Everly's eyes may have rolled when she saw me standing in the front row, cheering her on, but when the ceremony was over, she ran to me instead of her mother—and let me tell you, that felt fucking good. Either it was because she saw the flowers I brought her, or she does love me. I'm hoping it's the latter, but if not, I'll still be happy if the flowers had her rushing to me before going to her mother.

"Thanks, Dad!" Everly cheered, immediately taking the flowers from my hand, quickly bringing them to her nose, and smelling the floral fragrance.

My arm affectionately formed around her, and I pulled her to me, lowering my mouth and kissing the top of her head, saying, "You're welcome. Congratulations on graduating from the fifth grade. How do you feel?"

"Nervous," she said, her eyes flickering up to mine. "I heard secondary school is much tougher. And that the kids are much meaner. Especially when girls start getting boobs and pubic hair."

Okay...

My forehead and armpits quickly perspired. This is not the conversation I want to discuss with her this second.

I'm not ready for it—she's only ten. Thankfully, she didn't bring up her curiosity about sex. That... I'm definitely not prepared to discuss with her.

I handed her the card, saying, "It's okay to feel nervous going to a new school. And don't worry about what the other kids will do or say once you grow into a woman. Not all of them are mean or bullies."

"I heard the eighth graders like torturing the sixth graders on their first day of school—kidnapping them, bringing them into the bathrooms, and giving them swirlies. I was told they do other horrible things to them, too."

My lips stretched into a wide grin, and I chuckled, squeezing her tighter against me. I remember my eighth-grade days and the shit we pulled with the sixth graders. At the time, I thought it was funny. But it isn't so funny anymore. Now that I have a child, I don't want to see or hear her going through what my friends and I did to the innocent sixth graders. "Don't worry about your first day, hun. I taught you how to defend yourself, should it ever be needed. So you've got that. But I'm pretty sure they won't mess with you, anyway. It's usually the boys the eighth graders go after."

I must have done something right—she's actually conversing with me without giving me an attitude. And that made my chest feel tight, and my heart grew happy. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Felicity standing with her husband, who was not far from us, and she had that lovely scowl I love so much on her overly-painted face.

Not wanting to acknowledge that my ex-wife was waiting to talk to our daughter, I ignored her pulled face and the ugly daggers in her eyes and looked at Everly, asking, "What are you doing after this?"

She shrugged. "Nothing that I know of. Why?"

"Would you like to go to dinner with me? I'll bring you wherever you want to eat. Even if it's McDonald's," I offered, grimacing at the thought of eating fast food—I hate processed food, but I'm at a point with my daughter that I need to do whatever it is to make her like me more than she does at the moment. I need her to see I'm not this terrible guy her mother turned me out to be. So, I'll give up eating real food for food that hasn't molded after twenty years if that's what it'll take for Everly to have dinner with me on a night that's not my night to have her.

I'm desperate...

She looked surprised by my offer of taking her out to dinner, even though she knew it was her mother's night. "Let me see what Mom says," she said.

"Of course," I said, already knowing Felicity's answer. No.

She's a bitch like that. If it's not my day to have her, she refuses me any time with Everly. Every. Fucking. Time.

"Mom said no."

Just like I thought she'd say. Bitch.

Fuck that. Felicity gets more time with Everly than I do, and I don't get her this weekend. So the least she can do is let me take our daughter out to eat and bring her to get an ice cream cone before dropping her off—an additional graduation present from me—showing how excited I am that she's moving on to secondary school.

"Stay here for a moment. Let me go talk to her," I sighed, then muttered under my breath, "I don't know what I ever saw in your mother." I know what I saw, but I won't think about that right now. I need to get Felicity to allow me to spend time with my daughter tonight. At least for a couple of hours, anyway.

Especially after seeing Marla trying to get a hold of me. I know what that means—she has a job for me. And her persistence in calling non-stop means she needs me to get to work ASAP.

So, if I have to go away on an assignment, I want to spend at least a few hours with Everly since I don't know how long it'll be until I see her again.

"Why won't you let me take Everly out to dinner?" I asked nicely, being careful not to sound angry or give Felicity an attitude that would hurt my chances of talking her into giving in to me for once.

"It's not your night to have her," she hissed.

"So?"

"So, it's not your night to have her, so you're not getting her."

"It's dinner and ice cream. I'll have her back before nine. I promise."

