Chapter 8

Megan

I stand waiting for Ella to come out of class. She’s finishing earlier than usual. The school had called me to ask for a meeting regarding her schooling. They want her to go into Grade 3 next year instead of Grade 2. I’m not sure how I feel about it. She’s only four. She’ll be with kids double her age. It’s not ideal. They told me I could look into a gifted school for her or homeschooling. She’s becoming bored in her lessons, resulting in her acting out and being rude to her teachers.

Her teacher brings her out of class. Her blue eyes light up when she sees me. I kneel to her height and give her a tight hug.

“Why are you here, mommy?” she asks.

“I needed to speak to your teachers,” I say to her and look at the teacher whose class she’s just been in. She’s lovely looking as if her job suits her. With her mousy blonde hair and soft brown eyes, I bet she’s very nurturing.

“Do I have to leave? I like Art,” Ella asks. I feel that’s more to do with her teacher than the actual subject.

“I need to talk to you about some things, that’s all,” I say and then turn to her teacher. I thank her and walk Ella out of the school.

“Am I in trouble, mommy?” she asks as we walk down the school street.

“No, not completely. I had a meeting with your homeroom teacher and your principal. They said you’ve been rude to some teachers,” I tell her.

“No, mommy, they’re stupid,” she says, and I frown at her. “I know I shouldn’t call people stupid, but they marked my test paper down because I didn’t show the working out that they wanted me to show. I still got the answer right,” she huffs. I smile a little and stroke her hand with mine. “And sometimes the class is boring, they won’t let me read the books I want to read, and they say I’m a know-it-all,” I notice her get a little upset over that.

“Is class not challenging enough?” I ask her.

“No,” she says with a shake of her head.

“Don’t cry, it’s ok, you’re smart, and you’re not in trouble for being smart,” I say to her. I notice the cafe we usually go to whenever she gets a perfect score on a test, which is a lot of the time. “Shall we get some ice cream?” I ask her. She nods at me as she sniffles.

Maybe we shouldn’t bring up school again for a little while. I think I know what she would want to do. Perhaps I should look into specialist schools because, at some point, the school she’s in won’t be able to teach her much more. I’d have to look at my finances to see if I can make it possible. I’d like nothing more than to nurture her and provide her with the education and support she needs. I’m just not sure if I can, and that hurts.

“Can we take Max for a walk around the park?” she asks as I open the door for her. She pulls me in with her as she runs up to the display case of ice-cream.

This cafe is run by an Italian family who has owned this cafe for decades. Ella loves coming here. I think it’s because the older man that owns it adores her. He seems to be a natural with kids. He always gives her little extras on anything she orders. His wife Nera is the same. I believe that’s why they are still going in this area. They get to know their customers.

“We’ll see,” I tell her.

“Ella,” the old woman calls once she sees us. Ella looks up at her, and smiles widely. “I got something for you,” she says.

“Is it chocolate fudge cake?” she asks. I sigh and shake my head. This girl is going to have such bad teeth.

“It is. I made a new one today just for you,” Nera tells her. “Giovanni was upset because you were upset over not having any last time, so he asked me to make some for you,” she explains and walks into the back. A couple of seconds later, Giovanni walks out.

“Stellina,” he calls loudly and walks around the counter to her and bends down to her level. He holds his arms wide and looks at me as if asking me if it’s ok. He always hugs her, and he always seems to ask permission silently. I nod and watch as he hugs her. “Did you have a good day at school?” he asks. She nods before telling him why she’s out early.

“How are you, Megan?” Nera asks me as she walks out from the kitchen with a small cake for one. I watch her start to box it up.

“I’m good. The semester ended, so I’ve got much more free time at the moment,” I explain as I take my wallet out of my bag. “How much do I owe you for the cake?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s on the house,” she says with a wave of her hand. I smile a little and look at Ella to see her picking out the ice-cream she wants with Giovanni. He seems to be talking her into going for a lemon sorbet instead. She agrees with his reasoning that she already has chocolate cake, and with it being hot outside, the lemon sorbet will be more refreshing.

“Every child should be like Ella,” Nera says.

“You wouldn’t be saying that when she’s in a mood, she acts like a teenager a lot of the time,” I state. She grins.

“But she’s so cute. My children all have boys. I just want a granddaughter,” she huffs, making me grin.

“Sometimes, I think a boy might be easier,” I say and watch as the young girl behind the counter fulfils Ella’s order.

“Is that a new dress, Bambina?” Nera asks Ella.

“No, mommy got me it at Christmas, but it didn’t fit me until now,” she says and gives a little twirl.

My daughter loves attention when it’s from people she knows. I try not to spoil her as she has Courtney and Yasmin for that, but sometimes it’s complicated. Sometimes I think subconsciously I do because Logan isn’t in her life. I have to be both, and it’s challenging to get the right balance.

