Egos

Chapter Eleven

"Don't worry that children are never listening to you; worry that they are always watching you."

-Robert Fulghum

Dani continued to cry, for the one-hour drive to Michael's new house. In the front seat, her father attempted to calm his new trophy wife.

"...absolutely unacceptable that she talked to me like that! You should defend your wife, she's nothing compared to me!" Hope was screaming.

"She's the mother of my child, sweetheart," Michael said. No matter how hard he tried to attempt to calm her down, Hope always wanted her honor protected and a knight in shining army to make sure everyone knew she was a queen.

"And? I'm your wife."

"I understand, baby, and I promise you're the only one for me."

"Promises don't make her behavior go away, Michael," she pouted. "You have to say something to her, I refuse to be in a relationship that treats me this-"

Dani's screams doubled in volume, as she cried out for her mother. Interrupting herself, Hope spun on the child.

"Oh, would you shut up, you little brat! No one wants to hear you crying, you're spoiled rotten!" she yelled, heaving herself back against the seat. How could such a small being take any attention away from Hope? She was the light of everyone's life. "This is what I'm talking about. I can't love that girl unless she's one of my own. She's not trained properly."

"Well, she's not a dog," Michael thought.

To his wife, he said "I know, baby. You can work with her all weekend, okay?"

"Damn right," Hope muttered.

"Mommy!" Dani screamed, kicking the back of Hope's seat. "I want Mama!"

Smiling sweetly, with the fakeness that Michael had been so relieved to fall for, Hope said "And I am you're Mama, sweetie."

"No!" Dani yelled. "You're not Mama!"

"Yes, I am," Hope insisted. "My name is Mama Hope, and I'll be taking care of you this weekend."
"Then I go home?"

"You're going home now."

"Wilson street?"

"No," Hope said, rolling her eyes. "Somewhere much, much better."

"I want Mama!" Dani screamed again. Whatever she had done, she knew she could make it right. But these strange people, taking her somewhere far away from home, from Ava? Fear, dread, and loneliness filled her insides. Was she ever going home?

"Well too bad!" Hope yelled.

Michael, placing a hand on Hope's arm, attempted to calm the situation. To be honest, he hadn't wanted to take the child in to begin with. For his part, he was content to deal with Hope and her children. Yet, she had insisted.

Hope knew that taking Ava's daughter would destroy everything the woman had left, taking away all of the love in her heart. Hope Green didn't like to lose. Even if it meant taking on a stupid man, birthing his even stupider son, and changing her prestigious last name. Hope knew when she learned about her pregnancy that she was now a "baby mama," and she wouldn't settle for anything less than being the wife, the baby mama.

"The girl is just scared," Michael told his new wife. "She'll quiet down eventually."

"How do you know?"
"Because she's nothing more than a reflection of her mother." Pausing, he added. "A gift for you, my love. For my infidelity to you with my ex-wife before we met. Do with the child as you please."