Sophie (The Boss 8)

Well, her grandma, at least, I grumbled in my head. Laurence wasn’t her grandfather. I wouldn’t call him that. And yes, it was petulant of me, like a kid saying they wouldn’t call their stepdad “dad” or something, but I was angry that a simple weekend visit was causing so much stress. We’d never had these issues with Valerie before—

Well, before Emma had...

Back then, there had been a whole different set of issues. But losing Emma had put most of our animosity behind us. Especially when it came to Olivia. Everything had changed, though, once Laurence had figured out that the dynamic between Neil, El-Mudad, and me was more than just friendly.

In the study, I punched the code into the wall safe and found to my relief that Olivia’s passport was still inside, with her birth certificate; it was the only copy outside of the clerk’s office, so we didn’t need to worry about that.

I went back to the nursery and gave Neil a nod. He clapped his hands together and said, “All right, my sweet girl. I think you’re all packed.”

“I brought my pull-ups,” Olivia said proudly. “I remembered them.”

“Good job!” I held out my hand for her to give a high five and to give my bruised wrists a vacation from her fist bumps. “But also, let’s remember to go potty before bed.”

“I do! Every time, I do!” she insisted, while behind her, Mariposa shook her head slowly with a knowing smile.

We took Olivia and her two suitcases—one for way too many clothes, the other for way too many toys—back to the living room, where Laurence and Valerie were involved in a heated but quiet conversation. They stopped when they saw us.

“So,” Neil said, clapping his hands together and faking a friendly smile. “She’s ready to go. Just staying in town this weekend?”

“Well, aside from our dinner tonight,” Valerie said, tilting her head slightly. “Does it matter?”

“Not at all. Just curious.” Neil stooped down to hug Olivia and kiss her cheek. “Have a wonderful time with your grandmother and Laurence.”

Olivia reached her arms out for me, next. “Bye-bye, Sophie.”

I hugged her tight, still irrationally terrified to see her go with them. “When you get back, we’ll do a princess movie night with Rashida, okay?”

“And Amal?” Olivia asked, her eyes sparkling with admiration at merely uttering the girl’s name.

Poor Rashida just wanted to be Olivia’s favorite, but aloof, glamorous older teen Amal had captured Olivia’s rapt interest. Sadly, Amal was unlikely to be down for princess movie night with a preschooler. “We’ll see. She might be busy.”

“And of course, we’ll see you for dinner on Sunday. Do let me know if there’s anything you aren’t eating these days,” Neil told Valerie and Laurence as we all walked to the door. With every step, my heart pounded wildly. Were we just going to let them take her?

Calm down. If Neil isn’t actively setting things on fire, maybe everything is fine. We watched them load her bag and install her booster, and we waved almost nonstop while they buckled her in and pulled out of the driveway. Neil’s fond smile never faltered until the door closed behind him.

“I’m getting John Orton on the phone immediately,” Neil seethed, stalking away to the study.

“Why?” Could our lawyer stop Valerie and Laurence from taking Olivia? What would he do, chase them down with paperwork?

“I want to know what our legal recourse is. If they can challenge our guardianship or if there are any precautions we need to be taking. I know there is a high probability that they simply made an off-handed remark, but…” He grimaced. “You must be thinking I’m overreacting.”

“Not at all.” I didn’t like admitting it. “They’ve been acting weird. And yes, maybe they just were saying, oh, it’s nice to have her around, wouldn’t it be nice if we could do this all the time. You know. The way Holli always says she’s going to eat someone’s baby, and I have to remind her that it’s extremely weird for strangers to hear that because they don’t know she’s not going to kidnap and cannibalize their babies?”

“Slightly different,” he said after a thoughtful pause. “But we’re on the same page, then?”

“If that page is that Laurence and Valerie might be up to something sketch that we need to be concerned about, then yes. Same page.” My phone chirped. I pulled it from my pocket. “Text from El-Mudad. Julia wants to know if we’re eating in the indoor or outdoor dining room?”

“The girls wanted to eat outdoors,” Neil said absently. “But tell him we need to see him privately for a moment.”

I texted him back. “I told him to meet us on the terrace, sans kiddos.”

By the time we reached the sitting area outside the formal living room, the sounds of the girls’ bickering already floated up from the sunken outdoor dining area. So, we had a precious few moments before one or both of them stormed up to find their father.