I bought her a denim effect shirt dress with pink flowers printed on it and a skinny belt. I know it’s corny, but I tend to buy her things that are similar to what I have so that we can match. Courtney thinks it’s adorable to have a mini-me. She does it too and dresses her in the exact same clothes as her whenever she’s taking her out for the day. I’m wearing a denim shirt dress with the same coloured belt. We’re both wearing matching converse.

“It is adorable, on you,” she says, “you look like a mini mommy,”

The girl behind the counter hands Ella a card bowl with her sorbet. I look at the selection on offer and decide to go for lemon and raspberry sorbet.

Once out of the cafe, Ella’s mood seems to have lifted. I don’t think she’ll be happy staying at the school she’s at right now. I might have to cut back on a few things, possibly take more shifts at Masked to pay for tuition to a school she’ll be happy at.

We walk into the condo building, and the doorman flags me over.

“Are you ok, Lionel?” Lionel is our other doorman.

“You have some visitors, Miss Wright,” he states, and he looks a little nervous. “I have told them to wait in the seating area. I’m just warning you; they’re from child protection services,” he whispers the last part to me to not alert Ella. I frown and look towards the seating area to see two women, one in a light grey pants suit and the other in a summer dress with a cardigan and a police officer.

“Why are they here?” I ask him.

“I’m not sure,”

“Ok, thank you for letting me know,” I say and take Ella towards them.

The women stand up as I walk towards them. The woman in the grey suit is tall, slim, blonde and seems to have a stricter aura to her than the woman stood next to her. The woman next to her is petite and has brown hair; she looks friendlier just by the smile on her face when she looks at Ella.

“You must be Megan,” the brown-haired woman says. I don’t miss the slight Hispanic accent. “My name is Sophia, and this is Rachel, my colleague and officer Hudson,” she tells me. I cut in.

“I know where you’re from, and I would prefer it if you didn’t say it in front of my daughter; she picks up on things,” I say. “We can talk in my home,” I tell them and motion for them to follow.

“Who are these people, mommy?” Ella asks once we’re in the elevator.

“They’re just people who want to talk to me,” I answer.

The last time the CPS was called on me was when I was in LA. My grandfather had done it to get me to move back in with him. Unfortunately for him, he wanted to go for custody of her. There was no reason to take Ella from me. She’s well looked after and happy. I text Courtney and Yasmin in our group text to let them know. They’re both in, and I know they won’t be satisfied. I have an idea as to who called them.

I’d text Logan yesterday morning telling him to give me time to talk to Ella about him, and once I have, I’ll set up a meeting with him. He never replied. I just figured he was still annoyed about me shutting the door on him the other day. It turns out he was making good on his threat about me regretting it. Jokes on him, I don’t regret it; if anything, I still stand by what I’ve said and done.

Opening the door to my home, I let all three of them in. Ella had run in as soon as I opened the door, mostly to show Courtney the cake she had gotten. They both have a sweet tooth and will most likely share it tonight.

“Take a seat. I’ll just get you all a drink,” I say to them and notice them looking around. I walk into the kitchen. Yasmin is already filling a tray with glasses and a jug of iced tea she’d made earlier.

“Why are they here?” Yasmin asks.

“Why do you think? Logan called them,” I tell her.

“You’re very calm about it,” she states.

“I’m going to rip him a new arsehole when I see him,” I say, and she laughs. I smile and pick up the tray to walk into the living room. Courtney looks at me as I place the tray on the table. “Ella, go give the cake to Yasmin to put in the fridge,”

“Can I have it now?” she asks.

“No, you can have it after dinner. Can you go do your homework, please?”

“Ok, can I read Narnia instead?” she asks. I nod and watch her walk off down the hall to her room. It’s then Max comes out. He sniffs the police officer, who is still standing. Ella calls him, and he runs back to her.

“How old is Ella?” Sophia asks.

“Four, she’s small for her age,” I say.

“And smart,” Rachel adds.

“Why are you here?” I ask.

“We got a phone call. This is just a welfare check,” Sophia tells me.

“Yeah, and I know how welfare checks go,” I sigh and look at Courtney. I know she’s quiet for my sake. “My ex called you,”

“He is just worried about the welfare of his daughter,” Sophia softly tells me.

“A daughter he hasn’t met yet,” Courtney says.

“Because you won’t let him,” Rachel says.

“He only found about her two days ago,” I say. They both frown at me. “He left me when I was pregnant with her. He knew I was pregnant; he’s a recovering addict. He left to go to England, and he told me he would come back, he never did. He got engaged and moved on with his life,”

“He says you’re a prostitute,” the officer says.

“Yeah, I’m not. He found out I work at Masked Goddess. He has accused me of sex work multiple times. He thinks I pay for this place through that. We pay for this place together,” I say, gesturing towards Courtney and Yasmin.

