me that fast? What was it a month after we broke up before she was in your bed? We were in love, you know.”
The phone call Orlando overheard when Dani had been talking to Ted, just a little over a week before he had her under him, assaulted him as he reached his truck. But he was done listening to this asshole’s drivel. “Yeah, well she’s in love with me now.”
“Is she?” Ted was quick to retort. “With you or the baby?”
Orlando spun around, charging Ted. “What the fuck did you just say? You don’t bring my son into this shit, asshole. I will—”
“She’s the one who left him at your door.” Ted held his hands up in front of him. Slowing down before reaching Ted, Orlando peered at him as his heart walloped. “It’s true,” Ted said even as Orlando shook his head. “The kid’s mother was her friend from her jailbird days, and she died of an overdose. The junkie had no family, and Danica was the one who’d been helping her friend since day one. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—give him up until I convinced her she could be in a lot of trouble if she didn’t. So, she did, and it tore her apart. She was miserable for months. She’d made me think she’d driven the baby to his father, explained it all, and everything had been worked out. It wasn’t until today, when I met and spoke with Felicia down at the courthouse and she told me about the kid being mysteriously left at your doorstep, that I put it all together. I guess once she managed to manipulate her way back into his life, she dropped me and was willing to do whatever it took to keep him in her life.”
Shaking his head, Orlando refused to believe it. “She would’ve told me.”
“Well, she didn’t because she’s a liar and a manipulator. It’s what she does.”
Orlando grabbed him by the neck and squeezed. “One more time,” he said through his teeth. “Talk shit about her one more time, and I’ll fucking end you.”
Ted brought both his hands up, pulling at Orlando’s hand and broke away coughing. “Believe what you want.” He coughed some more bending over next to his car. “But I’m telling you. She’d been telling me she loved me for months, and then that kid was born and took over her life. What Danica wants Danica gets. Saps like you and me are at her mercy, and she wanted that baby more than anything in the world. She sobbed entire nights after giving him up. I know you don’t wanna hear or believe it, but he’s who she’s really there for, not you. Why do you think she never told you it was her who left him at your door?”
Orlando stalked away, not wanting to hear another word. The memories of how everything had gone down with Dani assaulted him once again as he got in his truck. Her walking into the shop all done up the day Nine offered her a job on the spot and even Orlando’s dumb ass had been so easily swayed by her child-therapist-student crap. How instantly Baby O had taken to her, and all the baby whisperer, bullshit. More than anything though was that phone call he’d overheard.
We were in love you know.
Yeah, it still burned him to remember the fucking phone call. He’d hardly gotten any sleep that night. Things had happened between him and Dani felt a little fast, but it’d also felt genuinely organic. She’d been so honest about everything else. Why would she keep something so huge from him? Still, this asshole wouldn’t know anything about it if what he was saying wasn’t true.
He got in his truck, zooming past Ted, who was still bent over by his car, coughing. Hitting speed dial, he called Felicia. “What did you tell Ted?” he asked as soon as she answered.
She was quiet for a moment before responding. “Danica’s ex?”
“Yeah,” he said, squeezing the steering wheel.
“I saw the commotion at the courthouse the other day, so when he got in the elevator with me today, all I asked was if everything was okay. I mentioned knowing you and Danica, and then he started asking a million questions, even offered to buy me breakfast. I was in between deliveries, so I took him up on the offer, and we went to IHOP. I tried not to be too detailed, but the man knows how to interrogate. He was very interested