Sarah about the ocean when I saw her again.

  Nanny wiped her eyes, and we sat down in the warm sand and took off our shoes. We stood in the ocean and let the water lap at our legs.

  “Amelia, do you want to go back to your Daddy. You don’t have to.” I had never heard Nanny talk like that.

  “I want to go back to my family.” I looked out over the water. I could be going home soon. I sighed happily. “Nanny, I want to try to build a sandcastle.”

  Nanny and I sat in the warm sand and pushed a large pile of sand together. I started forming towers with my hands, but they wouldn’t stay. The walls always came tumbling down.

  Nanny suggested that we use bowls and pots from the kitchen. She explained that the sand needed to be wet. She ran in to get some.

  I watched her leave.

  “Amelia,” a voice called out to me.

  I turned and saw my father. He was on the beach with me. I felt a terrible pain around my heart. He bent down to me and took my hand.

  My father was touching me. He never had before. I didn’t understand what was going on.

  I could only guess that I had died, and my father was the one taking me away. I had starved myself too long, and now that I could finally see Sarah I had died.

  “But I get to see Sarah if I stay.” I tried to pull my hand away from him.

  “I’ll make sure you get to see both of your children. You just have to come with me, and you get to have them both, forever.”

  “But you don’t want me. You hate me so.” I tried to pull away from him. “Nanny!” I yelled out.

  My weak attempts to get away were pointless. He picked me up and walked off with me. He set me down on the pavement of a nearby road, but he kept his arms around me, so I couldn’t get away.

  My father reached out and opened a car door, which had a couple of men sitting in the front. He pushed me in and got in himself, wrapping an arm around me.

  This was so wrong.

  “Drive,” he demanded. The car took off.

  I saw Nanny running after the car.

  Chapter 18 – Waterfalls

  “You can’t go in there. He’s with a patient.”

  The officers ignored the nurse and went in. “Are you Dr. Brian … ?”

  “Yes, I am. What’s going on here?”

  “You’re under arrest for kidnapping, attempted murder, assault and battery and sexual assault and deprivation of liberty.” They read him his rights and cuffed his hands behind his back.

  Brian was so shocked that he didn’t really put up a fight at all.

  “You’re not so tough anymore. But I guess you prefer beating on tiny women.” They pulled him out of his office.

  His nurses had all gathered to see what was happening with their boss. His patients and their parents all sat there with their mouths open.

  They couldn’t believe that the nice doctor was being arrested.

  “Was that necessary?” Brian asked in the elevator.

  “I don’t know. Was it necessary to beat up your wife and lock her up?” The officer had no patience with his kind.

  Brian couldn’t believe that Nanny and Amelia had gone to the police.

  This was something that he hadn’t really considered. He thought he had even taken precautions, but it made more sense for Nanny to get Amelia to spill the beans, and then to get all the money.

  He hadn’t even thought of that possibility.

  His last words to Nanny were him threatening her that he wouldn’t pay anymore.

  Maybe Nanny was desperate. Maybe a deal could still be made. He had to make a couple of phone calls. The first would be to his new lawyer, Rose’s Daddy. He would understand about something like this.

  ***

  My father just wouldn’t let me go. He held me in the car the whole way home. I sobbed as quietly as I could. Once again, he was ruining everything for me. That man was just too cruel.

  We drove forever.

  I would settle down and stop crying every once in a while, but then I thought of something that was just too much for me to bear, and the tears would start in again.

  His arm was around me as he led me into our house that evening.

  Several huge men where standing around. Just like the bodyguards from my wedding.

  My father took me into his office. He sat me down on the sofa. The same one where Brian had sat the first time I had seen him. Memories were flooding in on me from all sides. I felt like I was standing under several waterfalls. I was drowning and gasping for air.

  My father knelt down in front of me just like the pretend Daddy had done. He was saying something, but I couldn’t hear him over the noise of the flooding memories.

  My father continued talking to me. He took me by my hand again and pulled me up the stairs. I was never allowed up there, ever. I was shaking uncontrollably. I tried really hard to focus on what he was saying.

  “Your children can live in here now. Your mother did this room up for you back then.” He opened a door and pulled me into a beautiful and bright nursery. It was yellow. So bright like a nursery in a catalog would look like. The furniture was white and flowers were painted on the walls. This room was positively cheerful. A large stuffed animal giraffe looked like he was peeking into the crib.

