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“Really? You aren’t taking her back to New York?”

“I can’t say we’ll stay here forever. But for right now, no, we’re not taking her back to New York.”

I threw myself at Danny. When he caught me, he stumbled back a few steps, but he kept us on our feet.

“Thank you!”

“But I need you to do something for me. For Dani.”

“What? Anything!” I said. I would do whatever they asked of me to keep Dani in my life.

“I need you to talk to your brother.”

Except that.

I stumbled back, glaring at him. “No. That is unfair,” I said, pointing my finger at him.

“It’s not. Melissa, you work with children. You help them get over their trauma, but you refuse to deal with yours.”

“What about your trauma, Danny? What about what you went through in New York? Have you dealt with that?”

“Not all of it, but Haizley is helping.”

Of course she was. Haizley was amazing. And she was great at what she did.

“Do it for Dani. She’ll need her uncle.”

I looked up at him. He wasn’t playing fair. Implying I would still be her mother. He was using my love for Dani against me. And by the hitch of his eyebrow, he knew it.

“Did Haizley tell you to do this?” This sounded like her. Something she would come up with to manipulate her patient. This was what we were taught. To give our patient choices. Options to work on their trauma based on rewards. Dani was my reward.

“No, Dante did.”

I turned back to the house, glaring at it and the man inside. I wanted to be mad at him. I wanted to yell and tell him what he was asking was wrong. It was too much to ask. But he had seen me working with Dani. He knew how things were done.

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“Not even for her?”

“That’s not fair, Danny.”

“I know. But it’s all we have to work with.”

“Miss Jefferson.”

Danny and I both turned at the voice. Detective Andrew Henderson stood behind us with a gun. Looking around, I wondered where he came from. How could he just appear before us? There had been no sound of a vehicle, no horses riding on the packed dirt.

Danny tried to move in front of me, and Henderson pointed the gun at him. “Don’t move.”

“It’sDr.Jefferson,” I ground out.

“Not the time, Melissa,” Danny whispered.

I knew it wasn’t the time, but this man refused to acknowledge my education and experience. Time and time again, he talked down to me. I could only assume it was because I was a woman.

“What are you doing here?”

“I want my daughter back,” he answered.