Claiming His Heir

Chapter 4: The wrong soil

Sadie's POV

Six years.

That was the amount of time it had been since I'd walked out of my father’s house and into the unknown. Six years of clenching my teeth, swallowing my pride, and learning that resilience was not only a quality but also a survival skill.

I stood in the small kitchen of our second-story apartment in the city of Oakhaven, stirring a pot of oatmeal. The radiator clanked in the corner, a losing battle against the drafty windows, but it was our own, at least.

"Mommy, look!"

I turned to see Lily, my five-year-old ball of chaos, standing on one foot on the living room rug.

"Very impressive, monkey," I said, smiling at her. "But boots on for school, okay? The bus is in twenty minutes."

The front door opened, and the smell of stale tobacco and cologne wafted in before the man himself.

Derek.

He was tall, lanky, and had a smile that used to be attractive but now just seemed oily. He was a shift manager at a logistics warehouse. I remembered meeting him three years ago when I was living in a shelter, when I was at my lowest, when I was scared out of my mind. He'd offered me a couch, a room, a whole house for me and Lily. I'd been grateful. I'd been so grateful.

"Lily, grab your bag," Derek said, dropping his keys loudly on the counter. "Hey," he said, walking over to me. "Morning, beautiful." He slid a hand around my waist. I tensed, but I let him pull me in. "You're late. I thought you were picking up the early shift?"

"Yeah. Switched it," he muttered, kissing my neck. His lips felt off. Wrong. "Hey, I was thinking... maybe I take you and the kid out for pizza tonight? Celebrate?"

"Celebrate what?"

He shrugged, looking evasive. "Just... life. Being us."

Lily emerged from the hallway, dragging her backpack behind her. She looked at Derek, and her small nose wrinkled in distaste. She said nothing, but that look said enough. She had never been very friendly towards him. She had been polite, yes, but there was something about the way she treated him that made me uncomfortable. It was as if she saw him for what he really was.

"I don't want pizza," Lily said softly. "I want to stay home with Mommy."

"Come on, Squirt," Derek said in a teasing tone that made my back hairs stand on end. "Don't be a brat."

"She's not being a brat," I said smoothly, pulling away from him. "We'll discuss dinner later. Go get your shoes, Lil."

Once Lily was safely in her room, I turned to Derek. I knew, of course. I wasn't the naive girl I'd been at twenty-one. I knew he came home late, reeking of perfume that wasn't mine. I knew about the "overtime" he didn't earn. But he'd given us a home when I'd had nothing but a backpack and a baby. I felt I owed him a debt of patience, waiting for the right time to sort our lives out without leaving us in poverty.

"Derek," I began. "About tonight..."

But he interrupted me, his eyes flicking to his watch. "Sadie, gotta run. We'll talk later."

He left before I could get another word out, and I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding.

-----------------------------

The chance to end it came sooner than I had expected, and it certainly wasn't on my terms.

I had called in early from work. My boss at the floral shop had let me go, citing the slow afternoon. I had decided to surprise Derek at his apartment. He usually spent his lunch break there. I wanted to talk. Really talk. I wanted to tell him I appreciated everything, but I couldn't keep pretending this was a relationship.

I used my key, and the metal clicked softly in the lock.

I pushed the door open.

The sounds were what got to me first. The giggling. The rustling of the sheets.

I froze in the hallway. The coat closet was to my left, and the bedroom door was straight in front of me. It was wide open.

Derek was there. And he was not alone. A blonde, her hair bleached to an unnatural color, was straddling him on a bed I'd made just that morning.

For a moment, I didn't feel angry. I felt a strange, empty feeling of relief. The debt was paid. The guilt I'd been carrying around, feeling like I hadn't loved him enough, was gone.

Sadie!" Derek pushed the blonde off him. His face was pale, then red. "I—this isn't—"

I walked into the room. I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I just felt a heat building in my chest, a sudden, intense clarity.

"You know, Derek," I said, my voice remarkably calm. "I've been trying to think of a way to tell you I was leaving. You just made it very easy."

"Baby, please, let me explain—"

I walked over to the bedside table where his wallet was sitting. I picked it up, took out the twenty dollars he had left, and threw it at his chest.