  It couldn’t be true. I couldn’t have lived in a house for eighteen years that had a nice room for me while I lived in the basement and froze.

  This wasn’t right. It didn’t make any sense –– unless, this was also a hallucination. No one had come to test me. Brian would never let me see Sarah again.

  This just wasn’t real. My father would never have touched me. I was seeing things again, and I was crazy. What else had I imagined up?

  I heard everything all at once. Sarah crying, Tony tell
ing me I should call Daddy Brian, Daddy calling me names, Nanny asking what she should do with me, and now my father saying that I now lived here.

  This was all too much for me. I felt so uncomfortably warm. I wanted to get out so badly.

  Everything just went dark, and finally all the noise stopped.

  End of Part 3

  Part 4 - Leading Her Out Of The Dark

  Chapter 19 – Confinement

  They led Brian into a room with a huge window. He figured that someone was watching him behind that window. He didn’t feel any cleverer because he had this knowledge.

  Brian also knew that they were making him wait on purpose. As soon as they would start asking questions, he would say ‘I won’t say anything without the presence of my lawyer’.

  The only problem was that he really wanted information from them. He wanted to know were his children were – and his wife.

  He still couldn’t believe that she was able to talk to the police. They had to see that she wasn’t well in the head at the moment.

  “What about the one in room 204? The one that is in the news all the time?” The nurse asked the doctor.

  “She still won’t talk or eat. She’ll be transferred to another hospital for long-term care.” The doctor shook his head. “Poor kid.”

  “Brian, I just came from Amelia. She isn’t the one behind this. Nanny Prim has been arrested too. It isn’t her either. Hold tight. Her father is pressing charges against you in her name.” Jake thought that this was good news, and he was eager to share it with his friend.

  “But what did Amelia say?”

  Jake tried to avoid his eye. “She didn’t say anything.”

  “What is that supposed to mean? She must have said something.”

  “She isn’t feeling too well anymore.”

  “Where’s my wife?” Brian stood up and stared Jake down. His fists were clenched, and his face was tight.

  “Brian relax, sit down, and I’ll tell you everything. Just sit down. I can’t come back if they think were friends. I’ll tell you everything.”

  Brian slowly sat down.

  One of the guards had come by and looked into the room. Jake gave him a look that said I have everything under control, and the guard walked away again.

  “She is in a clinic. She won’t talk at all or eat anything. She’s got it in her head that Adam died, and everyone is telling her he didn’t. Martin and Nancy have the kids with them in Texas, so they won’t be part of all this turbulence. Maybe if Amelia saw Adam – I don’t know.”

  “Get me out of here, Jake. I have to take care of my little girl. She needs me. I told her if she needed me, I would be there. Just tell me what I have to do or say. I’ll do it, just get me out of here.”

  “Brian, her father is out for blood. This is in the media, and it will go to court.”

  “How? If Amelia isn’t behind this, then where are they getting their information from?”

  “Your staff, at home,” Jake answered. “Her father has been paying a few of your maids to spy for him since Sarah came home.”

  Brian laid his head in his hands.

  “It isn’t as bad as it sounds. Because he was paying them, we can make it sound like they delivered him a story, so he would continue to pay them. I have met with your lawyer a couple of times. He will be coming by today too. We are going to use the fact that Amelia isn’t able to talk at all. Her old school is willing to testify that he didn’t take care of her back then. They are burning to get on the stand. We have different servants from her old house that will also testify that they were fired because they were nice to her. One of your nurses also said that she would testify. She apparently overheard something, but you know about that, she said.”

  Brian shrugged and nodded.

  “You could win this. You could get everything you want back. The only thing that could cut your throat is Nanny Prim or Amelia. Amelia isn’t in a position to talk to anyone. When her father visits her, and he does practically every other day she flips out. The doctor told me she hides from him, either in a corner of her cell or under the bed. Her doctor is willing to testify too. They keep asking her father not to come, but I think he likes showing presence. The press is camped outside of her clinic. They were at your house, and your nurses closed up your offices for the time being because of the press.”

  “What do you mean cell?” Brian wasn’t about to let that pass.

  “In the kind of hospital, where they have her, the rooms are called cells.”

  “They’re keeping her locked up?”

  “She tried to kill herself Brian. I saw the scars myself. She isn’t stable, and they are taking care of her.”

  “I want you to get her out of there. I don’t care how it happens, but get her out of there now. I have friends in South America. Travis could take care of her. Amelia is the most important thing right now.”

