The phone call Orlando overheard when Dani had been talking to Ted, just a little over a week before he had her under him, assaulted him as he reached his truck. But he was done listening to this asshole’s drivel. “Yeah, well she’s in love with me now.”
“Is she?” Ted was quick to retort. “With you or the baby?”
Orlando spun around, charging Ted. “What the fuck did you just say? You don’t bring my son into this shit, asshole. I will—”
“She’s the one who left him at your door.” Ted held his hands up in front of him. Slowing down before reaching Ted, Orlando peered at him as his heart walloped. “It’s true,” Ted said even as Orlando shook his head. “The kid’s mother was her friend from her jailbird days, and she died of an overdose. The junkie had no family, and Danica was the one who’d been helping her friend since day one. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—give him up until I convinced her she could be in a lot of trouble if she didn’t. So, she did, and it tore her apart. She was miserable for months. She’d made me think she’d driven the baby to his father, explained it all, and everything had been worked out. It wasn’t until today, when I met and spoke with Felicia down at the courthouse and she told me about the kid being mysteriously left at your doorstep, that I put it all together. I guess once she managed to manipulate her way back into his life, she dropped me and was willing to do whatever it took to keep him in her life.”
Shaking his head, Orlando refused to believe it. “She would’ve told me.”
“Well, she didn’t because she’s a liar and a manipulator. It’s what she does.”
Orlando grabbed him by the neck and squeezed. “One more time,” he said through his teeth. “Talk shit about her one more time, and I’ll fucking end you.”
Ted brought both his hands up, pulling at Orlando’s hand and broke away coughing. “Believe what you want.” He coughed some more bending over next to his car. “But I’m telling you. She’d been telling me she loved me for months, and then that kid was born and took over her life. What Danica wants Danica gets. Saps like you and me are at her mercy, and she wanted that baby more than anything in the world. She sobbed entire nights after giving him up. I know you don’t wanna hear or believe it, but he’s who she’s really there for, not you. Why do you think she never told you it was her who left him at your door?”
Orlando stalked away, not wanting to hear another word. The memories of how everything had gone down with Dani assaulted him once again as he got in his truck. Her walking into the shop all done up the day Nine offered her a job on the spot and even Orlando’s dumb ass had been so easily swayed by her child-therapist-student crap. How instantly Baby O had taken to her, and all the baby whisperer, bullshit. More than anything though was that phone call he’d overheard.
We were in love you know.
Yeah, it still burned him to remember the fucking phone call. He’d hardly gotten any sleep that night. Things had happened between him and Dani felt a little fast, but it’d also felt genuinely organic. She’d been so honest about everything else. Why would she keep something so huge from him? Still, this asshole wouldn’t know anything about it if what he was saying wasn’t true.
He got in his truck, zooming past Ted, who was still bent over by his car, coughing. Hitting speed dial, he called Felicia. “What did you tell Ted?” he asked as soon as she answered.
She was quiet for a moment before responding. “Danica’s ex?”
“Yeah,” he said, squeezing the steering wheel.
“I saw the commotion at the courthouse the other day, so when he got in the elevator with me today, all I asked was if everything was okay. I mentioned knowing you and Danica, and then he started asking a million questions, even offered to buy me breakfast. I was in between deliveries, so I took him up on the offer, and we went to IHOP. I tried not to be too detailed, but the man knows how to interrogate. He was very interested in the baby and how Danica came to work for you. But I kept it very basic.”
“You told him the baby had been left at my door?”
“Well, yeah, I knew that wasn’t a secret. It’d been on the news even.”
“That’s fine. What else did you tell him about it?”
“He just asked how much you knew about the baby’s mom and how and when Danica started working for you. Why?”
“The fucker just showed up at the shop, asking more questions. I just wanted to find out how much he knew and why. Sorry to get you involved in this shit, but he mentioned running into you, so I just thought I’d ask.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. Just trying to get it all straight.”