“We all put our trust funds into paying for this place. We wanted somewhere that was safe for Ella and us. We have a little left to pay off on the mortgage. We make enough money at Masked Goddess to live. We don’t need to sell ourselves,” Yasmin says.

I notice Sophia is writing everything down as we talk. They’ll probably make a report and then give the information to Logan. They rarely work this fast. He either exaggerated a lot or has paid someone to get this processed quickly.

“In our report, it is said that you leave your daughter when you are working, that there are multiple men that leave this apartment regularly. How do you explain that?” Rachel asks.

“I have a very healthy sex life,” Courtney states with a smile. “But I don’t bring many of them back here, only when Ella is staying at Melanie’s or her grandfather’s,” she says, and I notice her eyeing the policeman. She loves a man in uniform.

“He probably told you that men leave here all the time because he came to see me on Sunday night, and a guy I’m seeing was leaving. This is all down to jealousy,” I state.

“But he’s engaged,” Rachel says.

“Doesn’t mean he can’t get jealous,” Yasmin says.

“What about the fact you leave your daughter alone when working?” she asks.

“I don’t. We all have different shifts so there's always one of us here,” I say and pull out my phone to pull up our work schedule. “The pink is mine, the yellow is Courtney’s, and the green is Yasmin’s,” I tell her as I show her the schedule. “Ella is never alone,”

“Can I talk to Ella?” Sophia asks. I nod and look at Yasmin.

“Go with her,” I tell Yasmin and turn to Rachel and the officer. “Some people may not think my work is acceptable when I’ve got a child, but I get to take my daughter to school and pick her up, it pays for my schooling and her food, clothes and home, if I worked another job, I wouldn’t be able to study and pay off my debts. At the moment in my life, my job is perfect for myself and my daughter,” I explain.

“We’re not judging your job,” Rachel says.

“Would you have believed his accusation of sex work if I was a librarians assistant?” I ask. She’s silent. “It doesn’t matter. Your judgement is expected, not right but expected,”

“How come she’s home early from school?” Rachel asks, changing the subject.

“She isn’t in kindergarten. She’s in the 1st grade. Her school have asked me if I have thought about her being moved into 3rd grade next year rather than grade two. She’s becoming bored in her classes, causing her to act out. They don’t think they’re teaching her anything new right now. I asked if I could take her home after the meeting,” Courtney looks at me as I say it. “They gave me some other options too, but I’ll need to look at my finances for them,”

“What are you saying?” Rachel asks.

“My daughter is brilliant. They think I should send her for testing,” I say

For the next half hour, they ask me things about Ella’s day to day activities, who she stayed with on Saturday night, how she performs in school, and if she has friends. Sophia had asked Ella questions about me, and from what Yasmin told me, Ella had answered her questions with questions of her own. Yasmin had also said that Ella had gotten annoyed because Sophia had spoken to her like she was stupid, Ella’s words not Yasmin’s. I think I’m going to have to explain to my daughter that her appearance is deceiving. That she looks younger than she is, and often people aren’t going to expect her to be as smart as she is. Is it wrong that I secretly enjoy people squirming over the fact a four-year-old has outwitted them?

When the women and officer left, I’d searched on google where Logan’s offices are. I’m livid that he’s done this. Does he not realise that this creates a file? That all it takes is another phone call, and things could escalate so very quickly. What’s worse is this isn’t how I thought things would go. I honestly thought that when we’d meet each other again, it would go very differently.

Yasmin and I are parked outside the office building that Logan owns. There is so much information online about him. He even had a fan page. That’s how I know he’s still in his office. There are some creepy people out there. I guess he’s become somewhat of a celebrity since growing his family business.

I’d gotten changed before we left. Courtney had suggested it as there’s probably a lot of security in the place, and often they stop anyone who doesn’t look like they work there. So I changed into a dark green pencil skirt dress with an asymmetric neckline and wide straps. Yasmin had gotten changed too so that if needed, she could distract the security guards.

Getting out of the car, I look up at the tall glass building. Men and women come out of the glass doors continuously. It’s just after 5 pm, which means it’s the busiest time for traffic. The chances of a security guard noticing me are slim. Taking a deep breath, I walk into the building with purpose. Courtney had told me a good technique was to pretend I was on the phone. It would stop people from stopping me or wanting to talk to me as I’d look busy. I take my phone out of my bag and call Courtney. I can’t pretend to be on the phone, knowing my luck, someone will ring me.

“You there?” Courtney asks me as I walk through the large foyer. I make a beeline for the elevators.

“Yeah, I’m about to get in the elevator. What floor do you think he’ll be on?” I ask.

“Probably top, my father’s office in his building is on the top floor and is usually at the back,” Courtney tells me. “Let me have a look because that interview he did with that fan page described his office,” she says. I do my best not to look around. Looking around will cause people to notice me.