"No," she said sharply.

"Damn it, Felicity," I shouted louder than I wanted. Then I calmed the tone, adding, "Let me take her to dinner. It's not like I get a lot of time with her. And I have time to take her out tonight."

Her hands flew to her hips, and her eyes turned to slits. "Who's fault is that?" she returned angrily.

"Yours," I returned bitterly because that's the truth, even though work had previously halted me from spending time with Everly.

She looked around, shaking her head when her eyes returned to mine. "I'm not getting into this with you in front of all these kids and their parents."

"Then let me have her for a couple of hours. I promise I'll have her back before bedtime."

Felicity's husband nudged her shoulder, and he leaned into her ear, whispering something. I've never liked the guy; he's a bit of a wussy, but he's good with my daughter, so I do my best to be friendly with him. I need at least one sane person to talk to regarding Everly's best interest. Hopefully, he's talking my ex into allowing me to hang out with my daughter.

Christopher stood straight, adjusting his tie as he said, "As long as you have her back by nine, it's okay with us."

Thank God there's at least one decent person Everly is living with. My lips curved upward, happy the doofus talked the bitch into letting me spend time with my daughter, and I extended my hand toward Christopher, shaking it as I said, "Thank you. She'll be back well before nine."

"Not a minute later, or you'll never get a chance like this again," Felicity harshly warned, an ugly look in her eye. She's most likely pissed at me for begging and angry with Christopher for being a nice guy with me, allowing Everly to hang out with her real father. Something Felicity wishes I wasn't.

I looked into Felicity's cold eyes and said, "I promised to have her back by nine, which means she'll be back by nine."

I saluted Christopher, ignored Felicity, and returned to Everly, showing her flowers to her friends. I rubbed her head, messing up her hair, asking, "Are you ready to get dinner and ice cream?"

Her eyes widened, looking surprised. "Mom said I can have dinner with you?"

I nodded, smiling as I said, "She did."

She shrugged a shoulder, acting like this wasn't a big deal. "Okay."

I reached for her hand and lovingly squeezed it when her small hand connected with mine. "Come on. Let's get something to eat before it gets late, and your mom has a conniption fit because I brought you home later than nine."

When Everly set the flowers beside her, and she buckled herself in, I asked, "What are you hungry for?"

"Pizza."

I can do pizza.

Smiling, excited to spend the next couple of hours with my little girl, I said, "Let me guess. You want a pepperoni and cheese pizza. Or is it just a plain ole cheese pizza now?"

"I'm back to pepperoni. But can we get cheese bread, too? Mom won't buy it for me anymore."

My brows furrowed, confused. "Why?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. She said once that I shouldn't be overeating bread."

I looked at her through the rearview mirror. "You can have all the cheese bread you want."

She smiled and clapped, making me smile at her happiness and excitement.

Finally, I'm having a decent outing with my kid for once. She's giving me no attitude, talking like I mean something to her, smiling at me, and hasn't tried pushing me away. This is huge. But it does make me wonder why she isn't acting like she hates me like she usually does toward me.

Maybe she's finally seeing that her mother was wrong about me the entire time.

Or it's the flowers that gave her a change of heart today.

Whatever her reasoning is, I'll take this new attitude from her.

My phone rang again, and when my Bluetooth said it was Marla calling, I figured I better answer if she was calling for something other than a job she needed me to do. "You're on speaker, and Everly is in the vehicle with me," I answered, warning her not to say anything that would have Everly running to her mother, telling her things I don't want or need her hearing.

"Hi, Everly!" Marla happily greeted. "Congratulations on graduating from elementary school."

"Thank you. Dad's taking me for pizza!"

"Ooh, sounds fun! And nummy! I better let you two go so you can enjoy your time together." Then she turned her attention to me. "Declan, call me when you can. I have something I need to discuss with you. It's important. Like, really, really important."

"Okay, I'll call you after I drop her off. You should hear from me around nine or so."

"Don't forget to return my call, Declan. This really is important."

"I won't forget. I promise."

At least Marla knows I'm good on my promises. I've broken one promise in my life—that I can remember, anyway. Besides the marriage vows, I never should have said—but that's beside the point because one promise meant the most to me. One I wanted to happen more than anything. And that was my promise to love and give my girl, Seraphine, the world for the rest of our lives.

But of course, I blew it.