Orlando was off the phone with Felicia just as he turned the corner onto his mom’s street. He picked up the baby and headed out, his mind still reeling over everything. He didn’t bother stopping for food. The way he was feeling his appetite was shot anyway. He headed straight home instead as what Ted had said about Dani continued to baffle him. She’s a master manipulator. There was no way. Not his sweet bumbling cook—Mrs. Magoo driver. His heart thudded as he drove up to his house and saw her car in the driveway. Seeing her at the door had his heart swelling, but Ted’s comments about them both being saps who were at her mercy, made him inhale deeply, close his eyes, and try to keep his head in check.
She walked out as he got out of the car and met him at the backdoor of his truck to help him with the baby. “He’s out,” Orlando whispered as he pulled the carrier out of the backseat and handed her the baby bag. “My mom said she fed and bathed him, so he’s ready to just be put down for the night.”
Dani smiled, looking genuinely enamored as she glanced down at the baby. Ted’s words came back to him. He’s who she’s really there for. As hurt as he wanted to be with her for not telling him, how could he hate her? She loved his son. It just hurt like a bitch that her feelings for him might’ve just been embellished for the sake of being in the baby’s life. After all the red tape he’d gone through to get custody of his boy back, he knew and understood the desperation and how easily he would’ve been tempted to do or say anything to get him back. They put him down in his crib and walked back to the kitchen. Orlando grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge to wet his parched mouth as she started their conversation with small talk about the latest on the panaderia.”Aren’t you gonna eat something?” she asked when she noticed all he was having was water.
Unable to take it anymore, he turned to her, looking right into her eyes. “Were you really the one who left my son at my door?”
Chapter 27
Danica
Barely able to catch her breath, Danica stared at the profoundly intense eyes that bore into her. Her mind raced to find the best words to respond with, but she had none. The whole ride to his place and even as she’d waited for him to arrive, she’d gone over what she’d say to him, but none of the speeches she practiced explaining to him how and why she’d done what she’d done felt even remotely justifiable.
“I . . .” She cleared her throat as that first word squeaked out. “It’s what I wanted to talk to you about tonight.”
“You dropped him off and then came back and lied your way back into his life?”
“I never lied,” she said, shaking her head, feeling stupid because she knew he wouldn’t understand. Still she tried to explain. “I mean I planned on it, but I was never able to. I couldn’t lie to you.”
“What are you talking about, Danica?” he asked even louder. “You kept the truth from me all this time. That’s lying. You pretended to need a job—”
“I did need a job!”
“But that’s not why you walked into the shop the night you did. You had ulterior motives from the very beginning. Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”
“Because I was terrified to.” She shook her head, feeling the tears stream down her cheeks. “The day I walked into that shop I was just hoping to get a glimpse of him because I hadn’t seen him since the day I dropped him off. I missed him so much.”
>
“Why?” Orlando asked, peering at her, as his voice went a little softer. “He isn’t yours.”
“Oh, but he is,” she whispered, swatting tears away as she explained quickly. “His mother Angie—my roommate at the time—suffered from severe postpartum depression. She wouldn’t even hold him almost from the moment he was born, so it was all me from the very beginning. I cared for him day and night, took him to all his appointments because most days she couldn’t even get out of bed she was so bad. Before I knew it, my heart had claimed him, and I completely fell in love with him. I was terrified of leaving him alone with her. She was all alone. Her single mom had smothered her younger sister to death when Angie was just six, just a week after giving birth to her sister, for the same reason—postpartum depression—and she’s been in some detention facility for the mentally ill ever since.”
“Did Angie overdose because of the depression?”
