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January 7, 2025, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

It’d been a week since Dante showed up at my office late at night and asked me to keep Dani safe. Every evening at nine on the dot, he sent a coded text letting me know he was alive, and I sent him back a coded text letting him know Dani was safe.

I had successfully transferred my younger patients to another doctor I trusted. I didn’t expect those patients to return. To be honest, I didn’t expect to continue my practice much longer.

I was still working with my older patients that were able to accommodate online sessions. But even a few of them had opted for a referral. The parents and the patients were disappointed in my decision, and I understood their feelings.

But Dani was my priority now.

There were other psychologists and therapists that were competent enough to help those who chose to leave.

Dani had no one but me.

If what Dante said was true, she had a woman named Ellery Thomas. Someone Dante trusted to love and care for his child in the event he no longer could.

The trouble was, I didn’t know this woman. I didn’t know if she was trustworthy to raise a child. Dante had shared a little about her during Dani’s sessions. Ellie had taken on and adopted her husband’s two little girls, and while I found that commendable, they weren’t Dani.

At this point in her life, Dani had spent more time with me than she had this Ellie woman. She had spent more time with me than even her fathers. It was my job to consider what was best for Dani, and I wasn’t convinced that growing up surrounded by bikers was in her best interest.

If her fathers came home and claimed her, I would have no choice but to relinquish her over to their care. But until that time, she had been left in mine. My opinion was the one that mattered now.

Don’t get attached!

Too fucking late for that. We spent most of our days in my office. My home was not set up for a child. It was fine for dinner time and sleeping. I had brought a few of Dani’s favorite items home for her to play with before bed. But during the day when I had online sessions, it was better for her to have the play areas to keep her busy. With her continued silence, none of my patients were aware there was a child in the room while they spoke with me.

Unethical? Maybe. But Dani couldn’t talk, so there was no concern about her repeating anything she might hear. Which wasn’t anything when I wore my earbuds. The reality was that desperate times called for desperate measures. There was no one else I could trust to take care of Dani while I worked.

I kept the sessions limited to before lunch and right after. Dani played in the morning, and after lunch she took a nap on the couch. By the time she woke from her nap, my limited sessions were done for the day, and Dani and I spent the afternoons filled with trips to the zoo, the park, the botanical gardens, and museums.

Dani was being immersed in learning about cultures she’d never been able to before, and it was a joy to see things adults often took for granted through the eyes of a child experiencing it for the first time.

In the evenings, we made dinner together. Dani helped with things like cracking eggs and tearing lettuce for a salad. She giggled and laughed while I talked to her about Dante and how much he loved her.

I knew I should talk about Danny as well, but I was angry at him. I was angry at the way he walked away, and I was angry at the choices he made that caused Dante to walk away.

Despite that, I recorded videos of new things Dani experienced because I wanted them both to have a record and be able to see her enjoy the new adventures we took daily.

In my heart, I knew they both loved her with everything they had. Sadly, I was more than aware of the misguided notion men had, that told them sacrificing themselves for someone else was noble.

Of course it was noble. But nobility was a crock of shit to a little girl who just wanted her family.

Dani had been doing so well; I was afraid her progress would backslide now that both Danny and Dante were gone from her life. She wouldn’t understand why they left. She didn’t understand that they were likely doing whatever they could to make it back to her safely.

All she knew was she had two dads and now she didn’t.

This little girl’s family had been ripped away from her so many times, I was concerned she would never learn to form attachments.

Putting Dani to bed each night consisted of bath time, two cookies, and four stories before she would settle in and lay down. I didn’t mind though. I was proud of the way she had learned to ask for what she wanted despite not being able to voice those wants out loud.

Dani and I had also been learning sign language together. We watched YouTube videos after dinner, and she now had a way to communicate some basic needs like when she wanted a snack or a drink.

After putting her to bed every night, I laid in my bed and cried.

I cried for Dani and everything that had happened to her in the short two years she had been on this Earth. I cried for her mother. Dante hadn’t said whether or not she had been able to hold Dani, or if she had even laid eyes on her. I cried for what both she and Dante had endured at the hands of the bitch who’d held them both captive. Forcing a man to hurt a child in that way was beyond the scope of a sociopath. The woman could only be classified as a psychopath.

Someone who got off on causing pain to others.

I even cried for Danny.