𝐃𝐚𝐰𝐬𝐨𝐧|𝟑| [𝟏𝟖+] ✔

Chapter 4

ZARA

Teddy has his eyes.

Teddy also took his first steps without falling on his backside.

I recorded it all, Jane and I cheering as he clapped his small hands, smiling with his one tooth poking out and his sea-blue eyes dancing.

Paul came to visit too and I noticed him staring at Jane for a beat too long, the corner of his mouth turning up. He's infatuated by her.

I don't blame him. Not only is she beautiful, but she also has a beautiful soul that deserves happiness.

She shouldn't be stuck with a nutcase like myself, the single mother who fails at everything.

Someone who hallucinates her dead boyfriend everywhere.

So, what did this girl do?

I threw myself over the counter at the cafe, pulled down a chair as the floor hit my knees, ignoring Kerr yelling my name and bolting through the door, hearing the bell above the door rattling.

No one was even near the damn cafe.

I walked back deflated, expecting to come face to face with the ghost of my past.

I didn't bother going back in. I ran for Jane and cried on her shoulder.

"Strange to think about how different everything is from a year ago." Jane ponders, staring at Teddy playing with the boxes and not the toys.

I would go back in a heartbeat.

We didn't have a party for him, no one likes us, remember? We had our own small gathering in Grace's office.

Julie: some man is in the cafe asking for you.

Me: who?

I roll my eyes when I see her reply, she's so blunt.

Julie: how the hell would I fucking know.

My heart leaps again, telling Jane I'd be back soon and running across the road, holding my skirt down so I don't flash to the oncoming traffic.

"Where is he?" I ask when I enter the cafe, bell singing above me.

"He left." She doesn't look me, balancing the plates on her arms and hands. "He took a right, you can catch him."

I didn't get halfway down the pathway before a hand clamps over my mouth, arm tight around my waist and dragging me into an alleyway, telling me to be quiet.

I turned on my heels, ready to throw my fists. "Dad? Why are you dragging me into an alleyway?" I shake my head.

He looks rough, beard is wild, eyes sunken in and red, clothes dirty like he was still inside the dystopian prison. "Someone is after you." He bluntly states rubbing a hand down his beard. "You need to get Theodore and leave."

"Who?" I replied, hands on the hips.

"Mac messed up a lot of people's lives. They seem to think to go for you and Theodore they'd get a reaction from him." He looks over his shoulder, behind me then meets my eyes again. "It isn't safe here and Grace..."

"Grace what? She seems to care about me more than my own fucking father. Why did you leave?"

"I didn't leave, Zara. I had to make sure you were all safe by finding the people after you." Looking over his shoulder again, "Grace made it very clear that you would both be targets and she had no desire to shield Theodore, just you."

I folded my arms, lifting my chin, "I don't believe you. Grace has helped us a lot."

"She is a master of deception, Zara. She is powerful enough to build a prison the size of fucking Maryland."