Little Red

THIRTY NINE

The next morning, Dani found herself staring at the T.V screen with her baby brother lying at the foot of the bed between her legs as they both watched the familiar little brown monkey hop around. Both of their parents had gone in for work, so she'd been stuck on babysitting duty...not that she had minded, of course. She was always more than happy to spend extra time with her brother, and it was clear he was just as happy as she was, if not more.

"Look, Ellie! He fell!!" Frankie said with a giggle as he pointed to the TV, and Dani laughed at how genuinely funny he thought it had been.

Before she could respond, however, the door opened, which caused them to turn their heads towards it, and Dani's eyes immediately widened at the man who had walked in.

"Oh my God," she whispered while keeping his gaze.

The man sent her a small smile.

"Hey there, Ella Bella," he greeted with a wave, and Dani's heart jumped at the familiar nickname.

Frankie looked between them with a frown before he settled his eyes on his sister. "Ellie?" he called out warily.

Dani blinked before turning her head towards him.

"Who is that? And why did he call you that?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

The siblings then turned their heads at the sound of a chuckle to see the man with a smile on his face as he fully stepped into the room.

"I'm Trevor Barnes...her father," Trevor answered for her.

Frankie's eyes widened in surprise. "You are?!" he asked before frowning in confusion as he turned his head back to his sister. "But I thought Daddy was your daddy, Ellie?"

At the sound of her "father" chuckling again, something sparked inside Dani that made her narrow her eyes at him as she quickly pulled Frankie up to where she was, which made the boy grunt in frustration.

"Hey, I was fine where I was, Ellie!" he pouted before softening his features when she gave him a look.

"Dad is my dad, bud," she said to him while keeping her eyes on the man by the door.

Trevor frowned at her words as he took obvious offense to them, but Dani didn't care about his feelings...because she didn't care about him.

"Daniella-"

"I don't know what the hell you want from me, but I want nothing to do with you. So why don't you do us all a favor and get the hell out of here," she cut him off through gritted teeth.

Trevor narrowed his eyes. "That is no way to talk to your father, young lady," he scolded, making her scoff.

"My father?! Please! My father left for the Lumberyard this morning and is probably on his way back over here. You are merely nothing but a man who just so happened to have given me half of my DNA," Dani said with a glare.

The frown returned to Trevor's features as he looked at his daughter with eyes full of hurt, but again Dani didn't bother to apologize for what she had said because she knew she wouldn't have meant it.

"Why are you here?" she then asked. "Don't you have two other children to take care of? Your better children?"

Trevor shook his head and said, "Daniella, you know that's not what I think of you. And I never will think that of you...Did you not read the letter? Vanessa, she's sorry for what she said to you and she didn't mean-"

"If she really was sorry, she wouldn't have said what she did in the first place," Dani said. "And if you didn't really think that, you would've defended me when she did say it instead of taking her side! Get out of here! I don't want to see you!!"