camera, holding her ten-meter swimming certificate and pin in her hands. Another picture showed her astride her first bike at age four, wheels glistening. Ethan turned over the copied certificates, report cards and health updates, and the words jumped and blurred in his vision.
What the hell was Anna playing at? He’d sent her all this stuff because it was the right thing to do. Now that he’d refused her money, was she telling him she didn’t want anything else about Daisy sent to her? That she was washing her hands of her child in every possible way?
He pushed himself to his feet, the chair teetering behind him. He gathered up the papers and photographs and slipped them back into the envelope before snatching up his phone. Walking into the hallway, he struggled to keep his voice calm as he called up the stairs. “Daisy?”
“Yes, Daddy... Mr. James.”
He closed his eyes, his anger immediately fading to a low hum. “I’m just in the living room making a phone call. Your breakfast won’t be long, okay?”
“Okay.”
Gripping the phone, he walked into the living room and quietly closed the door. He moved to the window and stared into his driveway, trying to think of what to say to Anna. How the hell did he talk to her about this?
Tossing the envelope onto the armchair, he quickly dialed Anna’s number before he could change his mind. The words would come, because one way or another, Anna would bloody well explain this new level of callousness.
She picked up. “Ethan?”
“The one and only.”
“I can’t talk right now.”
He closed his eyes and huffed a laugh. “You can’t talk right now... God, why didn’t I think to say that to you when you turned up on my doorstep the other night?”
“I mean it. I’m...” There was a rustling, and the faint sound of a door closing echoed in his ear. “I’m at the club. Harry is in the other room. If he knows I’m talking—”
“I couldn’t care less what he knows. What did you think you would achieve by sending all Daisy’s pictures and certificates back to me? You think that will go some way to persuading me I was wrong in refusing to give you money?”
“What are you talking about?”
Ethan opened his eyes. “The pictures, Anna. The pictures of our daughter that arrived in an envelope at my house this morning.”
“I didn’t send you any pictures.”
“No? Then who else would? I can’t imagine for one minute you share the stuff I send you with anyone else.”
“I don’t know. Ethan, you have to believe that I’d never get rid of them. I might not be the best mother in the world, but I do care about Daisy.”
“Really? Well, you’ll have to forgive me if I find that very hard to believe.”
“That’s not fair. I tried to be a mother to her. You know I did.”
“You tried? For crying out loud, Anna. Trying is what real mothers do every day. They try their damn best and then get up the next day and do it all again. What real mothers don’t do is walk away.”
“This again? You’re going to do this again? Now?”
His pulse beat at his temple, and his knuckles ached from clutching the phone. “The pictures, Anna. Why did you send them back to me?”
“I didn’t. If you don’t believe it, that’s too bad.” She paused, her voice quieting. “What if they were meant as some kind of message? What if Harry knows I came to you for help and he’s threatening you with the potential to hurt Daisy?”
Ethan paced the room, uneasy. “We’re not starring in some TV show, Anna. This is real life. Real life that involves Daisy. Now you either go to the police with the crap you’ve found yourself mixed up in or I will. I won’t let this affect Daisy. Do you understand?”
“Ethan—”
“No, I mean it.”
“Harry is not the sort of man to ignore. Now there’s a possibility he’s made contact with you, we’re in this together.”
Ethan clenched his jaw. “The hell we are.”
“What if he comes after Daisy, huh? What then?”
“Fine. You want to try the emotional blackmail route, I’ll go to the police. Today.”
“No. Don’t. Ethan, please. I’m sorry, okay? Just leave everything to me. I’ll sort this out. Promise. Harry doesn’t work alone. Those pictures could’ve been sent by any of the guys who work for him, or even someone he deals with.”
“So we could be looking at any number of people? We have to involve the police, Anna. This is ridiculous.” There was a rumbling of voices in the background. “Anna?”
“I can’t talk now,” she hurriedly whispered. “I’ll call you later.”
The line went dead.
“Damn it.” Ethan clicked off his phone, his body rigid. What the hell was wrong with the woman? She’d always enjoyed sneering at him, saying how he was a dreamer, that his writing mattered to him more than anything else. She couldn’t have been more wrong, but her selfishness and disregard for Daisy had chipped away at his previous love for his ex-wife until there was nothing left but cold, hard resentment.
Once upon a time, he’d adored her. Thought her the moon, the stars and then some. Slowly, all that was good and lovely about Anna had changed. Just weeks after Daisy was born, Anna’s thin patience was revealed. The smile that had once come so easily morphed into a permanent grimace; her once softly whispered words of love for him became angry shouts of hate.
And now Anna had stepped way over the line.
He moved to the window and pressed his hand to the wall beside it as he stared blindly across his driveway. What if Anna was right and the pictures and certificates were a message from Harry? That someone was threatening Daisy’s safety because of his ex-wife’s actions?
Whirling away from the window, he called up a search engine on his phone to look for the number of Templeton’s police station.
Enough was enough.
He found the number and his finger hovered over the call button. Anna was adamant she did not want the police involved, but Daisy was his priority.
Fear of his own weaknesses, of doing wrong by his daughter and all the other people he cared for, burned hot inside him. Would the police take Daisy away from him? Put her in protective custody? No matter how irrational those possibilities might be, his blood turned cold.
He slid the phone into his pocket and closed his eyes. Damn Anna for putting him in this position.
Their divorce had been inevitable. He just wished she’d told him she no longer loved him, so he could share the fallout calmly and with as much gentleness as possible with Daisy. Instead, Anna had walked