Danica felt her face scrunch as the pain of finding Angie dead assaulted her. “I think it was accidental. Ted insisted she’d done so on purpose because she’d struggled with addiction in the past, but she’d overcome it.” Orlando seemed ready to hug Danica at any moment, but he also appeared to be waiting for the rest of her explanation and hanging on her every word, so she went on. “I’d really bonded with her and my other friend Juanita, the one I told you, about while I was in jail. They’re the two friends I mentioned bonding with and staying in contact with even after we were all out. When Juanita died of a heroin overdose, Angie swore off drugs, and she’d been clean long before she ever got pregnant. But her depression was horrid. The doctors called it puerperal psychosis. It’s the severest kind of postpartum depression there is, and she was just desperate to feel normal. The morning she died was a bad one. The baby had a doctor’s appointment, and when I left to take him to it, she’d been almost hysterical. I’d forced her to eat a little and gave her, her anxiety meds, assuring her she’d feel better as soon as they kicked in. Danica squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the ongoing tears stream down her face as she shook her head. “I should’ve never left her pills on the nightstand. But it’s where she always kept them, and it never even occurred to me that she might overdo it.”
Now Orlando reached out for her hand and squeezed it. “It’s not your fault, baby. Sounds like you did everything you could.”
Nodding, Danica took a deep breath, feeling the overwhelming relief of finally being able to come clean about this to him, but she knew she still had to tell him the worst parts: the horrendous moment she realized Angie was dead and the part she was certain he wouldn’t understand and possibly never forgive her for. “When I got back from Oreo’s appointment, I thought she was asleep. I was happy she was getting a little break from the meltdown she’d had that morning. But when she didn’t wake after about an hour, I went to check on her and realized she wasn’t breathing, and she was cold to the touch. It’s when I noticed how many of her pills were gone.” Unable to go on because the painful memory completely overwhelmed her, she shook her head, closing her eyes. Like the first time she’d broke down in front of him, his arms wrapping around her felt heavenly, but it terrified her. Would this be the last time she’d be in his arms? Would he get past her selfishness of robbing him of those first weeks with his son?
Pulling away suddenly, Orlando’s expression soured. “That asshole hugged you again, didn’t he?” Wiping her nose with the back of her hand, Danica lifted her blouse to her face then closed her eyes, pissed at herself when she smelled Ted’s cologne. In her haste to rush to Orlando’s, she hadn’t even thought to change her top. But of course, she nodded as she glanced up at Orlando. Even if there was any denying it, trying to lie to him was futile. “Hold whatever thoughts you have and take that blouse off. I’ll be right back.”
He rushed out of the kitchen toward his bedroom as Danica began undoing the buttons on her blouse. Orlando was back in seconds, holding a white T-shirt. “I owe you two tops now because I’m burning this shit.” He took the blouse when she handed it to him, and he threw it in the trash as Danica slipped his oversized T-shirt on over her head. “I’d ask why the fuck you let him, but I know he’s a pushy prick, and there’s a lot of other more important things I need answers to. So, go on.”
It took Danica a moment to remember where she’d left off. “When I realized she was dead, I didn’t know what to do,” she said, inhaling deeply. “I was so scared they’d snatch the baby away from me and I’d never see him again. I was a convicted felon with a shady record, and she hadn’t even thought to leave instructions on who she wanted to care for the baby in case anything happened to her. She was only twenty-four and like me probably thought she’d get over the depression eventually.”
“So, what did you do?” he asked, searching her eyes.
“I took any evidence of the baby ever being there and took it to my sister’s and Ted’s. I didn’t even tell Ted or my sister she’d died. I was so scared.” She shook her head, hoping he’d understand the predicament she’d been put in. “I made an anonymous call to the paramedics from a pay phone I knew there were no cameras around. Ted had been asking me to move in with him for months, and once I knew I couldn’t go back to the apartment I’d been living in with her, I agreed to move in with him. I wasn’t on the lease, so they couldn’t trace the baby’s whereabouts, even if they finally figured out she had one to begin with. But even then, I didn’t tell Ted or my sister that Angie had died. Delia didn’t even know he was Angie’s baby. I’d gotten in so much trouble in the past, and my sister blamed Angie and Juanita. My continued friendship with them was the reason why she kicked me out to begin with.” She explained how she’d told Ted Angie just wasn’t doing well with her depression and it was why she had to keep the baby with her at night. “Angie assured me she knew you were the father. You’re the only guy she’d slept with in the months prior to getting pregnant, but she said it’d been a one-nighter and she hadn’t spoken to you since. She said she’d went into the shop a few times when she was pregnant with the intention of telling you about the pregnancy, but she said you’d barely acknowledged her.”
