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Sven

A ll the breath left his body. “What’s going on?”

“Natalie,” he called, trying to keep the panic out of his voice, but it was thick with it.

“Son, we need to talk,” he said, brushing aside Sven and Winnie.

Anger rose.

“Sven,” Natalie said carefully behind her.

“Take Winnie,” he said, turning to hand her the baby.

“No. It’s going back with its mother,” his father said with a cold edge.

“The fuck she is,” Sven warned as Natalie took the baby out of his hands before he pushed both Natalie and Winnie behind him.

“Hi, baby,” Stacie said, reaching for Winnie.

But Winnie hadn’t seen her in almost two months. And from the look of the circles under her eyes and the weight loss, it looked like those months had been hard on her. Winnie clung to Natalie. It fortified Sven in what needed to be done because no one was taking his daughter anywhere.

“What the fuck is going on?” Sven growled out.

“You think the PI our family uses wouldn’t tell me about my personalized memorabilia being sold on the internet? Especially one I noticed was missing from your house last time I was here. First, I thought maybe you sold it because you got in trouble, but now I see you’re in even more trouble than I thought. Knocking up a bunny. I thought I taught you better than that.”

“Get the fuck out of my house,” he said to his dad before he pushed past Sven, only for a delivery driver to approach, looking cautios.

“Ummm . . . did someone order donuts?”

Stacie took them from the driver before handing them to Sven.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your little morning,” he said, sneering at Natalie, “But I think we have a situation to sort out.”

“Natalie. Take Winnie to the pool house.”

“No, the baby is going with its mother.”

“If you call my baby ‘it’ one more time, I will make you stop,” Sven said, chest-to-chest with his father.

“What are you going to do? Hit me?” His dad bit back in an angry growl.

While Sven had never thought he would hit his father, if he attempted to let that woman anywhere near Winnie, he would have no choice.

“What do you want?”

“I came to fix your mess. I gave Ms. Marinsky a check, and she is going to take the baby, and you can go back to focusing on your game. It’s what you should have done.”

“No.”

But Sven did need to talk to Stacie, and he needed to do it now before she was in the wind again.

“Stacie. I’m glad you’re here. I want to talk to you about Winnie.”

“Sven. Give her the baby.”

His dad moved to Natalie, who was still behind him, and reached for the baby.

Sven pushed at his father’s chest. “If you come near Winnie or Natalie, I will hit you. And I’ve been working out just like you said I should. Try me.”

He and his dad eyed each other for a long moment.

“I have fixed your problem.”

“You haven’t even begun to fix it. You are incapable of fixing it because you are incapable of being a father. Get the fuck out of my house.”

His dad glared at him. “You think you are some big man. You got a slut pregnant, and now you think you have what it takes to be a father.”

Sven closed his eyes and took a breath. He turned and took Natalie by the cheeks. “Go to the pool house. I’ll be out in a minute.”

Her brows creased as she took him in. “Are you sure?”

“Please. Go.”

Natalie gave a small nod and held Winnie to her chest and, thankfully, turned to leave.

When he glanced at Stacie, tears streamed down her face.

“I’m going to tell you one more time. You need to leave.”

“Sven, be reasonable. I tracked down the mother. I will give her a check monthly to keep her quiet. All you have to do is give her the baby.”

“That baby is your grandchild. How heartless are you?”

“Stacie,” he said, looking over to the women. “I want to talk to you about getting custody of Winnie. If you need help, I’ll help you in any way I can. You’re her mother.”

Stacie looked at the ground and gave her head the smallest of nods while tears streamed down her face.

“I’m going to ask to one more time to get the fuck out of my house.”

“You’re going to throw it all away—and for what. Some baby and some chubby piece of ass.”

Sven’s fist clenched at his side, and his jaw tightened as he tried to hold in the rage he was feeling. “Get the fuck out.”

His dad just puffed up his chest and glared.

That was it. His fist flew up and swung his dad in the face. He fell back on the banister on the stairs, clutching his cheek.

“Do you feel like a big man now?”

“Get the fuck out,” he growled as he fisted the collar of his father’s shirt and shoved him out the door.

His dad and the PI and left. Sven turned his attention to the crying woman standing next to the door, trying to decide if she should leave, too.

“Stacie, can we please talk?”

She nodded, and Sven watched from his front door to make sure his dad drove away.

“Please, come in.”

“You want me to come in after what I did.”

“Well... I’m not gonna lie. I’m still really fucking pissed at you, but you are Winnie’s mother, and that little girl is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I do have some questions for you.”

She nodded, and Sven guided her into the kitchen.

“Can I get you anything?”

She just shook her head and followed.

“Are you okay?”

“Why are you being so nice to me? Did you call the police?”

“No. I thought about it, but I just want to take care of the most important thing. Winnie.”

She nodded. “I have some questions I want to ask you, and I want custody of her. Do you mind if I call my lawyer?”

She shook her head.

“Here, have a donut,” he said, opening the box to her before calling his lawyer.

“DiMaggio.”

“Hey, it’s Sven. Stacie’s at my house. Can you come over?”

“Yep, give me twenty minutes.”

He hung up the phone and went to sit at the breakfast bar next to her.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again, noticing her hands were shaking.

She clenched her fists. “I’m not feeling very well.”

“Withdrawal?”

By the looks of her and the way she’d been acting here, it was all adding up.

She nodded as she wiped away another tear.

“Can I see her?”

Sven’s first reaction was to keep Winnie and Natalie safely locked away in the pool house, but this was Winnie’s mother. His heart broke for her.

“Can you tell me what happened first? Why did you leave?”

She dropped her head and wiped away another tear. Sven handed her a box of tissue and waited for her to explain.

“You don’t know what it was like,” she said, dabbing away her tears. “When we hooked up, I was living a completely different life. I was dancing and modeling. It might not have been a life most people approve of, but I was happy. But when I got pregnant, I lost everything. No one wants to hire a pregnant woman to dance or anything... and I was a party girl.”

She turned to Sven with wide eyes. “But I swear to you, I was clean for my pregnancy. I may not have been ready to be a mother, but I was trying to treat it as a new start. But the world isn’t always kind to strippers who find themselves pregnant.”

Sven nodded and tried to push down the big ball of guilt in his stomach.

“That’s why I tried to find you.”

“I would have helped.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I know that now... but after she was born, I didn’t know how to take care of her. I tried to dance again, but the place I worked before wouldn’t hire me back. I had to work at some really sketchy places and started using again.”

Sven should’ve been mad at her, but all he saw before him was Winnie’s mother, who was utterly broken.

He went and sat next to her and put a comforting hand on her back.

“When I came here, I was just hoping for money. I owed some people some money... I never thought you would take us in... but then you did... and you were so wonderful.” She wiped away a tear. “You were so nice to me, and you seemed to really care about Winnie. I don’t know... I thought you could give her more than I ever could. I mean, look at all this,” she said gesturing to the house around them.

“But you have one thing I will never have. You are her mother. She needs you to be in her life.”

She let out a defeated laugh. “Yeah... she needs an addict that left her. No, she doesn’t.”

“Yes. She does.” He paused and waited for her to look at him. “Do you want help?”

“I can’t afford it.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

She shook her head. “After everything I did, you would still help me?”

“I would do anything for Winnie, and that includes making sure her mother is healthy. But I do want custody of her.”

“Okay, can I see her?”

“Okay,” he said as she turned to go to the pool house. Before he opened the door, he turned back to her. “Don’t leave.”

She shook her head.

He slid open the door. “Don’t rob me either?” he said in a bad attempt at a joke.

She shook her head again.

Before he left, he turned with one final question. “When’s her birthday?”