“Wrong,” I bark out. “You signed the papers giving her up, which means you have no rights to her.”
A single tear slides down her cheek. “I made a mistake.”
“You’ve made a lot of mistakes,” I agree. “But as far as Hazel goes, the best decision you ever made was giving her up.” My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out. It’s Georgia asking if I can please get her pain medication. Because she’s suffering from a miscarriage and is in pain, while piece of shit women like my ex-wife can get pregnant and carry a baby without a care in the world. Sometimes the world really is fucked up.
“I have to go.” I put my hand on her shoulder to quickly guide her out. “Don’t come back here. You made your decisions and now you have to live with them.”
I don’t bother to say bye to any of the guys, just focusing on getting Victoria into her car. “Chase, I’m begging you,” she pleads as I open her car door.
“Get in the car, Victoria,” I bark out. Thankfully, she listens. “Focus on staying clean, go to meetings, spend time with your parents, get a job, a hobby. But do not come around here again.”
I slam the door closed and stalk away, refusing to even give her a second glance. She isn’t worth my time or energy and my wife needs me.
Georgia
“Park! Park!” Hazel yells as the park comes into view. It’s been a little over a week since I miscarried and the only things keeping me together are Chase and Hazel. I saw the doctor and she assured me there’s nothing wrong with me. She even said Chase and I are more than welcome to start trying again after my next cycle, but I think we’re going to wait a little bit, so we can both move past the pain.
“Yes, that’s the park,” I tell her, pushing her stroller down the sidewalk. Chase is at work today, so we’re meeting Lexi and Abigail to play and have a picnic.
We pull up and I unbuckle Hazel. The second I put her down, she takes off running toward the jungle gym. I glance around, looking for Lexi, but she isn’t here yet, which doesn’t surprise me. With her gallery opening a few months ago, she’s been crazy busy working out all the kinks.
I follow Hazel around, keeping my distance, since she’s going through this stage where she wants to be independent, but close enough that if something happens I’m right here.
There are a few other people at the park today, and Hazel makes a friend with a little girl who’s playing in the sand with her sand toys. She runs to the stroller to grab her own sand toys and plops down next to the girl to play.
I smile over at the mom, wondering if maybe I should befriend her, but before I can go over and introduce myself, a woman steps in front of me.
She has jet-black hair and bright blue eyes. Her makeup is on the heavy side and she’s dressed like she’s going out to a club instead of to a park.
At first, I think she’s just walking by, so I move to the right so I can see Hazel again, but she steps with me. “Can I help you?” I ask, moving slightly again so my daughter stays in my line of sight.
“I’m hoping so,” she says. “My name is Victoria and that little girl is my daughter.” She glances back at Hazel, and my hackles rise. Maybe it’s the fact that I just lost a baby, or that she has the nerve to call her her daughter, but her attitude doesn’t sit right with me.
“Actually, she’s my daughter,” I point out. “Just like Chase is my husband.” Chase had told me she came by the fire station, begging him to take her back, for them to be a family again.
She clears her throat. “I’m sorry,” she says softly. “That came out wrong. Can we please start again?”
“Or we don’t have to start at all. Did you follow me here?” I look around to make sure there are still other people around.
“I did, but only because Chase won’t talk to me. He blocked me and—”
“Can you blame him?” I ask, cutting her off. “You hid your pregnancy from him, tried to raise her as someone else’s daughter, and only when he found out and you were going to lose him, did you tell Chase, by dropping her off at the fire station, where I found her bawling her eyes out all alone.”
Victoria’s face falls. “I was on drugs. I can’t change what I did, but that’s not who I am. I’ve been clean for almost six months now.”
“And now that you’re clean and your man won’t take you back, you want Chase and Hazel?” I might hate confrontation and avoid it at all costs, but until now I never had any reason to fight. Chase and Hazel, they’re my reasons to fight.