“How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. She locked me up sometime in July,” he said.
“It’s the middle of November,” I told him.
“Why was she holding you hostage?” Dad asked.
Sean turned his head to the side as a tear slid down his dirty cheek. “It’s kind of my fault. I didn’t tell her I was married when I met her. I didn’t even tell her my real name. She was supposed to be a short fling, so I didn’t think she needed to know anything about me. A few weeks later, she told me she was pregnant. I didn’t believe her at first, so she offered to do a paternity test. Anyway, she wanted to get married and was pretty insistent about it. I convinced her to wait until after the baby was born, which she agreed to. Once the baby was born, I confessed to Daphne and left, but I still didn’t tell Tori I was married. I kept putting it off, but I planned on getting divorced without ever telling her. I’m still not sure how Tori found out I was married, but she lost her shit when she did. Apparently, there’s a large sum of money she will inherit when she gets married, but there are stipulations, one of which is she can’t marry a man who has been divorced. However, she can marry a man whose wife died. So she decided to kill Daphne to solve her problem. When I found out what she was doing, I tried to stop her and ended up chained to a wall in her basement.”
“Cops are here,” Carbon announced.
“Is there someone we can call for your daughter?” I asked.
“My mom,” he said. “I hate to ask, but do you think Daphne will watch her until my mom can get here? I trust Daphne, and Talulah can’t see me like this.”
“Daphne shielded her with her own body and covered her face so she wouldn’t see the aftermath. I’m sure she won’t mind watching her for a little longer,” I said.
“Is that what happened to your shirt?” Dad asked.
“Yeah, we covered the baby with it.”
“Thank you,” Sean said sincerely. “For everything.”
“We have got to stop meeting like this,” Chuck said to my dad.
“Agreed,” Dad said and got to his feet.
Two paramedics appeared and dropped down beside Sean, which was my cue to leave. “I’ll make sure your little girl gets to your mom. I’m sure they’ll meet you at the hospital.”
“If there’s ever anything I can do for you, and for Daphne, please let me know.”
“I think Daphne just wants you to sign the divorce papers,” I said.
“Consider it done.”
24
DAPHNE
Isat in a kitchen chair, desperately trying to soothe the crying little girl, even though I knew there was nothing I could do to calm her. She was in the arms of a stranger, her mother had been killed, and her father had been shot. All I could do was hold her and wait for help to arrive.
It wasn’t long before I heard motorcycles approaching and sagged in relief.
“Daphne!” Dice shouted.
“In here,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if he heard me. I didn’t want to yell and upset the baby any more than she already was.
Dice rounded the corner and had his arms around me before I could utter a word. At the sound of a startled wail, he jumped back and looked down at the child in my arms.
“This is Tori and Sean’s daughter,” I said quietly. “She wandered into the room when everything happened. I tried to shield her, but I’m not sure what she saw.”
“Let me have her for a second,” Ink said and extended his hands.
I didn’t understand why until Dice wrapped himself around me the moment I handed her over.
“I’m okay,” I said. “I don’t think it’s fully hit me yet, but I’m okay, and it’s finally over.”
“It was her the whole time?” he asked.