Söbriety • Mötley Crüe •

53. 1st Birthday

Warnings: Mentions of Previous Drug Use, Abuse

Ryan's POV

My overwhelming excitement won't allow me to go back to sleep after the sun rises, no matter how hard I try. Wylie is one whole year old today. My perfect baby girl has taken her first trip around the sun, and absolutely nothing can get in my way of giving her the best day ever.

Excitement is soon overshadowed by anxiety, a rather long to do list replaying over and over in my mind. We still have to get the cake and the food, decorate the house, and make ourselves along with Wylie look presentable. The past couple of months we've been hibernating with each other in the house, and putting on normal clothes instead of sweats will be an odd activity for us.

"Wake up!" Nikki groans and slaps my hand away as I push on his shoulder, but if I can't sleep then he's not allowed to either.

"No."

"Nikki, wake up! It's Wylie's birthday!" I hop on the bed on my hands and knees like a child, excited as if it's my own birthday.

"What time is it?" He rubs his eyes as he looks at the clock on the nightstand. "Ryan, it's 8 AM. Leave me alone."

"We have a lot to do, Nikki! Get up, please." I pop my bottom lip out in a pout and he rolls his eyes.

"What do I get out of it?" He quirks an eyebrow as he sits up, his perfectly tan chest making heat rise in between my thighs.

"You can do whatever you want to me later if you get up and go get her cake for me. Sharise should be here in an hour to help decorate." He rubs his chin as he considers my offer, as if he actually has a choice.

"Whatever I want?" I nod quickly, debating on if we have time for that now, but there's too much to do and Wylie's party comes first today. "Fine." He yawns as he pulls the covers back and swings his legs over the side of the bed.

"Thank you, my love." I wrap my arms around him from behind and plant small kisses along his neck and shoulder.

"Don't start that unless you can finish it." He huffs and I let him go with my arms raised in surrender. "I'm getting in the shower."

A rumbling engine outside grabs my attention as he starts the water, and my eyebrows raise in surprise when I look out the window and see the mail truck pull into the driveway. They don't normally run this early. Perfect timing, though, I've been waiting for Wylie's last present to come from the Sears catalog I ordered off of a month ago. I was starting to worry it wouldn't come in time.

I wrap my robe around me as I race down the stairs, excited to see if the toy set is as cool as everyone made it out to be. For the last two months Wylie has been obsessed with animals, particularly horses. Every time she sees them on TV, she screams and puts her face as close as possible against the screen. I figured getting her a My Little Pony set would be a point for mom.

My face falls in disappointment when I open the mailbox and see no boxes, just a bunch of letters. I huff in annoyance as I flip through them, my heart starting to race at one in particular.

California Women's Correctional Facility

Happy birthday is written in big bold letters on the back of the envelope, and I do my best to swallow down the nausea creeping up my throat. How the fuck does she know my daughter's birthday, and why exactly does she think she's entitled to send her happy wishes?

It's times like these I truly despise being in the public eye, I'll never be able to escape her sight. As much as I try to fight it, my overwhelming curiosity of what exactly she knows about my daughter forces me to open the letter.