Page 100 of Havoc's Fox
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Harley stood at her bedroom door with her ear pressed near the crack, trying to hear her daddy and her grandmother talking. She heard enough to understand that Analise and her daddy were kind of arguing, but not much more, other than Analise wanted to come tell her goodbye and her daddy wouldn’t let her.
She heard her daddy’s truck start and then listened to it drive away. Almost immediately she heard her grandmother’s footsteps on the stairs as she came upstairs.
Harley ran and jumped onto her bed, pulling her blanket over her and pretending she was still napping.
Harley heard her bedroom door ease open, then she felt Val tuck her in, kiss her forehead and quietly leave the bedroom.
Harley lay there pretending for about five minutes more, just in case Val came back.
Her eyes popped open when she heard Val using a mixer in the kitchen downstairs and she sat up throwing the blanket off of herself. She got out of bed and walked over to the French doors that led from her bedroom and onto the back porch. She looked out over the woods that bordered her backyard and imagined the paths she’d learned that would take her from her new house through the woods and over to where Poppy and Val’s house was. Only it wasn’t Poppy and Val she wanted to see; it was Analise.
Harley sighed as she stood there considering how much trouble she’d get in when her daddy found out she snuck out of the house to go find Analise. She didn’t want to make her daddy mad. But she really wanted to tell Analise goodbye. And if she waited too long, she’d never get to, because Analise was leaving to go back home.
Harley listened to Val downstairs in the kitchen and decided she sounded really busy down there, and maybe nobody would even know she was gone. She could make it there, see Analise, and run back home before anybody even knew she was missing.
She opened her door and walked out onto the second-floor porch. She eyed the woods ahead of her, knowing that if she followed the road up to the highway and then across to other side, chances were that somebody would see her before she got there and take her back home. So, she’d have to go right into the woods once she got on the ground. Harley turned to her right and hurried down the side stairs so that Val wouldn’t see her leaving. The minute she reached the ground, she ran straight for the woods, wearing a huge grin every step of the way.
~~~
“You’re going to get your ass arrested.”
“They’re going to get arrested! I told you that stupid bitch threw hot coffee on me and hit me!”
“Then why did you get arrested and not her?”
“Do you ever listen to anything I say to you, Beryl?”
“All I know is you were arrested for public drunkenness, and not one of them was. They weren’t even there.”
“They were there!” Marie-Claire shrieked.
“Nobody saw them but you. You’re just angry because you want more money.”
“I want my kid! She’s my goddamn kid! Nobody has the right to tell me I can’t have her,” Marie-Claire said.
“You said you gave her to them. You told me that yourself!”
“That’s beside the point.”
“Marie-Claire, I’m telling you. This is going to come back to bite you in the ass if you don’t stop. You’re stalking these people.”
“I’m not!”
“Have you or have you not been driving by their place every day this week?” Beryl asked.
“I just want to see my kid! And both times I’ve managed to get a glimpse of her, she’s with the fucking bitch that ruined my life! I just want to fucking hit her!”
“If I remember right, it was the other way around. She never did anything to you. You targeted her.”
“What kind of fucking friend are you?” Marie-Claire asked. “I could have been happy if it wasn’t for her.”
“You know what? You had him. And you had his baby. If you’d have had a brain in your head, you still would. And for your information, I’m the kind of friend that’s trying to give you a chance here. And despite the fact that I’m the only one that will have anything to do with you, you still keep trying to start trouble with Havoc and his family.”
“I am not starting trouble with Havoc. I’m making sure that stupid little perfect bitch doesn’t get around my kid.”
“She’s not yours. You walked away. You signed away your rights.”