Chapter22
Something I Want To Do
Dash’s POV
“I don’t want them coming in here, and I don’t want them to see Melitta,” Zinnie practically
growled.
“They won’t,” I promised. “I’ll go talk to them.”
“That doesn’t reassure me at all, Dash.”
“I understand why you think that, Zin. But they won’t get in here.”
An old proverb said no one loves the warrior until the enemy is at the gate. Well, the enemy was literally at the gates of Serenity, so regardless of anybody loving me, I was going to warrior up.
“Can I borrow your golf cart?” I asked Aggie.
“No, I want her to go with you,” Zinnie said.
“Zinnie, I was going to ask her to stay with you and Melitta.”
“One of the midwives can stay. I want her to go with you.”
Because she didn’t trust me to handle it.
“OK, she’ll go with me,” I conceded because I didn’t want Zin upset any more than she already was. “We’ll be back as fast as possible.”
While Aggie drove the golf cart, I made a call and in no time we were at the gate. After telling Aggie what I needed her to do while I talked to them, I walked up to the gate, looking at the the five people gathered outside of it.
“Dash!” Zinnie’s mother said angrily. “Tell them to let us in.”
“I don’t think so. The path of least resistance is permanently closed,” I told them and watched their faces morph into masks of confusion. “As a resident of Serenity, I’m asking you to leave right now.”
“You’ve joined the crazies?” her mother cried in disbelief.
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“We’re not leaving until we see Zinnia,” her father said. “We have reason to believe our daughter is being held here against her will.”
“Really? Based on what?” I asked him, ignoring my mother–in–law’s outburst..
“Well…well, based on her behavior.‘
I turned to the Sheriff’s deputy.
“I can assure you, my wife’s here of her own free will. These three people are mad because my wife kicked her mother and her sister out of here the other day after they turned up and threatened to have her involuntarily committed and take our baby from her. When I heard about that, I contacted an attorney who began working on making sure the harassment doesn’t continue. This
is another incident that will be added to the complaint.”
“Dash, tell me you didn’t do that,” Zinnia’s mother said.
“I did. You need to leave Zinnie alone or be prepared to explain to people why you can’t contact
her or be anywhere near her.”
“How dare you! We’re worried about our daughter! She’s not acting like herself,” her father
blustered.
“Well, from a medical point of view, that always concerns me, too, when I hear or see someone suddenly acting in a completely different way from their norm. It’s often a symptom pointing to an underlying issue. I can’t tell you how many times parents have brought their children to me when their behavior abruptly changed. She wasn’t acting like herself. He was behaving in a way I’d never seen before. I didn’t even know who my child was anymore.”
“See?” Iris said triumphantly.
“As a doctor, that’s my starting point for determining the cause of the behavior shift, and one of the first things I look at in the bloodwork are hormonal imbalances because those can result in serious changes in the way a person acts. And frankly, it’s scary as hell because sometimes those shifts are due to serious underlying causes. When hormone levels get too high or too low, brain processes can be disrupted because the neurotransmitters are no longer regulated, resulting in the person’s abrupt change in their typical patterns of behavior.”
Their eyes were starting to glaze over with my explanation.
“We look at changes in their thyroid, cortisol or insulin levels, for example, or even changes in
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reproductive hormones, especially during pregnancy.”
“That’s it!” Zinnie’s mother interrupted. “She’s pregnant and that’s when she started acting differently.”
“But sometimes you find there’s no medical reason for the behavior change other than someone has finally reached her limit with the bullshit she’s put up with from her shitty family, and yes, I’m included in that group.”
I addressed the sheriff’s deputy, ignoring the outraged gasps and protests from Zinnie’s family.
“So what you’ve gotten yourself involved with here, Deputy, is a family that’s not liking the fact that for the first time in her life, their youngest daughter’s drawn a line in the sand and said I’m not standing for your fuckery any longer. They’re trying to throw their weight around, determined to make my wife’s life miserable for daring to stand up and say I’m not tolerating your bullshit ever again. That’s why they’ll never again see their daughter or ever lay eyes on their granddaughter.”
“We have rights,” her mother said. “You can’t keep us from our grandchild. We don’t even know if the baby’s been born yet!”
“If Zinnie wanted to keep you updated, she would have. And how unfortunate for you that we live in a restrictive state regarding grandparents‘ rights,” I explained. “That means, as I’m sure your lawyer will tell you, just like mine did, that our state only allows grandparents to petition for visitation under specific circumstances, such as the death of one or both parents, or if the parents
are divorcing.”
Their lawyer nodded slowly, and I wondered what wild tale they’d spun to get him out here.
“Since my wife and I are both very much alive and we aren’t divorcing,” please don’t let that be a lie, “you’re going to be shit out of luck trying to get access to our child.”
“No divorce, Dash?” Iris said. “You can’t want to stay married to her. You only got with her to get
back at me. You made that joke at the gender reveal.”
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.