Ivy nods, giving the remnants of her ice cream a disgusted look. If the story I just told doesn’t warn her off too much ice cream for a good long while, then nothing will.
If only classroom bullies were as easy to ward off. The anger I felt in the principal’s officer wanes as the unfortunate truth dawns on me. That bully won’t be the only one. There will be others, no matter what age she is or where she goes. Selfish people who will try to take advantage of her, who will push her aside to get ahead.
I won’t be able to protect Ivy from all of them and that realization sits like a rock in my stomach. I want to wrap her up and keep her in the safety of her room, making sure no harm ever comes to her. But that’s not how the world works.
Did Jeremy feel this? This gut-deep terror that so many things are outside his control? That Ivy will get hurt and there’s nothing he can do about it?
How did he do it? How does any parent do it? Because this might be the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
EVEREST
The house is empty when I get home. There’s no sign of Ivy or Owen. No sign of them having been here since this morning.
Owen said they’d be home in twenty. Well, it’s been twenty. So where the hell are they?
This is bullshit. We’re supposed to be working together and I’ve been trying to do my part. I pick Ivy up from school almost every day. I calm her down whenOwenriles her up into a temper tantrum. I spend every waking moment when I’m not at work taking care of her. He keeps accusing me of being irresponsible, but I’ve been fucking responsible! What more does he fucking want from me?
I check my phone again. Twenty-five minutes now and still no update from Owen. I jab the call button. It goes to fucking voicemail.
“Hey, asshole, where are you? Call me back.”
I drop my phone on the table next to the door and stare at it with my hands on my hips.
Ring, damn it. Ring.It doesn’t. I need to steal Owen’s phone and link it to mine so I can track his location.
Twenty-eight minutes.
Should I go to Ivy’s school to look for them? If they’ve already left, then maybe I’ll find them along the way. But what if they went somewhere else? No, I shake my head at myself. Owen would bring her straight home. He’ll probably dump her with me so he can go back to work.
Twenty-nine.
One more minute. I’m giving themone more minuteand then I’m going to search for them. I count down backward from sixty, eyes glued to my phone, waiting for the number to flip. The second it does, I snatch it from the table and wrench the door open. I step into the vestibule that separates the inner and outer doors and almost collapse with relief.
Owen and Ivy are back.
Holding open the door for them, I bite back the dozens of questions I want to throw at Owen. Where the hell have they been? What the hell happened at school? And most importantly, is Ivy okay?
She looks okay as she scrambles up the steps of the stoop and into the house. “Uncle Ev! We got ice cream!”
“That’s… amazing.” I crouch down so she can give me a sticky-fingered hug. Over her head, I shoot Owen a glare, but he’s busy locking the door behind us and taking off his coat. “What flavor did you get?”
“Bubblegum! And Uncle O said we can have chicken nuggets for dinner!”
“He did?” I say, genuinely surprised. Ice creamandchicken nuggets? Two items on Owen’sI Hate Funlist. What the hell?
“I need to check in with the hospital. Can you help her get washed up?” Owen might’ve phrased the last part as a question, but since he threw it over his shoulder while walking away, it was definitely more of an order.
I scowl at Owen’s back as I help Ivy out of her backpack and coat. “Come on, Ivy-bear, let’s get cleaned up, ‘kay?”
“Okay!”
Upstairs, I sit her on top of the toilet seat and wet a hand towel. “So, Ives, you wanna tell me what happened at school today?”
She immediately loses the bubbly happy vibe she came home with. “No.”