The elevator pings, and the silver doors open. Men and women walk out, not glancing at me as I stand waiting for them to pass. Once in the elevator, I press the top floor button and then look at what is on each floor.

“It says here; his office is on the top floor, the offices are open plan with glass walls and doors separating conference rooms and his office. Ooo, swanky, his office is glass but frosts at a button on his desk to give him privacy. Aww, that means his work colleagues won’t be able to see you spank his ass,” she pauses. “What are you going to say to him?”

“I’m not sure. I’m too angry to even think about what I’m going to say. Yasmin kept telling me to stay calm,”

“Yeah, whatever you do, don’t let him see you cry, don’t give him the satisfaction,” Courtney tells me.

“I think he’d feel worse if I cry,”

“The old Logan, maybe, but this Logan he seems so cold-hearted,”

“I think he’s angry with himself,” I say and watch as the light goes up the numbers. “I need to go. I’ll call you when I’m finished,” I say as the elevator doors open.

Courtney was right; it’s all an open plan. It’s very light and modern. White and silver seem to be the theme here. A white desk is in front of the elevator, and I presume someone is supposed to greet people when they enter the floor. I can only guess that they’ve left for the day. Glancing around, some people are still sitting at their desks. I notice Logan in his office. A woman walks in, and then the glass clouds.

Now I’m not talking to Courtney. I can feel my nerves; maybe this was a bad idea. No, there’s no going back now, he started this, and I’m finishing it. He’s done enough damage, and I’m not scared of him. Taking a deep breath, I slowly let it out to calm the knot in my stomach.

“You can do this,” I tell myself and make my way toward Logan’s office. I just need to look like I belong here.

Fueled by my anger, I stride toward his office with purpose. I’m going in there, and I’m going to tell him just what I think of him. I’m going to say to him that if he wants to fight, I will win.

“Err, Miss, you can’t go in there,” a male voice says once I get to Logan’s office door. I frown and look at him. He’s young, probably the same age as me.

“Why not?”

“He’s in an important meeting. Do you have an appointment?” he asks.

“Even better,” I say and open the office door.

“Miss,” he says again as I walk into Logan’s office, and the woman that came in here is sitting across his lap. I know it’s not his fiance because I got to see what she looked like when I googled where his office is. She’s blonde, and the woman straddling him is brunette.

“I’m sorry, sir. She just barged in. I’ll call security,” the young man says and walks off to his desk.

“Some important meeting,” I say, walking in further. Logan looks stunned at the fact I’m here.

“Who is she?” the girl asks. Logan composes himself before she sees the shock on his face.

“Get out,” he tells her. She frowns at him, “I said get out,” he snaps at her. She makes some sort of frustrated groan I would make when I was 15 and storms out of his office.

“What are you doing here, Megan?” he asks as he stands up and straightens his designer suit jacket.

“You are un-fucking-believable,” I snap, and just as I do, his security turns up. David is with them. He stops them from stepping any further and pushes them out of the room. “How dare you call the CPS on me?” I ask.

“You did what?” David asks.

“I texted you yesterday, and you didn’t reply,” I tell Logan.

“You’re not fit enough to bring my daughter up,”

“How the fuck would you know?” I snap. “You’ve not even met her yet. You know nothing about us,”

“I know what I need to know,”

“You know I work at a strip club. Do you really think I’d choose to work there if I had another choice? I have debts to pay, a child to support and tuition fees,” I snap.

“What debts?” he asks.

“It costs to have a baby, Logan, and it costs even more when you and said baby nearly die,”

“Your grandfather would have paid,”

“Yeah, he paid alright, not without a price,” I snap, and I can feel myself becoming upset as he just stares at me with such cold eyes.

“Megan, go back home,” David says as he comes toward me. “You don’t have to explain yourself to him,” he says.

“Yes, she does,” Logan angrily says.

“No, she doesn’t. You’ve gone too far,” David snaps.

“Me? She’s keeping her from me,” Logan accuses

“No, I’m not,” I snap. “I need to tell her about you,”

“She’s four. What do you need to tell her?” he asks.

“You know nothing, for someone with genius IQ, you’re a real dumb ass,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “This has nothing to do with Ella and everything to do with my job and the fact you saw a guy leave my apartment,”

“It has everything to do with Ella,”

“What did you think was going to happen? That I was going to just sit twiddling my thumbs for five years waiting for you? That I wasn’t going to try and live my life?” I ask him.

“No,” he says, and he’s not very convincing.

“Really? If that’s true, you wouldn’t be acting like this. I can’t do this, Logan. You either want to meet Ella, or you don’t. That is all you’re going to get from me, when you realise that, then come to me,” I state and storm out of his office.

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Do you prefer long chapter or short chapters? This chapter is over 4000 words. I might start cutting them down if I can.