Page 56 of Mr. Principal

Chapter Ten

My phone was ringing. I only realized that after I fell out of my bed blindly reaching for it. I couldn’t tell the time, but I knew it was before seven since the sun was just starting to rise.

“Hello?” I said sleepily.

“You bitch.”

“What?” I said pulling the phone away from my ear and looking at the number. It was my ex.

“You think you won, don’t you? You filled Becca’s head with bullshit and now she’s gone.”

I was now wide awake. “If Becca decided to leave you, that had nothing to do with me. Trust me, you’re reason enough to send any woman running for her life. Goodbye.”

I hung up the phone and shook my head. I guess he’d read her note.

I was in a deep sleep when I heard the banging on my door.

I jumped up to answer it when a sleepy Meredith appeared in the hallway. “Who’s that, Mom?”

I pushed her back towards her room and said, “You go lie back down. I’ll check it out.”

“Who’s there?” I called, tightening my robe that I’d grabbed at the last minute since I preferred to only wear a t-shirt to bed.

No one responded so I looked through the peephole and saw Tom standing there. He didn’t look so good. He looked like he’d barely slept.

I opened the door a little and immediately went on the offensive. “What are you doing here, Tom? What do you want?”

“I’m here for my daughter.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“This is my weekend, not yours. Per our custody agreement, you’ll get her when it’s your time.”

I tried to close the door when he grabbed the side of it, keeping me from shutting it firmly in his face.

“Is that asshole Carter here?”

“That’s none of your business.”

He shook his head. “None of my business? You convince my wife to leave me, yet you’re messing around with Carter is none of my business?”

I looked behind me and could see no sign of Meredith peeking around the corner, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t somewhere eavesdropping.

“My relationship with Carter is not up for discussion.”

“The hell it isn’t.”

“Get off my property. Now.”

“Not without my daughter.”

“She’s not leaving this house until I say so. You can threaten, scream at me, insult me. I don’t care. But unless you have a court order or police escort, my daughter will not leave this house unless I say so.”

He was so angry his face started to turn red. “Who do you think you are?”

“A pissed off mom who is about to slam your hand in this door.”