Chapter 41

CHAPTER 41

Skye

D etermined and optimistic, I head back home. The drive along the 101 from Santa Barbara to the edge of Malibu takes less than an hour. The sky darkening as I pull into the driveway, I muse how I already think of Finn's compound as my home. Where I belong. With my husband and child. My family. Parking my Jeep, I make a decision to have dinner with them. Something I've never done before.

To my surprise, the last person I want to see greets me in the kitchen.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the babysitter!"

It's Kayla, dressed in another one of her white designer ensembles. I meet her glaring green eyes, as hard and cold as raw emeralds. My gaze stays on her as she saunters to the Sub-Zero refrigerator. She swings the door open and pulls out a chilled bottle of Prosecco.

"It's a shame Phineas doesn't have any peaches so I could make a Bellini," she mutters as she expertly uncorks it and pours some of the sparkling wine into a flute. Without offering me any, she returns to the island where I'm sitting and takes a seat opposite me. Her monstrous bag is on the counter.

She sips her drink. "I was just about to leave."

Don't let me stop you.

"And if I didn't have to pick up my car, thanks to Phineas who deserted me yesterday, I wouldn't be here at all." She scoffs. "I can't believe he had the gall to make me Uber!"

Poor little Miss Entitled.

Imbibing more of her sparkling wine, she gives me the once over. "Maybe it's good you're here too. We can have a little girl talk."

"I don't think there's anything to talk about." My voice is icy.

"Think again." She fires the words at me. "It's one thing babysitting the little imp—"

"Excuse me. I'm the child's teacher!"

"Whatever. But it's another thing babysitting her father."

"What are you talking about?"

"Puh-lease. Don't tell me Miss Know-It-All doesn't have a clue."

Fortified after my afternoon with Sister Marie, I narrow my eyes at her. "Enlighten me."

She sneers. "I see the way you look at him. Watch his every move. Like a pathetic puppy. You're practically drooling."

Her python eyes take on a venomous glint. "You'd better keep your hands off him if you know what's good for you."

My eyes don't stray from her. "Is that a threat?"

"No, it's a statement." She flashes the big diamond on her ring finger at me. "He belongs to me."

No! He belongs to me! I so want to spit out the words and tell her he kissed me, but bite my tongue. My blood is simmering, my temperature rising faster than the bubbles of her beverage. My next words tumble out of my mouth.

"I know about your past."

She purses her lips, her expression piqued with curiosity. " Enlighten me ."

"A BA from Yale? An MFA from Sotheby's? I. Don't. Think. So."

Not reacting, she takes another sip of her drink. I'm not deterred.

"A little cocaine habit, perhaps?"

Turning beet red (Ha! That got her!), she slams her flute on the granite. "So you've been spying on me?"

"No. Researching. I like to know whom I'm dealing with."

"Well, the past is the past. And thanks to all of Daddy's connections, my little screw-ups don't matter anymore."

"Does Finn know about them?"

"You mean Phineas? I suppose he does, but his past isn't so perfect either. And besides, everyone in the art world snorts a little. It's not a secret, Miss Goody-Goody."

She holds me in her contemptuous gaze. "You better be careful. I have a lot of power. One wrong move and I can bring Phineas down. And trust me, he'll never recover."

There's some truth to her words. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. The last thing I want to do is destroy Finn's career, something he's worked so hard for. While I weigh my options, she continues.

"It's funny how life works. Some people like me fall up. Others like Phineas's ex fall down... literally. No pun intended."

Is she referring to my life-defying accident? Does she know who I really am? Was she involved?

An icy chill sends goosebumps to my arms as she laughs at her cleverness. "You're the kind of spineless person who's doomed to fall down."

Inside, I'm burning up with rage; I feel my cheeks heating. I'm not Finn's ex-wife. I am his wife. And the last thing I am is spineless!

"Finn doesn't have an ex -wife!"

With a fling of her head, she lets out a huff. "Semantics. Whatever way you look at it, she's gone."

Wrong! She's alive and well and you're looking right at her!

As fury mounts inside me, she reaches inside her bag and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. Marlboro Lights. Opening the box, she slips one out, and to my horror, lights it up and takes a drag. Tilting her head back, she blows out a puff of smoke. The ring floats in the air.

"Please put the cigarette out." I try to temper my anger. How dare she smoke around an asthmatic child?

