Page 104 of Fierce-Jax

She opened the glass doors. “I’m home.”

“Mommy,” Gianna yelled and got up from the sandbox and came running, toys and sand particles flying everywhere.

Dillion put her hand up. “Shoes off before you come in.”

She learned the hard way that half the sandbox filled her daughter’s shoes.

Gianna sat on the deck and pulled them off and then her socks, then came to her for a hug.

“I’m hangry,” she said. “Grandma told me to go play though and I’d forget about it. I didn’t.”

She laughed. It was better than tears if her daughter used that word.

“How about I start dinner now,” she said, moving to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and pulled out a package of chicken tenders. They’d cook quickly in the air fryer with some seasonings on them.

She grabbed a big sweet potato and stabbed at it with a knife, threw it in the microwave, and then pulled out two containers of berries to mix and add to their dinner.

Well rounded enough and would be finished in about ten minutes.

“Can you play while I go change?”

“I’m going to color.”

She walked upstairs once she knew Gianna was set and changed out of her clothes. When she returned, the potato was done so she pulled it out and cut it in half to let it cool, then turned the chicken over to finish on the other side and grabbed the mail on the table.

Most of it was junk, but a handwritten envelope addressed to her caught her eye.

No return address, but it didn’t seem to be junk either.

She ripped it open and blinked her eyes to see the handwritten letter.

She scanned it quickly, her heart racing that Alec’s mother was reaching out to her.

Dillion hadn’t even known his parents knew she existed let alone that Alec had a child.

But they knew now and they were threatening to go to court for grandparent visitation and that they hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

She was shaking her head rapidly, the air fryer was beeping, and Gianna was calling her name.

She finally felt Gianna tugging on her shorts. “Mommy. I’m hangry and dinner is done.”

Her eyes shifted to her daughter.

Her child.

She would not let anyone take her child.

Least of all people who didn’t know she existed and she knew nothing good about them.

She put the letter down for now.

“Let’s eat,” she said. Though she knew the food wouldn’t go down well.

All she did was move it around and put a few pieces in her mouth.

Gianna didn’t notice or didn’t understand and it was for the best.

After her daughter’s bath and a few bedtime stories, she reread the letter again, then pulled out her laptop to research if they could even take her to court for that.