Chapter 14

The door opened again.

"Mags. You packing up? It's almost school pickup, Mom wants us over for dinner…"

Kieran's voice broke off as he took in the scene. His gaze went from Damon to Magpie. Whatever easy amusement had been on his face was gone. In its place was something cold and sharp.

He crossed the studio in a few long steps, and, without making a show of it, placed himself between her and Damon. The stance was pure bodyguard.

"Mr. Sterling." Kieran raised a brow. His tone had open disdain in it, no effort to hide it.

"What brings you all the way out here? You need something from my sister?"

Damon's face got darker the moment he registered Kieran. This "brother" of Magpie's had never given him a pleasant moment.

He pressed the anger down and tried to keep his tone civilized. "I'm here to see Magpie and Wren. This is between husband and wife. My brother-in-law shouldn't need to get involved."

"Husband and wife." Kieran said it like he'd heard something absurd. Low laugh. The eyes stayed cold.

"Damon. Are you sleepwalking? Amnesia? Do you have one dollar's worth of relationship with my sister anymore? Do I need to slap the divorce papers across your face so you remember?"

Damon's patience snapped under the second hit in a row. His voice went hard.

"Kieran. I'm showing you the courtesy due to Magpie's brother. But my family is not up for direction from an outsider. Magpie is confused right now. You're her brother. Instead of talking sense into her, you're fanning this?"

"Damon. You're going to listen to me. Magpie is the sister I watched grow up. The one I've kept on my shoulders her entire life."

"You promised us, on your life, that you'd take care of her. And then? You let some parasite humiliate her, over and over. That parasite almost killed Wren. And you still have the nerve to come here and tell me this is family business? To call me an outsider?"

With every sentence, Damon's face turned uglier. Everything he'd been skirting around, Kieran was tearing open in the open air. He was cornered.

He forced a sneer. "That was an accident. Celine was—"

"Shut up." Kieran's voice cut him off, hard. The revulsion in his eyes was plain. "Don't say that woman's name here. Don't bring her into my sister's space. Last warning, Sterling. Get out of my sister's sight. Don't come near her again. Don't go near Wren."

Damon had never been chewed out like this to his face, not by anyone. His temper broke.

"Kieran. Who do you think you are. Giving me orders. I want to see my daughter. That's my right."

"Your right." Kieran's eyes went flat. And then, without a warning, his fist came across and connected with the side of Damon's face.

The hit was fast, hard, and carried years of anger in it.

Damon hadn't seen it coming. He staggered and hit the sofa behind him. The corner of his mouth split. Blood beaded up.

He stared at Kieran, disbelieving.

Kieran shook his hand out and looked down at him, voice iced.

"That one was for Mags. And for Wren. Sterling, I'll spell it out. Up until now, Magpie has been too soft, and she's let you get away with being a piece of trash. That's over. The sister and the niece, they're my people now. You come near them again, you harass them again, I see you, I'm going to put you on the ground. I'm not going to repeat this."

He locked eyes with Damon, then shifted his gaze to Magpie, who had been watching the whole thing without expression. A cold, unfamiliar dread washed through Damon.

Kieran turned away from him and put his arm around Magpie's shoulders. His voice softened in an instant. "It's fine now. Come on. Let's go get Wren."

From start to finish, Magpie hadn't looked at Damon again.

Damon sank down onto the sofa. His cheek was burning.

He refused to believe Magpie would actually let go. If direct didn't work, he'd go through the daughter.

In the days that followed, he changed tactics.

Expensive toys. Imported candies. Handwritten notes. To Daddy's favorite girl, Wren. One package after another, sent to Iris's address.

He timed phone calls to land at preschool pickup hour, ringing the Ashfords' landline.

He'd put his voice into its softest register. "Wren? Do you miss Daddy?"

Every time, Iris cut him off politely. "She's not available. Please don't call here again."

When Magpie learned of it, she didn't raise her voice. She had her mother return every gift unopened and instructed the preschool that no one outside a named list could pick up Wren.

But some things couldn't be kept out.

At bedtime one night, Wren was cradling her stuffed bear. She asked quietly, "Mommy? Why doesn't Daddy live with us? Why did we send his dollies back? He said he misses me…"

The confusion in her daughter's eyes, and the tiny wound of disappointment underneath, landed in Magpie's chest and stayed there.

She wrapped her arms around her. Voice steady. "You've got Mommy, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Kieran. That's plenty, right?"

Wren nodded and pressed her face into Magpie's shoulder. "Yeah. But sometimes… I still miss Daddy."

That was when Magpie realized the avoidance strategy wasn't going to work.