Sugar Lust

Chapter Eleven

Emmeline swallowed hard and then started again, speaking carefully. "I know you never got a chance to hold Millie at the hospital, so I thought I would bring her by, and maybe you could have a chance now." She silently added you stupid cow to the end of the sentence and plastered a smile across her face.

"You're right. You robbed me of that chance to spend time with my granddaughter. You didn't even consult with us on her name." Dorothy

She wasn't going to make this easy.

"I didn't realize that you wanted to be consulted. I believe you said I could have that much, at the very least, when you were going to rob me..." Damn, I took the bait, Emmeline thought. "Excuse me," she said, slowing down. "I apologize"—inwardly gritting her teeth— "I didn't realize it was important to you."

"Your naivety astounds me. Of course, everything about my granddaughter interests me. Millie," she huffed as if a child by that name was the end of the world.

"Emmeline is a wonderful name and one that means a lot to my family. You can hardly blame me for wanting my daughter to carry on in our tradition." Emmeline forcefully bit her tongue, and a metallic taste mixed with her saliva.

Dorothy knew perfectly well why she named her Emmeline. It hadn't even been her intention, but Dorothy had made her so mad that she just spit the name out, and she couldn't take it back after that. Millie had grown on her, though. It suited the squirmy baby on the floor, with her little tufts of sticky-up hair and the pink bows clamped into it as if that was what the universe had intended for her all along.

"Yes, well, you could have done worse." Dorothy finally conceded. She picked up her wine glass instead of a teacup and drank three oversized gulps. Emmeline tried to change the subject.

"Nicholas was so pleased that you arranged for him to return to school this year. I know he tried to call." Emmeline tried sounding bright and optimistic, but to her ears, she just sounded fake.

"We weren't going to deprive him of his studies. We aren't heartless, you know." Dorothy made an exaggerated cough, and Emmeline clenched her fists and widened her smile. Dorothy got up and poured herself another glass of wine, ignoring the tea going cold on the table.

"He's doing quite well, actually. None of his marks have suffered. He works so hard at it. You should be proud."

"Yes, I know. I get a copy of his grades."

Nothing. She is giving me nothing. What a waste of time. Well, here goes nothing. She was pretty sure Dorothy wasn't drunk, but perhaps she had trouble coping with the situation.

"Would you like to hold her?" She tried to sound as sincere as possible. This is for Nicholas, she reminded herself. He missed this woman, even if Emmeline couldn't quite understand it herself. Thankfully, she never went through on her threats of taking Millie away—there was that to hold on to. If she did, she just might win. Emmeline knew that. They were a couple of kids playing house, in a train of all places. They just brought in enough to pay for food and diapers. There were only a few months left before they would be asked to leave. Emmeline had no idea where they would go after that. And what was worse, she had no idea how they were going to pay for it. A judge wouldn't look too kindly at their whole situation. Emmeline was grateful that to date, Dorothy's bark had been much worse than her bite.

"I think it would be about time," said Dorothy.

I might just live to regret this. Emmeline reached down and picked up her daughter, who was now sucking loudly on her middle three fingers. She handed her to Dorothy and held her breath.

Millie took one look at the stiff old lady who was staring at her, appraising her as if she were about to buy her at auction, and started to wail. Emmeline wanted to grab her back, but sat on her hands. Perhaps it still could work.

"How is Erik doing?" Emmeline asked casually. Nicholas talked to him regularly, Erik sneaking in phone calls to his big brother, but suspiciously he never really said too much about their parents.

"Why are you crying?" Dorothy asked a now full-out sobbing Millie. "Your father never did that, you know." Dorothy's hissing lecture was heard plainly above the noise. Emmeline resisted as her daughter reached for her. If she took her back now, it would be over.

"Maybe if you hold her closer," she calmly suggested while inwardly cringing. Millie—she tried to telepathically connect to her daughter—stop crying please, for Daddy's sake, stop crying.

Dorothy held Millie closer, and Millie fought back, getting angrier by the second.

Please, Millie, please, Emmeline silently willed, just as her daughter let out a wall-shaking wail signaling the end of the world in her little mind. How could you blame her? She knew this woman was no good, she had no relationship with her, and she could more than likely sense the turmoil going on in Emmeline's head.

"This is no use," Dorothy said finally and handed her back. Millie immediately stopped crying.

"Thanks, kid," Emmeline whispered as she plastered soothing kisses on Millie's cheek.

"You have obviously turned her against me." Dorothy sat up a bit straighter and pursed her lips.

A dull throbbing started in Emmeline's temple.

"She hasn't had to get to know you. Besides, she's an independent little thing, much happier just sitting on the floor playing. Really, she's a very good baby."

"Does Nicholas know you brought her by?"

"No, I wanted to make it a surprise. Let him know that everything is okay. Sort of like a Christmas present."

"I see. Well, as far as I can tell, the damage has been done. And you can tell him that there will be no change until he stops this nonsense and comes home."

"How can you be so unreasonable? He's not a puppet that you can dictate his every move. He did what was right for his kid."

"And I am doing what is right for mine!"

This was stupid. How did I ever think that I could reason with her? Emmeline forcefully packed up Millie's few toys and picked up her daughter.

"You came to me, and now you can't handle things, so you're going to run off again! What did you expect? You seduce my son, get yourself pregnant, then manipulate him to move away from home and take my granddaughter to live in squalor. I've done everything that I can for him until he comes to his senses and gets rid of you, there is nothing that I can do. This is actually what being a parent is like; sometimes tough love is necessary."

Tears stung the corners of Emmeline's eyes, but there was no way she would let this woman see her cry. She would never let her win. She swung the diaper bag over her shoulder and quickly walked for the door. She couldn't get out of there fast enough. This house was cursed—worse, an actual witch lived there.

Dorothy didn't even see her to the door. Emmeline opened it, put Millie in the waiting stroller outside, and slammed the door shut behind her. She could hear the echo. At least there was one sliver of satisfaction: maybe one of Dorothy's precious figurines would be knocked off the mantle and smash. She knew it was stupid, but the idea made her feel just slightly better.

She walked down the pathway toward the road with only one thought in her mind.

How am I going to explain this to Nicholas?