Aaliyah
As the playoffs go on the boys continue to do good. After defeating Nashville at home they take on the Minnesota Wild. For the first time in a long time they don't have home ice advantage with them being a fourth seed so they start all their series on the road. Bella and I usually stay home for those just because it'll be more of a pain than it will be helpful. But if they make it to the conference finals then nothing's stopping me from being at every game no matter where. I've dreamed of being there to watch them lift the cup and if they get that far then they're going all the way.
But for now Patrick's out in Minneapolis and I'm back at home with Bella. Whenever I'm working she's usually with Antonio's mom and they hang out or some of the hockey girls come and watch her. She had a lot of people begging to take care of her so that's pretty great.
So I do my rounds and make sure everyone is doing good. We're approaching the end of the school so parents were trying to see if they can get their kids in here this summer. I had a lot of the professional players around here ready to come help out and teach whichever sport they're in. It was making for a really good time.
"Excuse me" a man asks me and I turn around. "You're the girl who runs this right" he wonders. I haven't been a girl for a while, but okay.
"That would be me" I say.
"I think my girlfriend brought our baby here a little over a month ago and I'm here to take her back" he explains.
My whole world crashes down as my eyes refuse to shut. Like if I closed them the tears were for sure going to fall on my face. I feel my breathing pick up and I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest.
"What was the woman's name" I finally ask. I didn't know her name but I knew her initials were TAR.
"Her name is Tanya Ariel Richards. She was talking to her friend about coming here a while ago but she didn't leave me up until a few days ago. But our baby has been gone for a long time, she claims she's with family but I know she's not. Tanya doesn't have family so I'm guessing she's here" he says.
"I'm sorry... can you give me a moment" I whisper.
"Ummm sure" he says questionably.
I quickly walk away and head to the front of the building. I call Ryan down because Patrick wasn't around and I didn't trust the other security people like I trusted Ryan. I knew he would know what to do and he was here within 2 minutes.
"What's wrong" he asks as he grabs my shoulder. He's is my god brother, I've known him forever and that's why my dad assigned him to be my secret service guy. I know he wouldn't let this man hurt me.
"Bella's dad is here and I don't know what to tell him" I spit and he stops. He was practically Bella's god father because he's being paid to protect me and now her too. He was a smart guy who my dad assigned specifically to help me so I figured he would know what to do.
"Where is he" he asks.
"He's at the side door by the basketball courts" I explain.
"Alright, here's what we're going to do. I want you to explain to him that Bella is adopted and she's yours now. Legally he cannot take her. If he threatens to take her back remind him that she had been neglectful and up until now he didn't care about her enough to come find her. Convince him she's better off with you and if that doesn't work I'll handle it from there" he explains. I nod my head trying to fathom what I was going to say to this man.
He's bad, I know he's bad. If Tanya felt like she couldn't protect her from him then I damn well was going to try to.
So we head over to the man and I stop in front of him. Ryan was a ways away trying not to escalate the situation unless it needed to be. I try to talk but I choke on the words.
"Where is my baby" he asks getting very impatient.
"She's with me" I say slowly and he raises his eyebrow.
"With you" he asks.
"Yes. Your girlfriend dropped her off asking me to take her in. I showed the adoption agency the note she left me saying that she wants Natalie to be in our care. We changed her name and gave her a chance to be something that isn't a product of your awful actions" I explain.
"You don't know anything about me" he scoffs.
"I know enough. And we both know that she is better off in my hands than in yours" I defend.
"I don't want her in the hands of some glorified democrats daughter" he accuses.
"This has absolutely nothing about politics, nothing about age, gender, whatever else you're going to try to throw at me. This is about the fact that you are not worthy of being her father. This is about the fact that this place has been open and the opportunity for you to get better is right here and you never used it. I can see by the scratches and the blood on your shirt that you aren't taking care of yourself let alone Tanya or Bella" I say.
"Her name is Natalie" he yells.
"Her name has been Bella since we legally adopted her" I assure him.
"You think you're so high in mighty taking in a baby someone left you. That you're some guardian angel because you adopted a baby that doesn't look anything like you. All you're doing is picking up the trash people leave behind, you're not changing shit" he snaps.
"I got hundreds of people in here right now that beg to differ. Because unlike you they don't want to act like they're doing better to make themselves feel good, they want to do better, to be better. Something that you aren't capable of doing and if I let Bella leave with you she wouldn't have the chance either. You can have that little girl as soon as I'm dead. But let me assure you I eat more healthy than anyone you know and I have a body guard right over there ready to get you if you even think about doing something to me" I explain. Ryan sticks his head around the corner and waves and I can tell the man did not like being in this position.
"This isn't over" he threatens.
"I think it is, sir. Your daughter is in great hands, she's loved and she isn't close to being in danger" I defend.
With that he turns around and storms out. He slams the door shut behind him and I jump. Ryan comes over and pulls me into a hug because man do I need it.
"You okay" he asks.
"Yeah. I think I'm gonna go call Patrick" I whisper.
"Alright. I'll be here if you need me" he promises.
I go to my office and pick up my phone. I didn't want to talk about it but I didn't want this to weigh me down either. So I call the one person I would trust anything with and he picks up quickly.
"Hey baby" he answers.
"Hey" I say softly.
"What's wrong" he asks quickly making me smile. He knew me so well. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah... I'm fine. Or I will be. I just, I ran into Bella's dad and he threatened to take her back and even though I know he can't it still makes me upset that he knows that she's here and that we have her" I explain.
"Did he touch you guys" he asks with a bit of anger in his voice.
"No. I had Ryan with me and Bella is with Antonio's mom. He never got to see her" I assure him.
"Alright. We weren't gonna fly back until tomorrow but I'll be on my way home right after the game tonight. We can talk and I can hold you all night" he assures me and I smile.
"I would love that" I admit.