SWEETHEART | 18+

Chapter Eleven

I am now wearing my satin nightdress, hair and teeth brushed, and laying against Marcus' chest in his bed. He's already fast asleep, but I'm here, on edge and wide awake. Not a bad kind of on edge, just hyper. I grab my phone from the nightstand and check my notifications. I see plenty of texts and some calls from Viper.

Vix, are you there?

What just happened?

I assume this Marcus guy is Specter too.

Are you good?

I chuckle, leaving him on read, and open Instagram. Nothing's very exciting, just some of my high school friends getting engaged and moms posting recipes. As I'm putting down my phone, I hear a cry in the house. I look at Marcus— he's dead asleep. This must be his daughter.

I slide out of my bed, trying not to disturb Sleeping Beauty over there. Leaving the bedroom, I follow the sound of wailing to a door down the hallway. Softly cracking open the door, I see in the darkness a little girl wiping her eyes with a frown. As she sees me, her eyes widen in fear and she starts crying more, but I start shushing her.

"Hey, it's okay. It's okay. I'm your daddy's friend." I turn on the light and shut the door gently. She slows her crying, wiping her eyes and sniffling.

"Daddy's friend?" She questions, her voice wavering. I smile and nod, slowly approaching her and kneeling next to her bed. She looks a lot like Marcus. Curly black hair, tan skin, and just absolute beauty. I assume she got the green eyes from her mother, Miranda. "What's your name?"

"My name is Daniella. You can call me Dani if you want." I give her a gentle smile. She sniffles again, but thankfully, her crying has stopped. "What about you? What's your name, honey?"

"I'm Madison. I'm five." She holds up her small hand, twiddling her purple-nailed fingers. I 'ooh' and she smiles.

"Five? You're already a lady!" She giggles and puts her hand down. "So, Madison, are you alright? I heard you crying and I wanted to check if everything is okay." She frowns and looks down at her lavender sheets.

"I had a dream about Mommy." My heart pangs at this. What did Miranda do to this poor child? She's only five, and to be having nightmares about her mother...

"Do you want to talk about it?" I whisper, running my fingers over her comforter. She hesitates, looking at me with a grimace, then nods. "Can I come up on your bed?" Another nod. I climb onto her bed, sitting next to her feet. She's cuddling a violet elephant plushie, and staring at me with big doe eyes. "Alright. Tell Dani all about it."

"Well, she was yelling at me. For dropping a glass on accident. And she pulled my hair... like she used to. She said she was going to get rid of Tammy." She holds up the elephant, who I now realize is the Tammy she's mentioning. Pulling her hair? Screaming at her for something she didn't even mean to do? What's wrong with this woman? "I was really scared." I sigh, running a hand through my hair.

"I'm sorry you dreamt about that. Your mommy doesn't seem very kind, does she?" Madison shakes her head 'no, causing me to frown. "Do you want to try going back to sleep? I can stay here if you'd like." Madison's eyes go wide, and they start welling with more tears.

"No. I don't want to go back to sleep." She trembles in her spot. I can't blame her, if I was having dreams like this at five, I would be terrified too.

"Alright, you don't have to. But you have to promise to take a nap later, okay?" I hold up my pinky with a smile. She takes it with her own pinky after a beat and nods. "Good. What do you want to do now, then?" We drop our hands.

"Can I make you a princess?" I giggle. "Please?"

"Of course. I would love to be a princess." She squeals, setting down her elephant— Tammy— and jumping out of bed. I stand and watch her rummage through a toybox, pulling out a tiara and what I think is a Claire's makeup kit. She quickly approaches, pushing my curtain bangs back and opening her makeup case.

"Close your eyes, I need to do your eyeshadow." She giggles. I comply, grinning and shutting my eyes. I feel her brush on eyeshadow my lids, and a moment later, I feel her slathering lipstick onto my lips. She pulls away. "Okay, you can look!" I open my eyes and look into the tiny mirror she had given me.

She must've had a lot of practice because it wasn't as messy as I expected. The lipstick was pinkish-red and barely went beyond my lip line, and the pink eyeshadow was light and in the right areas. I hold up my hand, and Madison high-fives me.

"Great job. I love it." I hand her back the mirror, and she goes on her tiptoes to place the tiara on my head.

"You look so pretty, Dani!" I laugh and pick her up, holding her on my hip.

"Thank you! Of course, you did do this beautiful makeup. I must give you credit." I nuzzle my nose on hers, and she laughs. "Okay, what time is it?" I look around and spot the lilac digital clock on her nightstand. "Six thirty! Already?" I groan. I must've been with Marcus longer than I thought. My thighs still ached.

"We should make Daddy breakfast." Madison gasps, and she brightens up. I mimic her gasp and bounce her on my hip, going and opening her bedroom door.

"You're absolutely right, Madison. We should."