his little girl // jiley

Chapter XXX

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C H A P T E R
T H I R T Y
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James's POV

"ON A SCALE from one to ten, how illegal is murder?" I ask Eldon, pacing back and forth. He shrugs. "Pretty high," he says. "You could get away with it, though. I'll help you hide the body?"

"I don't know." I say. "I just feel like murder is... logical." Eldon nods. "I have no idea what we're talking about." He admits.

"Alfie?"

"Oh, yeah," he says. "No, we're definitely murdering him. We hate him right? Mm. What's he done?"

I hesitate. Riley told me not to tell anyone, but I mean, it's Eldon. He's not going to do anything. He's an idiot.

"A lot of things," I tell him. "A lot of bad things and that's why we're going to hurt him."

Eldon shrugs again. "Sounds good."

I sit down. The front door swings open and I'm filled with hope that it's Riley. It isn't. It's just Hazel.

"Hey," she says.

"Hey, sweetheart," I say.

"Hey, Hazel," Eldon says, and they do their handshake.

"Is Riley coming over?" She asks.

"Um... why do you ask?"

"I saw her car. Well, I think it was her car. She didn't get out of it, though."

I nod. "Well, totally unrelated to that... I'm going to the parking lot. Bye," I say, quickly leaving. They don't say anything.

I jog down the four flights of stairs (stupid elevator hasn't been working for the past, I don't know. Year?).

The cold air hits my face when i swing open the heavy door. The first thing I see is Rileys car, and her inside it, crying. My heart shatters.

She deserves none of this.

I walk over and get into the front seat next to her. She looks over at me but doesn't say anything.

"Alfie's a jerk," I say. She nods in agreement. "You should seriously set him up with your sister, though."

Riley laughs.

I look into the back seat at Lydia, sleeping peacefully in her car seat. She has small tufts of dark hair and light skin, and she's tiny, probably the smallest baby I've ever seen. And she's adorable.

"Come on, lets go inside," I say, smiling warmly.

She smiles back. "Okay."

We get out of the car and I lift the car seat with Lydia in it out of the car, carrying it up the stairs.

When we get up to my apartment, I whisper "welcome home," to Riley. She smiles again.

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I'm awoken by a crying baby in the middle of the night. I can see Riley stirring, but I tell her to go back to sleep, and I get up and creep into Lydia's room (the living room, basically. We're short on rooms at the minute.)

I lift her up as she wails, quietly soothing her. I rock her slightly.

"You've got quite the lungs, haven't you," I whisper, smiling. "Wake the whole house."

I hear Hazel stir in her room briefly, but then it goes quiet again (other than the crying baby, obviously). I'm acctually really proud of Hazel.

She didn't even make a fuss through any of this. Riley moving in, then her and Riley moving out, then moving back with me part-time, getting a new half sister.

The only thing she complained about was Alfie (which I still have to deal with. How dare he, hurt my daughter...)

She starts to quieten down, and I kiss her forehead gently. I place her back in her cot and walk back to my bedroom, slipping into bed again.

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Hazels dance competition is the next day, and Riley stays with us to get away from Alfie for another day. We put off dealing with him.

Hazel is really excited, but I can tell she's nervous as well. She talks a lot on the car ride over. That's a sign she's nervous, usually. Or she's just high on sugar.

When we get there the whole junior team is waiting in the dressing room, and seeing as Hazel is first up, she has to change really fast.

I notice briefly when she's changing the massive blue/purple bruise that spreads across her whole stomach. Tears prick in my eyes but I blink them away.

Riley obviously notices too, as she grabs my hand and squeezes it. "That bastard," I whisper.

"I know," Riley sighs.

Hazels costume is just a simple white leotard/dress thing (honestly no clue how you would describe it. A fancy dressy leotard? With sequins? I don't know.)

She looks beautiful, even though she was reluctant to wear it. She's still not girly, at all, even though all the girls have been trying to change that. She refuses to have anything to do with make up or dresses or princesses. And the girls blame me!

She runs up to the wings of the stage just a few minutes before she has to go on stage. I hug her and wish her luck and then me and Riley go and take our seats in the audience.

I can't stop thinking about the bruise on her stomach. How badly could he have hurt her? Why didn't she tell me? Am I a bad dad for not doing anything? I didn't even know.

I know I need to get information form Riley, but Im scared to ask her. At the hospital when we tried to talk about it, she broke down. And that's been her reaction to it since.

My thoughts are interrupted by the music starting and Hazel walking on stage. I brace myself as she dances. Please go well, please go well...

She dances flawlessly. Honestly, she's never performed this well. I cheer for her loudly when she finishes, and then me and Riley both go back stage again to see her.

She runs over to me excitedly and jumps up on me, hugging me. "You did so well!" I say.

"Thank you," she says, breathlessly.

"You're so gonna win."

"Yeah, I hope so."

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Sorry for the crappy ending, I didn't know how to end it loll.
Hope you'd enjoyed this!! Promise more will happen in the next few chapters!!
Remember to vote and comment, your comments always make my day :)
- emma ♥️