Page 97 of Chasing Shelter

“Daddy!” Keely yelled from the other room.

I wasn’t sure what Keely had cut me off from saying, but it was probably a good thing. I grinned down at Ellie. “Always something.”

We moved from the kitchen to the living room, Gremlin trailing behind us, grumbling as he went.

“Bestie, you are doing such an amazing job,” Ellie praised.

Keely beamed at her and then turned that smile on me. “Daddy, can I do this in my room?”

I sighed, looking at Ellie. “First the goat. Now, a mural. There’s going to be payback.”

Ellie’s eyes twinkled. “Oh, I don’t know. I can think of a few ways I could pay up.”

She was going to kill me. And I’d gladly let her take me down every time.

29

ELLIE

I climbedbehind the wheel of my SUV and tossed my purse onto the passenger seat. My arms were tired, but they’d lost some of the soreness over the past two weeks of working at The Mix Up. And I was learning to balance more than two plates on my tray at once—a true victory.

I’d started to slip into a routine of sorts. Shift at the bakery, working on the house, cooking lessons with Trace and Keely, family dinners with the Colsons, self-defense training with Kye, and time with the girls. It was simple and perfect andme.

Now that I’d finished the mural, it was time to put in my butterfly garden. Trace had warned me that it could freeze any day now that we’d dipped deeper into October, but I didn’t care. It was the principle of the thing that mattered.

I started the engine in my parking spot behind The Mix Up but paused as my phone rang. Swiping it up, I hesitated at the unfamiliar number. My stomach lurched. I hadn’t heard from Bradley since I’d switched my number, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have found it somehow.

Staring down at my cell, I flipped through my options. But I didn’t want to run. Not anymore. Swiping my finger across the screen, I accepted the call. “Hello?”

“You are receiving a collect call from an inmate at Longfield Correctional Facility. This call is being recorded and may be monitored. To accept this call, press 1.”

A vein thrummed in my neck, and a whooshing sound filled my ears. I’d kept as much distance from my father as possible, but I still knew what prison he was at while awaiting trial. I should’ve hung up. Denied the call. Rejected any contact. But I found myself hitting the 1 on my screen.

“Eleanor.” My father’s voice sounded older somehow, and the noise in the background—voices and a few shouts—wasn’t something I was used to hearing when he called.

“What do you want?” The cold question surprised me, even though it had come from my mouth. Maybe my time in Sparrow Falls had made me bolder, stronger.

“That’s no way to greet your father,” he clipped.

“You haven’t acted like a father once in your life, so I guess that’s fitting.”

Background noise filled the line for a handful of moments before Philip spoke again. “I can see my sources were correct. You’re letting bad influences take control of your life.”

Unease slid through me.Sources.Ones that could find any phone number or location. The same sort ofsourcesBradley had used to harass me since I’d arrived in Sparrow Falls. But I wouldn’t let Philip know that he’d struck a nerve with the information he’d managed to glean while in prison. “That’s rich, coming from you. The only bad influences in my life were you and the people you put there.”

“Eleanor. That is enough,” he barked. “I heard from Henrick that you aren’t returning Bradley’s calls.”

Bradley’s father hadtattledon me? I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of me. “Seriously? Bradley told his dad, and his dad calledyou? So you can…what? Tell me to play nice?”

“Eleanor.” My name was uttered through gritted teeth, a sign Iwas getting to him. “The Newbury family is your only hope. Helen already thinks of you as a daughter.”

It was a low blow, bringing Bradley’s mother into it. She’d always been kind to me, especially after my own mother passed. She’d taken me shopping for new school clothes a handful of times and had been a source of warmth at stodgy society events. Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was stuck the same way my mother had been. Locked in a castle where someone had thrown away the key. But I saw what Philip was trying for now. He was attempting to play on what I’d always longed for…a family.

“I don’t need thehopethe Newbury family brings me. I wish them the best, and I’ll always be fond of Helen.” I couldn’t say the same for Henrick. He was a pompous ass of epic proportions and a huge reason why Bradley lived with the entitlement he did. “But this is done. Bradley and I are done. That world and I are done.”

“Stop throwing a stupid little tantrum,” Philip spat. “You need to pull yourself together. Go back to New York. To Bradley. I expect you to live up to the Pierce name.” The tone was a jerk of the chain he thought was still around my neck.

How many times had I caved when I heard disapproval in his tone? How many times had I surrendered to his threats? Too many to count.

---