She shoots me a defiant look. "Are you kidding me? You're telling me what to do?"

This time, I don't hold back. "Put out the damn cigarette, Kayla. The smoke is really bad for Maddie's asthma."

"Asthma shmasma."

Throwing back her head, she takes another drag and this time deliberately blows a cloud of smoke in my face.

I choke. Not so much on the smoke but on the bile that is rising in my throat. I can't let this insipid woman marry my husband. And become the mother of my precious daughter. I can't! My mother used to tell me: "What goes up, must come down." Whatever it takes, I'm taking Kayla down. Starting now. The tough, ballsy, fearless Skylar Collins is back with a vengeance. I hold her fiercely in my gaze.

"Kayla, get the hell out of here."

"How dare you talk to me like that?!"

"Kayla, what the hell are you doing?"

The gruff, angry voice is accompanied by thudding footsteps. With a jerk of my neck, I look over my shoulder.

Finn! Marching toward us, his face dark with rage.

"Oh, hi, darling!" In the blink of an eye, the tone of Kayla's voice has gone from malevolent to saccharine. But it falls on deaf ears.

His paint-stained hands clenched by his sides and his lips pinched tight, Finn steamrolls straight up to Kayla and snatches the cigarette out of her hand.

"Jesus, Phineas. What are you doing?"

With a sharp flick of his wrist, he tosses the half-smoked butt onto the floor and then stomps it out with the toe of his Nike. His eyes, flickering with fury, meet Kayla's.

"I thought you gave up smoking."

"Well, I did. But the little chat I was just having with your little helper mandated a ciggie."

Finn breathes in and out from his nose. Smoke is virtually coming out of his flaring nostrils. He looks like he may implode. "I thought I told you never to smoke in my house."

Kayla rolls her eyes before shooting Finn a look of innocence. "Whoops. Just a little slip up."

Finn's eyes power into her. "A little slip up? Are you fricking kidding me, Kayla? Maddie could have a major asthma attack from inhaling particles of smoke. Don't you know it's a major irritant?"

Just then, a bright little voice fills the room.

"Daddy!"

Maddie! I pray she won't break into a coughing fit. She doesn't.

Clutching Kangy, she gallops up to her father. As if the ugly conversation between Kayla and him never happened, his face lights up as he lifts her into his arms. My own rage dissipates at the sight of them. Joy fills my heart. Her limbs curled around him, he affectionately tugs at one of her braids.

"Hi, sunshine! Tell me something good!"

"Scarlet and I drew pictures yesterday while you were away. Coloring!"

"You did?"

Maddie bobs her head. "Uh-huh. Wanna see what we made?"

"Of course!" He lowers our twinkly-eyed daughter to her feet, and she scampers over to the kitchen counter to fetch our two drawings. She prances back to us with our creations dangling from her hand.

"Daddy, look at what I made. A family!" She shows him the threesome she drew—Finn, her, and me.

Finn breaks into a dazzling smile. "That's awesome, baby girl!"

Maddie beams at her father's compliment while Kayla screws up her face.

"That doesn't look a bit like me!"

Maddie butts in. "It's not you. It's Scarlet."

Kayla's jaw drops to the floor. Her eyes smolder.

"You know what, Finn? I came all the way over here to discuss your upcoming exhibition at Jaime Zander's gallery. An exhibition that can make us millions. But you seem to be more interested in this totally amateur, juvenile piece of trash."

Finn's smile falls off his face. Rage burning in his eyes, he meets her fiery gaze. His voice rises. "Kayla, I've told you. Nothing comes before my daughter."

His words resonate deep inside me. Remorse settles in the pit of my stomach. If only I had felt this way before. I suddenly hate every story I broke after she was born. Every minute that took me away from my beautiful girl. The last one, whatever it was, literally and figuratively.

With an angry scowl scrawled on her face, Kayla hops off the stool, slamming her flute on the counter. She narrows her eyes at Finn.

"Darling, when you come to your senses, call me. And don't forget that tomorrow we have a meeting with Jaime at his gallery."

Grabbing her bag, she stalks out of the kitchen.

From the corner of my eye, I see Maddie poke her tongue at her.

A smile crawls across my face.

My darling sassy daughter.

She's a spitfire.

I love her so much.

I've begun my fight for her father.

And I have her on my side.