Page 67 of Vengeful Lies

September 14th

3:39 P.M.

“Do you want some ice cream?”

“No.”

The sullen look on Essie’s face told him exactly what she thought he could do with his ice cream in four-year-old language.

Cade sighed.

It had been this way for the last week. Essie was grumpy, agitated, cried a lot, was scared of everything, and didn't want to do anything. She wasn't sleeping, was extra picky about her food, and was generally miserable.

She also asked about Gabriella a lot.

More than he’d thought she would.

Not that he thought his daughter wouldn't be devastated about the only mother figure she remembered suddenly being ripped out of her life on the heels of a massive trauma, he’d just thought his explanation would settle things.

Only it hadn't.

Essie asked about her several times a day, probably at least once an hour. It got worse at mealtimes and bedtime. He was an okay cook, but Gabriella managed to take simple things and make them a million times tastier and that was not a skill he possessed. At bedtime, he read to his daughter, but she cried that she wanted Gabriella to sing her to sleep. If he tried to sing, she complained that he was doing it all wrong.

Now she wouldn't even eat ice cream.

“Are you sure? There’s still some of the ice cream you and Gabriella made together.”

Tears filled his daughter’s big gray eyes. “I don’t want to eat it cos Gabby isn’t here to make me more,” she wailed.

Why the hell had he thought this was a good idea?

His daughter was miserable, he was miserable, and he had no doubt that Gabriella was especially miserable.

Now that his emotions had had a chance to settle down, he could admit that maybe this wasn't his brightest idea. He still agreed with his reasoning, but maybe he should have gone about things differently.

Too late to do anything about it now, though.

Forty-eight hours after kicking her out, Cade had caved and texted Gabriella, asking if she was okay.

She’d promptly blocked him.

If that sting of rejection was only a tenth of what she’d felt when he told her she was fired and needed to leave, then he didn't know how she’d managed to survive it.

The doorbell rang before he could attempt to comfort his child, and Essie jumped off her seat and ran for the door.

“Gabby!” she cried out, flinging it open only to sigh in disappointment. “Oh.”

“Sorry, messy Essie, it’s just us,” Cole said.

Without her usual complaint that she wasn't messy, Essie turned and trudged back to the living room, climbed onto the couch, clutched her teddy bear, and resumed watching TV.

Cade also sighed.

When were things going to start getting better?

“She’s still missing Gabriella I see,” Connor said as his siblings trailed inside his house.

“More each day,” he admitted. The same was true for him. Without Gabriella’s presence his house felt so empty, no longer the warm, inviting home it had been ever since she moved in with them. It was definitely true, sometimes you didn't know what you had until it was gone.

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