  “I know, Brian. Give me their address, and I’ll see what we can do. It might be the best thing if she was out of the picture. It wouldn’t be good for her if she snapped out of it, and the baby wasn’t there. In fact, I think the thing to do is to get her out of there and have your brother and sister-in-law meet her in South America. That might be all she needs.”

  Brian nodded, liking that idea. “How was she exactly when you were there?”

  “She didn’t even look at me. I don’t think she even knew I was there. She just sat on her bed and looked out of the window.”

  “What is Nanny Prim saying?”

  “That Amelia was depressed and suicidal during the pregnancy, and that she refused to see Nanny. She said she just wanted you then. She saw nothing and heard nothing. Nanny Prim is sticking to that story. No matter what they try to do to her.”

  Brian raised his eyebrow.

  “The other inmates are being hard on her. How are things for you?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” Brian wasn’t about to tell him what his everyday life was like here. They heard the news in here too. He wasn’t popular. But he didn’t let it get to him. He knew he loved his wife.

  His wife loved him too. She had talked to him. Her face had lit up when she saw him. He regretted moving away from her hand so much. He wished he would have stayed still and enjoyed her touching him.

  She hadn’t tried to touch him at all anymore after she had tried to kill herself.

  A guard came to take him back to his cell. The other inmates whispered at him and made gestures.

  Brian ignored their comments all he could see was his little wife sitting on her bed looking up to the clouds waiting for angels to come get her.

  He needed to protect her. He had to find a way. The guard brought him into his cell. He jumped up to his bed and lay down.

  “You were in the news again, rich boy,” his cellmate stated.

  Brian just ignored him.

  “Your wife is in the nuthouse. Her daddy’s visiting her again.”

  Her father wasn’t her daddy. He was, Brian thought.

  “I don’t personally understand why that is newsworthy, but they show him there every couple of days. I got to see your wife too. She was outside. She sure is pretty. Do you really beat on her?”

  Brian tried envisioned her outside. It was hard to do, but Nanny had also said that she had been outside. She had wanted to build a sandcastle. She had stood in the ocean. Amelia wanted to go home, even though he had treated her so badly. She had been innocent from the beginning.

  Why did he always think the worst of her? Because she was too good to be true. Brian answered his own question; he didn’t deserve her.

  Brian jumped down from his bed and went into the TV room. He watched the news. He got to see her a lot. She looked terrible, so confused. A nurse held on to her as she walked. The nurse took her right back in when she noticed that they were being filmed. Amelia had looked scared, and she looked up at the clouds the whole time.

  Damn, she was so thin. He would call her doctor and tell him a th
ing or two.

  Brian’s lawyer showed up, and he had to tear himself away from the TV.

  He shook hands with his lawyer, who was also a daddy. He was Rose’s daddy. “You are looking really good, Brian. Did you see Amelia on the news today? She is looking better too.” Both men sat down.

  Brian nodded still shaken by the idea of people with cameras chasing his wife. He needed to concentrate on what Walter was telling him.

  “I talked things over with everyone involved. I think the way to go is the way that her Nanny started. She had two pregnancies one right after the other. A depression during that time was very likely. She tried to kill herself too. That must have been very hard on you.”

  Brian nodded playing along.

  “Yes, that’s what I thought. She was always such a nice girl. She had hallucinations and screamed a lot. Amelia is afraid of her father who we can so easily prove hated her and showed no interest in her until after his first grandchild was born. He refused to see Amelia when he was visiting the baby.”

  Brian nodded again. Nanny must have told him that.

  “That he had contacted two maids working in your house was of course unknown to you?”

  Brian nodded again. “What is the rest of the staff saying?”

  “Your uncle has moved into the house. He is employing them, they are thankful to be able to keep their jobs in such tough times. He did some remodeling after he moved in. The police claim he ruined evidence. Apparently he did something in Amelia’s reading room, just off your bedroom. He seemed to have removed a bed and a study corner, but there is no proof of that.”

  “She won’t like that. She loved her desk. It was an antique.”

  “I’m sure it is still in the house somewhere. I had an extremely interesting conversation with one of your nurses. She told me about you and Amelia. She said that the two of you practice a Christian domestic discipline marriage. That she talked to both of you separately about it. Amelia didn’t seem to have any problem with it. She helped her decide if she wanted to have that kind of marriage too.”