"Don't bother coming back to my apartment tonight. Or ever."

"Sadie, wait! You can't just—"

I turned to the woman, who was clutching the sheet to her chest.

"You want to keep him? He's a cheater, a liar, and a horrible businessman. Good luck with all of that."

I turned to leave, and Derek had my arm, his grip strong.

"You ungrateful b***h! I took you in! You and that brat of yours!"

Snap.

The sound echoed in the room, a sound of my patience shattering.

I didn't think about what I was doing, I simply reacted to the situation. My hand went up, and I struck his cheek with a stinging, resonating c***k.

It was no slap of rage, no outburst of insanity, but a slap of finality.

Derek stumbled back, his hands covering his face, his eyes fixed on me in fear. He had never seen me angry before. He had only seen the grateful Sadie, the enduring Sadie.

"Touch me again," I said, my voice low and menacing, "and I will see to it that the police are not your greatest concern. I'm done. Stay out of my life. Stay out of my daughter's life."

I turned and walked out, slamming the door behind me. My hand throbbed, the pain sharp and stinging, but for the first time in six years, I felt light.

----------------------------------------------

By the time I went to pick Lily from the after-school program, my hand was bruised, but my mind was clear. I went back to our small apartment, the one that Derek did not pay for, the one I had been secretly paying for with my savings for months, just in case.

I ate my sandwich on the floor, along with the moving boxes I had started packing.

"Mommy?" asked Lily, her mouth still full of sandwich.

"Are we sad?" she asked.

I looked at my daughter. She was so perceptive.

"No, monkey. We are not sad. We are free."

"Good," she said, matter-of-factly. "I did not like him. He smelled awful."

I was surprised. "He smelled awful?"

She nodded her head wisely. "I want a dad who smells like the forest. Like trees and rain."

I swallowed hard. I knew exactly what she meant. I did not have the heart to tell her that the man who smelled like the forest was the man who had broken my heart in the first place.

Just then, my phone on the counter buzzed. I had an unknown number with an area code from home. The home I hadn’t seen in six years.

I debated for a moment before answering. "Hello?"

"Sadie? Sadie Vance?"

The voice sounded familiar. It was breathless and had a high pitch. I was trying to place it. "Yes?"

"Oh my god, it’s Sarah! Sarah Miller? From Botany 301? We did the presentation on fungi together?"

Sarah. The girl who always sat beside me in the last row of the classroom. The girl who chewed gum nonstop and borrowed my notes. "Sarah? I... wow. Hi."

"I found you!" she squealed. "I mean, it took forever. I’m doing my residency at St. Jude’s now, and I was sorting through some archived files for a research project—cross-referencing old alumni health data—and I saw your name on a test log from six years ago. It was a long shot, but I cross-checked the forwarding address you left with admin... Sadie, are you still there?"

My heart was pounding. St. Jude’s. That was the clinic where I’d taken the pregnancy test. The beginning of my exile.

"I'm here," I said softly.

"Listen, I know it’s been forever, but I’m actually in Oakhaven this weekend! I’m visiting my brother. I saw you were listed in the directory and... I missed you. We all missed you when you vanished."

I glanced over at Lily, who was now playing with a toy car, humming to herself. I glanced down at the bruise on my hand. I had just severed all ties to my old life. I was unemployed, single, and alone.

I missed me too, I thought to myself, and it was true. I missed the girl I was before the heartbreak, before the fear.

"Can we meet?" Sarah asked. "Coffee? Just to catch up? I feel like I have so much to tell you. And... I heard about your dad."

My heart stopped. "My dad? What about him?"

"He’s... well, he’s not doing great, Sadie. The ranger station said he had a fall. I thought you should know."

The floor seemed to sway around me. My father. The man who had thrown me out of the house. The man who had tried to protect me by crushing me.

"Sadie?"

I opened my eyes and thought about my daughter. I had run away to protect her, but running only got you so far. Eventually, you had to turn around and face the thing that was chasing you.

"Coffee sounds perfect," I said, my voice clear and strong. "I’d like that."

--------------------------------