Orlando winced. “I probably didn’t remember her. Still don’t.”
Danica shook her head, not wanting him to think she was trying to make him feel guilty. “She said the same thing. It’s why she decided she was better off just keeping it to herself. It wasn’t even until after he was born when she felt bad about me having to take on the full responsibility of the baby that she suggested I should reach out to you, but I assured her I was fine looking after him. More than fine. I was hopeful she’d be better soon, and then maybe she could walk into the shop and introduce him to you. I was certain you’d fall in love with him like I had so quickly.” The emotion she was feeling over the topic but also the fear of what would happen now between them was ongoing. Swallowing hard, she went on. “Never in a million years did I imagine things would go down the way they did. But as the weeks passed, Ted began to question when we’d have a night without the baby, when we’d have a day to ourselves, and I had no choice but to tell him the truth. If he’d been impatient before, he got even more so after, especially because he knew I knew who the father was. I just never gave him a name. Almost from the moment he knew Angie was dead, he began insisting I take the baby to his father, but the thought of giving him up and never having the opportunity to be around him at that point was utterly suffocating. I even . . .”She paused for a moment, hesitating to tell him the next part as the pain from the boulder in her throat mounted. But as usual, those eyes had her blurting out the rest. “I even considered running away with him.” She shook her head at the foolish thought. “But I had enough legal issues as it was. It’s why I didn’t just take him to you and tell you what had happened. I didn’t know if you’d be angry that I waited weeks to do so. I couldn’t risk you pressing charges, so I staked out the shop to make sure you were home when I left him. Hardest day of my life.”
Orlando tipped his head. “I know now why th
e baby took to you the way he did from the very first day. But how’d you know I would?”
“I didn’t.” She shook her head adamantly. “The idea of trying to at least get to see him every now and again didn’t even come to me until after I’d given him up. I knew it’d be hard to be without him, but I hadn’t anticipated how utterly excruciating it was.” The tears were back as she thought back to that horrid time of her life. “My heart yearned to have him back in my life. I’d heard Beast mention your receptionist being out on leave the day I went into the shop with Ted,” she continued to explain as Orlando dabbed her tears with a tissue. “The evening I went into the shop, my only expectation was to be able to see him, but then Nine mentioned the messy counter and the shop’s need for a receptionist again, and I had a thought. If I could get a job there, I might be able to at least keep tabs on how the baby was doing and see him if you ever brought him in. So, I mentioned bringing in my resume.”
She told him how she’d overheard Orlando talking to his mom on the phone that evening about needing to find a nanny. How she’d tried to lie about being a child therapist and even thought she might pull off saying her name was Delia in case they did a background check, but all her lies fell through and she spilled the truth whenever she looked into his eyes. “I considered coming clean weeks ago, but then we had that conversation where you mentioned being pissed about being robbed of the baby’s birth and the weeks after Angie’s death.” The sheer terror of losing the baby washed over her suddenly, and she felt her face scrunch again. “Orlando, I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t bring myself to part with him. Especially because I didn’t know how you’d react to him. I was all he had. If I’d known you’d be such a wonderful dad, I would’ve handed him over immediately.”
Orlando took her hand, pulling her to him, and hugged her tightly, whispering against the side of her head into her ear. “Stop crying. Stop apologizing. You’re right. You’re all my boy had, and it’s because of you he even had a fighting chance. I hate to say it, babe, but without you, he might’ve ended up like Angie’s baby sister, and I love you for it. But I love you for a lot of other reasons.” He was quiet for a moment. “My only question now is why are you really here?”
Orlando: Boyle Heights #4 Page 29