The pizza shack was busy—packed, more like it. I should've known this would be where the kids would want their parents to bring them after graduating from whatever grade they were in. And since there wasn't a place to sit—anywhere—not even on the patio, and because I promised Cruella De Vil I'd have our daughter home by nine, I looked at Everly, asking, "Do you still want pizza or would you like to go get something else?"

"Pizza."

Shit. I rubbed the back of my neck, looked around, and said, "Okay." After overhearing someone ask the hostess how long the wait was, it was an hour and a half, and an idea came to me. One I hope she'll be on board with."Since we won't see a table for almost two hours, your mom wants you home before bedtime. What would you say if I ordered and took our pizzas with us?" Her nose scrunched up, not liking the idea. "We'll go to the big park you love so much and eat our pizza there. That way, you can play for a bit too. Then, on our way home, I'll stop somewhere and get you an ice cream cone. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like you don't want to get in trouble with Mom."

Smart kid... but that's not why. There's just no room for us here, and I really don't feel like smelling food or seeing others eat for a couple of hours when we can order to go and take our pizzas and cheese bread somewhere else to eat.

"It would be wise of me not to let that happen," I said, grinning, loving she knew what'd happen if I brought her home later than I was supposed to. "But if we order to go, we'll get our pizza much faster."

"Okay. My favorite park it is."

It took forty minutes to get our pizzas, which gave Everly little time to play at the park. But that's all right. A little play time is better than nothing at all, and at least I got to spend time with her in a quieter place, just with more bugs annoying us as we ate.

"How's your pizza?"

"Good. But the cheese bread is better," Everly said, shoveling the entire piece into her mouth.

"You know. You shouldn't stuff your mouth with food like that. You could choke."

"It's so good, though," she managed to say through a mouth full of food. Finally, she swallowed, licked her lips, and grinned. "I have to enjoy the cheese bread now. Who knows when I'll have it again."

God, Felicity. Why do you have to be such a bitch? You won't let her have cheese bread? Really?

"Whenever you're at my place, and you want cheese bread, let me know, and I'll get you some. Sound good?"

She nodded, humming Uh huh as she shoveled another piece into her mouth.

I want to ask why she's finally being nice to me, but I don't want to ruin this wonderful moment by asking something I should be grateful for. And then for Everly to change her tune because I wondered why she wasn't giving me an attitude like usual.

I handed her a napkin and pointed to the corners of her mouth. "You've got pizza sauce and cheese on your face."

She wiped her mouth, drank her water, and then took a deep breath and sighed loudly.

My brows knitted together as I asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm full." She raised her hand, and I laughed when she pinched her fingers together instead of leaving them millimeters apart. "But I left this much room for ice cream."

"Did you want to play and burn some of those calories to free up more space in your belly for ice cream?"

She nodded, and I looked at the time when she took off running to the slide. I had just an hour left with her before the witch cast a spell on me, so while she played, I decided to make a phone call to see what Marla needed.

"Call Marla," I told my phone.

"You're early. Did your ex demand you bring her home?"

"Not this time. We're at the park. She's playing, so I figured I'd call to see what's up."

"I'll make this quick since you're still with Everly. But I need your help."

"Help? What's going on? Are you in trouble?"

"Let me rephrase that. I have a friend who needs your help."

I looked at Everly and thought about what Marla was trying to say. I dragged my hand down my face, knowing where this conversation was going.

"I know you've got Everly, and her mother is cray-cray, and she'll have a fit if you bring your work home with you with your kid around. But you need to help, my friend. She's in a bad position and has nowhere to go without being found and possibly killed."

"Details, please."

"She's a victim of domestic abuse. Verbally, mentally, and physically. In all the years I've known her, with the last six years being the worst, I have never seen her without bruises, black eyes, or broken bones—and different excuses for what happened. I finally got her to tell me everything two weeks ago. One is that her bastard husband locks her in a room, leaving her there for days. And most recently, he locked her in that room and left her there for nearly two weeks. Randomly entering the room to beat her."

The more she told me about her friend, the tighter my fists clenched, and the longer I held my eyes on Everly, visualizing what I'd do to someone if they harmed my daughter the same way. And it had me seeing red.

No man should ever raise a hand to a woman.

"After I drop Everly off at her mother's, I'll call you to further discuss the rest of your friend's situation."

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!!🤞🤞