Flicker

5

Valerie PoV

The next few days pass over smoothly. I've been keeping an eye on Audrea, watching how she deals with Daniel.

I smile as Daniel runs in the fire house from preschool and immediately hugs me.

"Hey baby." I laugh and both Audrea and Drake are mad.

"Tell Mommy what you did, see if she still thinks you're a baby." Audrea scoffs and I glare at Daniel.

"What did you do?" I ask and he looks down.

"Daddy already spanked me." He mumbles. I pull his chin up to look at me, bending down to his level.

"What did you do?" I ask again as tears slip out his eyes.

"I hitted hims." He whispers and I look up at Drake.

"I popped him in the car because he wouldn't listen to Audrea. I had to go because the school required me or you to go because technically Audrea has no rights to him."  He explains and I glare at Daniel.

"Why did you hit him?" I ask and Daniel bites his lip.

"Daniel Benjamin, why did you hit him?" I ask and he starts to cry.

" 'Cause hims said my Mommy was ugly." He cries looking up at me.

"Aww baby." I sigh and I pull him close to my, "You don't have to defend me."

"But you's not ugly." He cries, burying his head in my shoulder.

I look at Drake and he has a soft expression.

"C'mon, you're still in trouble little dude." Drake announces, picking him up.

"I don't agree with this one." I announce and Drake looks at me funny.

He sets Daniel down and looks around, "Hey Levi, can you pull a chair into a corner and sit him in it facing the wall?"

Jameson simply nods and grabs his hand, leading my now crying son to a corner.

"You have no say." Audrea pipes in and my jaw drops.

"Excuse me?" I question, "He's my son!"

"Calm down." Drake growled glaring at the both of us.

"I say he should still get spanked because he threw the first punch." Drake announces before turning to me.

"He should get spanked because Violence is never the answer! I'll do it myself!"

"I'll show you real quick how good of an answer it can be if you touch my child." I warn and she rolls her eyes.

"At least I stuck around." She announces and suddenly I can feel everyone's stares.

"I had an accident." I say darkly, "One you know nothing of."

"I know something bad happened and you ran off like a damn baby forgetting you HAD ONE AT HOME!" She shrieks, raising her voice at the end, "I have more say than you did and he deserves to be punished!"

"My daughter died in my fucking arms!" I scream back and everything goes silent, "DID YOURS!?"

Drake rest a hand of my shoulder and I brush him off.

"You're lying."

"No she's not." Ben announces walking behind us.

"You're not spanking him, that's final. He's grounded from his race cars and Superman toys but that's it."

I announce and brush past the both of them.

"Run off again like you always do!" Audrea screams back and I turn to her.

Jackson comes barreling out and I ignore the grip on my shoulder.

"I left because I was so fucking depressed I had a thought of driving off a damn cliff with my son in the car. I left FOR HIS SAFETY!" I scream and my knuckles are white from how hard I'm squeezing my fist.

"Did you rush into a hospital getting a call from your child's daycare that your daughter was in critical condition because she had been overdosed on NyQuil!? Did you find her on her last ducking breath and hold her while she died? Because she was too fussy and the daycare worker had a headache?" I ask, not realizing in the moment that I was exposing Natalia's story to everyone, all my demons were being brought to the surface.

"Because you were too selfish to stay home with your kids? Like I do? It's your fault she died" Audrea snorts and my face drops.

Before I connect the dots I see Natalia, Drake's mom, swing on her.

Audrea cups her jaw and the room goes silent.

"You hit her and that's where we got an issue." I warn and Audrea stays silent.

"What did you just say about my granddaughter'a death?" Natalia asks darkly and Jackson rushes over.

"Calm down." He warns all of us.

"Go pack." Drake orders darkly and Audrea's face shifts to one of shock.

"What?" She asks quietly and Drake balls his fist up.

"You made a crack using my dead daughter. I want your shit out my house by the time I get
home." Drake says quietly before turning on his heels.

Natalia turns to me and points to the back offices.

I slump my shoulders but walk with her hot on my heels.

"You didn't come see me." She says quietly and I hug her.

"I'm sorry." I sigh and she rubs my back.

"I don't like her. Never have." She chuckles and I bite my lip.

"Daniel told me she's mean to him." I say and Natalia nods.

"We tried telling him but Drake insisted jt was because Daniel had gotten introuble the day before." She explained sadly and I bit my lip.

"I fought so hard to get out of this mindset" I whisper as flashbacks from the accident play back in my head.

Screaming and crying, the worst part was that the daycare worked was walking around freely.

The murderer who killed an innocent baby girl.

Natalie Michelle Harper, God only knows how much I miss you baby girl.

"Are you okay?" Natalia asks and I shake my head as she hugs me.

"God's got that baby girl wrapped safely in Heaven." She whispers as she runs her fingers through my hair.

The two of us walk out and find Jackson consoling Drake while Jameson plays with Daniel.

I grab my son and glare at him.

"I find out your running around that class hitting people and I'm gonna spank you." I warn and he nods, "I mean it Daniel Benjamin."

"Will it be hard?" He asks with a smile and I narrow my glare.

"Want me to show you?"

He quickly shakes his head and I nod before sending him off with Natalia and getting back to work.