The guy in the diner (Hiccstrid)

Part 14

"Go to your bedroom, baby," Astrid said firmly. Emma looked up, her big blue eyes seeing the determination in her mother's face and she nodded dumbly, waving to the stranger and trotting away.

"She's perfect," Dagur said, his pale green eyes trailing after the small shape as the door closed.

"What are you doing here, Dagur?" Astrid demanded, her fists clenched and eyes glittering with anger. "You have no right to be here." His carrot brows dipped, his face hardening.

"She is my daughter!" he told her sharply. She marched up to him, her entire shape rigid with anger.

"No, she's not!" she snapped. "You dumped me after the Prom and you'd gotten what you wanted. You told me she wasn't yours when I told you I was pregnant. You called me a slut and a liar so all my friends dumped me like trash when I sent you the sonogram when I was twelve weeks. You had your parents take out a frickin' restraining order against me when I sent you pictures from her twenty week scan and what was it you said?" Her voice had risen and was hard and bitter. "Ah yes-I have a glittering career as a Football player and the last thing I need is some dopey high school whore claiming I fathered her bastard brat. It's not mine and never was. I never want to hear from you again!"

He gave a broad smile, his buff shape topping hers by almost a head.

"Baby, you know I never meant it," he said smoothly.

"Yes, you frickin' did!" she shouted. "You ruined my life!"

"Ooh, you shouldn't say that about the kid-she'll get a complex and need a psychologist! Hardly the behaviour of a fit mother," he sneered. She frowned at him, a frisson of anxiety beginning to stir in her stomach.

"What?" she gasped. "Emma is the best thing in my life. But you ruined my life, Dagur, by lying about me, turning all my friends against me and refusing to be part of my daughter's life. You've been absent for four years!" He walked close to her, towering over her and raised a hand to stroke her face but she flinched back and glared.

"Honey, you really need to learn to count," he scoffed. "She's only three..."

"She existed from right after that night!" she bit back, her face flushed with anger. "She existed when I told you about the test and the scans and all the appointments you missed not to mention the birth and all the years since! That is over four years, Dagur. You can't just swan back in and decide you want to be Daddy! I've managed fine without you and I'll carry on managing!"

"Just managing?" he asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a huge wad of money. He peeled off a dozen-all hundred dollar bills-and shoved them into her hand. "There you are, babe-a little down payment on my missing support payments. Buy yourself a new apartment!" She shoved the money back into his hand.

"I don't want your money!" she shouted. "And I don't want you near my daughter!"

"She's my daughter too," he said, his tone growing more menacing. "I'm not being unreasonable, Astrid. I just want to share!" She backed up a pace, hearing the threat.

"I don't want you anywhere near my child," she told him evenly. He shoved the money back in his pants and drew himself up.

"Oh, I will be near her," he told her in a soft, very threatening tone. "I was trying to be nice, trying to share-but if you won't share, I'll take her for myself!"

"You wouldn't dare!" she spat. He gave a cold smile.

"I'm rich," he told her. "I can buy what I want-including my brat. I'll get her a nanny, put her in a good school, let her mix with the right people-while you're in a scummy one bed apartment and work in a Diner..."