Save Me (DTRTI Sequel)

Chapter Sixteen

With Junior fast asleep in my arms, I glanced over at Lily playing with her doll. She was cradling it and feeding it a bottle.

"Here you go, Chandwer." She spoke.

"C-chandler?" I repeated the name with furrowed brows as I laid Junior down on a blanket and gave him his pacifier. "Sweetie, where'd you hear that name?"

Lily looked over at me and shrugged. "Mama says it a wot. She telled dat mean wady that Chandwer needs hewp."

My eyebrows furrowed deeper. "Mean lady? You mean Diane?" I ask. Why are they talking about 'Chandler'?

"Yeah, she mean dada. She no wet me hab pannytakes." Lily stated matter-of-factly. "And I heared her tawkin to mama reawy wow, wike dis.." She benched her shoulders and mimicked a whisper with a frown on her face. "She telled mama 'if you don't do it, I'w tew'em." She pointed a mean finger and frowned wider.

"Oh. Tell who what, sweetie?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I no know dada." She admitted, with a shake of her head. Then as she tapped her chin, she glanced off to the side. "Maybe the bad man."

My eyebrows rose immediately. "B-bad man?" I sat in front of her on the floor as she finished feeding her baby and brought the doll up to burp it over her shoulder. With soft pats on the dolls back, she nodded.

"Yeah, dada. Da man dat tews da mean wady aw about you." She stated.

"What?" I was beyond confused. What in the world was the 3-year-old child seated in front of me, carefully caring for her baby doll talking about?

"Describe the bad man." I told Lily.

She looked at me confused. "What does dat mean dada?" She asks. "Descwibe?"

"Oh. It means uh..." I glance over to my side to check on Junior. "What does he look like? What kind of hair, skin, eyes, clothes?" I gave suggestions on how she can describe him to me.

She tapped her chin thoughtfully and began to rock her baby doll as if trying to put it to sleep. "Umm...he's big...wike you dada." She tells me.

"Big? Like tall?" I replied.

"Mhm. And he wooks tind of  bwown." She adds. She keeps tapping her chin as she continues. "He um...he has bwack cwothes aww da time. I don't tink his mama buy him new cwothes at aww." She added the last sentence matter-of-factly. "He neber tawks to mama...onwy da mean wady."

"Does...Does your mama know he comes over?" I asked her with a raised brow.

She shook her head. "No. Mama is aways gone when da bad man comes."

"Gone? What do you mean gone? Where's mama?" I continued to question as she sets her baby doll down.

Lily shrugged. "I no know dada. Da mean wady dinked I was sweeping." Then as an afterthought, she adds. "I no wike her dada. I wanna stay wif you. I no wanna go back to da mean wady. She scawy."

I sighed and opened my arms to take her into a hug. "It's okay baby. Dada won't let anybody hurt his babies."

The fact that my baby girl was scared, worried me. Who was this 'bad man' that she spoke of that visited her grandmother when her mom was away?

With my eyebrows once again furrowed, I thought long and hard about who this man could be.

The five day stay with my children would come and go so quickly, it felt like all we'd done was blink. And there she was, radiant as ever, even in her anger as she stood at my door..our door.