Page 25 of Outlawed

She cocks an eyebrow and points to one of the knurled trees protecting the house.

“Oh, that.” I rub my hands together before turning my palm over and showing her the sparks. “Dale had a heart attack,” I answer her earlier question. “An assisted one, but a heart attack all the same.”

“Good. The asshole deserved it.”

I chuckle at her ability to roll with the punches. “I just confirmed I’m a witch and that I killed a man, and you didn’t even blink.”

“I represent killers all damn day. Trust me, kid, you aren’t special.”

“Rude.”

“And the witch thing makes sense. There was always something spooky about you.”

“Like a sexy, mysterious vibe?”

“Like a creepy doll with those weird eyes that are always watching,” she deadpans, making me laugh.

When I calm down again, she slides one of her hands into mine and rests it on her leg. “His name isn’t on the birth certificate. Not as Martin Hart nor as Mark Porter. Dawn didn’t even notice to begin with because she was sick in the hospital after her C-section got infected. Porter filed the certificate alone.”

“So he can’t claim he’s Hannah’s father without a DNA test, and that test would rat him out as being Martin Hart, not Mark Porter.”

“Exactly. He probably thought he was being clever, marking down ‘father unknown.’ But all he did was fuck himself over.”

“What about the grandparents?”

“Dawn asked me not to contact them. She doesn’t want them to have contact with Hannah, let alone custody.”

“So she’s mine?”

“She’s your sister. Of course, she’s yours.”

“Does she know?”

“That I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

I wave her off. “So legally, none of them can come for her, even though I have a criminal conviction?”

“They can try, but they won’t win. You now have legal guardianship and power of attorney over everything related to Hannah.”

I nod, feeling overwhelmed by it all. I’m not sure I planned on having kids of my own. I liked the idea, sure, but sometimes I felt I missed the window. I know women have them older than I am now, but it could take years to conceive, and the idea of running around after a kid in your forties sounded exhausting. But this is different.

“You want her, right?”

“Yeah, I want her. I didn’t want this for her, though.”

“I know.” She pats my hand and leans back just as my cell phone rings. I pull it out and see its Shepard. “Hey, everything okay?”

“Em…kind of. I think you need to see this, though.”

“See what? Where are you?”

“Main Street.”

He hangs up before I can tell him I’m not ready to be back there, not with Dawn’s blood still staining the pavement. “Fuck!”

“What is it?”

“Shepard wants me to head into town. Said there is something I need to see.”