Mimi's Demons

Chapter 36: Birdie and Daddy, Equally Annoying

If Duke had any doubts that Mimi's 'demons' were just random hallucinations that had no bearing on reality, they took a major blow with the reports he received from Serena, Omen, Doc Cricket, and even Juli, his new birdie giving him eyes on another side of his daughter when adults weren't around. He had instituted new rules to those around Mimi, mainly that Serena wasn't allowed to touch any of her trashy novels until after her work day was over, but also that anything that wasn't deemed 'wholesome' was to be kept out of her area. Rather than just keep employees from seeing her, they were kept out of Mimi's section of the manor entirely. He moved his workplace even farther from Mimi's play areas and did all he could to do meetings off the property.

And his effort actually did something. The reports showed Mimi's anxiety hitting an all time low, her tough-act softening, and her happiness blossoming like a rose. She'd even went on to ask Serena for doctor Barbie toys and Omen reported her loud laughter during her gaming sessions with Juli. Juli, for being just a brat, gave credit to his father's proper teaching by respectfully reporting everything he learned of Juli and her past, all while keeping his head low and his language polite. Not to mention he kept his sticky fingers strictly to himself while in his daughter's presence. He made sure to give proper praise to Cromwell and a bonus that made the thief specialist swell up with pride.

Then there were her grades, given in detail by Mr. Shacketts, who managed her other tutors and paid special attention to Mimi's interests and any holes in her education. His kitten was as intelligent as he had known from the beginning and responded to the efforts and attentions of others like desert grass to the spring rains, greening and blooming till the landscape was hardly recognizable. Even in her own piano lessons with himself, where she occasionally grumbled and talked violence towards songs that gave her trouble, she focused with a concentration that was uncanny in one her age and did her practice sessions diligently.

It excited Duke to think of the woman she'd grow into.

All in all, Duke was feeling pretty good about his new little family life.

So why had this bitch crawled in trying to ruin it all?

Well, she herself hadn't. But the paperwork for a civil suit had, delivered by one of those losers of society who couldn't get a job outside of following a map to deliver said court papers.

"She gave up Mimi without a fight, why this change of heart? And where the hell does she even get the money to think she can do this?" he asked.

For once, it wasn't Omen who shadowed his side, but Cromwell, lounging in a spare office chair which he occasionally spun around in like a child. While he didn't share the blue-eyed, toe-head hair of his son, he shared everything else in his big ears, inability to grow any decent facial hair outside of a flimsy Mexi-stache, and a wiry frame that would stay so no matter how much muscle he put on.

"She managed to convince the father of another of her children to give the rest of his child-support in one large sum rather than the usual monthly payments," he said.

Of course Cromwell would have already looked into it before the papers had even arrived on Duke's desk. Duke would have grinned if he wasn't used to his left-hand man's competence.

"And she couldn't have picked up her kid while she was just free on the streets why?"

Cromwell shrugged his narrow shoulders and did a slow spin in the chair. "I just look at the data, boss, not the feelings. My guess is that she honestly couldn't find her."

"Bullshit."

"Yeah, it has that feel to it. Though child searches have always been under manned, the little miss wasn't exactly covert. Car garage, dumpster diving, I even found a police report about some folk at a bakery in the area reporting a scruffy little girl digging through their dumpster, but, for some reason, no one followed up on it."