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1194 Words
“All right girls. Buckle up. Lilly, stay in your car seat.”
“Dada. No!”
“Yes,” Ford chuckled. “If you’re good, we can have ice cream later.”
“Ice Cream!” the girls cheered before the two oldest started discussing what flavor they would choose.
When Ford pulled out of the drive, to head out to get groceries for the weekend visit with his daughters, he noticed something was off when he was pulling out of the gated home. A slew of cars and camera persons blocked his path, and he just knew they would try to harass him and his daughters.
“Damn,” he said under his breath. “Paparazzi.”
Despite living in a gated community, there were days when the famous wrestling superstar couldn’t catch a break when it came to the cameras flashing. Being followed by sleazy men trying to take photos of him and his children was the worst of being so high profile. He didn’t get many chances to be with the girls after his divorce, and those media vultures were ruining his happy weekend at home. That too came very few being a wrestler with a life on the road. The fact he lived in a rural area didn’t stop local photographers from always trying to cash in on his fame.
Watching out the rearview mirror, Ford rolled his eyes with a sigh.
“Daddy, who’s that man? He’s taking pictures,” Violet said from the back seat. “Why is he chasing us? Daddy, what’s going on? I’m scared.”
Looking to his left, a car passed them while someone hung out the side, snapping photos of him and his daughters. Even more of a reason that he had been meaning to get his windows tinted in all his vehicles.
“Just sit back, baby. Ignore them.”
As the car next to them swerved, he dodged it from getting sideswiped. “Son of a b***h!”
“Daddy said a bad word,” Daisy, the middle child, told her older sister.
Speeding up, he tried to pass them, to no avail. Once two more cars surrounded them, he had enough. Thanks to the drama his wife had caused, his children were in danger because of the constant hounding of these media hacks since the attack.
When one more swerve came toward his car from the intrusive camera persons, he slammed on his brakes and pulled to the side of the road with a screech. “Stay in the car, girls.”
“Daddy, I’m scared,” Violet said with a whimper once more. “And Lilly got out of her seat.”
“Buckle her back in. I’ll be right back. And Lilly, stay in the car seat.”
“No seat, Dada,” she whined, trying to wiggle from her oldest sister's grip.
He didn’t have time to deal with his youngest's naughty behavior. What mattered now was their safety. Stepping from the car, Ford went straight for the cameraman’s SUV that had almost run him off the road. The paparazzi, who were still hanging out the passenger’s side window, kept taking photos, as his friend got out videoing the celebrity on his cell phone. They were relentless and didn’t even seem to care about the children's welfare.
Grabbing the man from the window, Ford dragged him to the ground. “Are you people crazy? You could have killed my daughters!”
Surrounding the SUV, more camera people surrounded him and his girls. In his vehicle, he could hear his daughter’s scared cries as one man tried to open the door.
Quickly, Ford ran to grab the man, throwing him away. “Get away from my kids!”
When the onslaught of questions and camera flashes were in his face, he wanted to hit every one of them, but he couldn’t. He’d end up in jail for battery. And worse, his daughters would see their father pummel some asshole paparazzo.
“Get away from my car, now!”
But his yelling only enticed them more to ascend on the family. When he saw one was reaching to take his crying three-year-old, Lilly, Ford was livid.
The journalist yelled, “Hey! Why doesn’t that kid have a seatbelt on? That’s dangerous. Are you putting your kids in danger, Ford?”
Holding the girl to his chest, she wept, scared of the cameras and the people yelling. Placing her back in her car seat, he kissed her forehead. “Stay in the seat, okay? Please. If not, they won’t leave us alone.”
“K, Daddy.”
“Good girl.”
After ignoring the cameras and hopping into the driver’s seat, he didn’t care what those people thought. It was all lies that they spread about him anyway. Why not one more?
When one man tried to grab his car door, he had enough. “Get away or I’ll run you over. You’re scaring my kids. Get your damn photos and leave us the f**k alone.”
That seemed to do the trick because they backed away, still snapping photos.
“Daddy, you said a bad word.”
With a grumble, he turned to look at his middle daughter. “I know, Daisy. Sit in your seat and buckle up.”
“Okay. I sorry.”
As Ford finally got away from the group of cameramen, he let out a breath. “This isn’t good. They’re going to drag me through the wringer with this.”
Slowly little Violet climbed over the seat into the front, buckling herself into the passenger’s seat. Looking at her father, she could tell he was upset. “It’s okay, Daddy. Don’t cry.”
He didn’t even realize he was until she reached up and wiped a tear away.
“Thanks, baby. Let’s skip groceries. How about pizza?”
“Yeah!” Daisy squealed. “Pizza Castle!”
***
It was a day early when Naomi showed up to pick up her daughters.
“Naomi, I have another day with them. It's my weekend for visitation. This isn’t fair.”
“That was before you were caught not having our daughter in a safety seat.”
“She was, Mommy,” Violet tried to interrupt.
“Not from what I saw online. I’m taking them back to England.”
Putting her daughters in the back of her car, Naomi was just being over dramatic as always. “Oh, by the way. I’m taking you back to court because you’re providing a dangerous environment for them. I’ll be requesting full custody.”
“Naomi, you can’t do that.”
“Watch me.”
Ford was devastated as he watched his ex-wife drive away with his daughters, who were crying and looking out the back window. He hated this. He just wished there was a way to put an end to all this and protect his daughters from the chaos that had become his life.
Deep down he knew. It was another setup brought on by his heartless ex. Only this time, she’d take the most precious thing in his life away from him. His daughters.
- Writer
