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“I will,” I promised. “I'm not playing around anymore, Mom. You want to keep crossing these boundaries? Then I'm going to enforce them. And you don't want me to get a fucking restraining order. Leave Bella alone.”

“I was just walking around the park and I happened to see her,” she huffed. “What are you saying? If I see her outside, I can't even say hi to my own granddaughter?”

“No,” I said simply.

She clicked her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest, looking around as if to see if anyone was watching. A few moms were, and they were holding their children far away, clearly looking like they were not going to take her side, a mix of pity and morbid curiosity in their gazes.

If there was one thing my mom hated, it was looking bad in front of a crowd, so I leaned into this, speaking a little louder than necessary.

“I'm serious. This is your last warning. I have custody, I don't need to remind you of that. And if you keep trying to take her, you'll be charged with kidnapping.”

She still had her arms crossed, and she had an exasperated look on her face, but I should've known that she was up to something because instead of stomping away, she stood her ground, and her eyes went straight to Juliette.

“You know, I heard something really funny recently,” she started, ignoring what I said about the kidnapping entirely. “Did you know that your Aunt Kathy and I go to the same floristry class?”

When Juliette’s hand grasped the back of my shirt, my heart sank into my stomach.

I knew exactly where she was fucking going with this. Again, my mother never showed up unprepared. It has been quiet recently—a little bit too quiet—and now I realized it was because she was scheming in the background instead of licking her wounds.

Not only did I not want to have Juliette go through this again with my own mother, but I also could not bear to have Bella hear the words that were going to come out of her mouth.

She will ruin us if she has the chance.

“You better watch what you say,” I warned. “Not only is Bella here, but Juliette is important to me, and I will not have you disrespecting her again. I don't care what you heard. I don't care what her aunt said. You will not repeat it here.”

“Come on, Bella,” Juliette whispered, starting to pull her away. But my mom, being the bitch that she was, decided she needed to speak up.

“So it's OK for you to hire your whore as your nanny?” she asked loudly, drawing attention. Onlookers’ faces started to shift.

They started to look at Juliette and her flower dress and hat.

Criticizing her. I could feel it in their gaze.

I grabbed her hand, squeezing it. “Should we talk about how your nanny recently came into some money?”

“Juliette… My chest feels tight.”

I looked down to see Bella gripping Juliette’s dress, her face buried in it. We had to stop this. I wanted nothing more than to make my mother pay, but doing it in a park full of children was not the way. And neither was exposing Bella to all of it.

“You're going to be hearing from my lawyer,” I said to my mom before quickly scooping up Bella, grabbing Juliette’s hand, and rushing to our car.

“Don’t you listen to her,” I said to both Juliette and Bella. “I promise she's not going to do that again. I'll fix this, okay?”

Bella had her nose buried in my shirt and was inhaling deeply.

“Okay,” she mumbled, and then I heard her whispering, counting down from fifty. Something else Juliette had taught her to do.

“That's good, Bella,” Juliette cooed, her hand coming up to rub Bella's back as we walked. “You're doing so good. You've gotten so good at calming yourself down.”

But Bella said nothing. When I set her down, she actually pulled away and buckled herself in the car. We followed suit, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. None of us spoke. I knew both Juliette and I were thinking the same thing.

If my mother decides to open her mouth, we will be in a lot of fucking trouble. Trouble Bella doesn’t need.

As usual, just when I thought my life was perfect, it was all threatening to crash down.

* * *

I leaned back in my chair with a sigh. “Great, Laura. Again, sorry to bother you so late…”

“Don’t worry about it, Lux. I’ll finish this tonight and follow up tomorrow.”

We hung up, and I was left with an impossible heaviness on my shoulders.

This is it. We’re actually doing this.

Some part of me always knew it would come to this, I just didn’t want to admit it to myself. I wanted to believe that even if my mother was a manipulative bitch to me, maybe she could redeem herself for Bella.

But that was wishful thinking.

I stood up from my chair, stretching out the ache in my muscles. Walking out of my office and down the hallway, I paused when I reached Bella’s room. The small, muffled sound of Juliette reading to her reached my ears.

The exhaustion was starting to overtake me then. I leaned my head against the door so I could hear her more clearly. Her smooth, rhythmic voice filtered through, and I found myself relaxing because of it.

When she finished, I found it hard to pull myself away. I wanted to slip in and crawl into bed with them, fall asleep to the sweet sound of Juliette reading.

“Again?” Juliette asked in a voice barely discernible through the door.

“Maybe… more… if that’s okay,” Bella said in an even smaller voice. I couldn’t make out everything, but I was grateful she was asking her to read again. It allowed me a selfish moment with them.

Even if we were separated by a wall, both emotionally and physically, this was the closest I’d felt to them. I enjoyed watching them together. Loved seeing the comfort they found in each other.

It was okay if I was still on the other side of this wall, watching over them like a guardian angel. But I couldn’t help but think Juliette was the real angel here.

I didn’t have Juliette’s ability to get Bella to open up. To get her to forget about everything. Yet she came in and did it effortlessly.

I’ll fix this. For them.

I promised to keep Bella safe. Make her happy. Even if that meant spilling blood. My mother was unpredictable, and after the years of abuse at her hands, I knew she’d be capable of anything.

Whatever came our way, I would protect both of them. Our new little family. It was us against the world.