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She stood up, her mouth a grim line. “Did I do something wrong, Daddy?”
“No, sweetheart. Fawn”—he refused to sayyour mother—“is on the phone and wants to say merry Christmas to you.”
“But I don’t want to talk to her.” Ciara’s voice went into the whine zone.
Blake bit her lips. Morgan said, “I have to let her talk to you. You don’t have to stay on long. Just wish her a merry Christmas and say you want to get back to whatever you are doing here.”
“Okay.” Ciara’s shoulders slumped and she followed Morgan to the office.
He closed the door, leaving Blake out. He had to stop thinking of Blake as family or as his girlfriend because she obviously had no intentions of being either one.
When Ciara reached for the headset, Morgan put up a stop-sign hand and instead turned on speakerphone. He also hit the record button. “Ciara is here, Fawn,” he said, facing the mic.
“Hello, Ciara! Merry Christmas, darling daughter!” Fawn sounded like she was in some awful sitcom.
“Merry Christmas, Fawn,” Ciara said, barely loud enough to be heard.
“You can call me Mommy, Ciara. I want you to do that, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Okay what, Ciara? Okay what?”
“Okay, um… Is this a guessing game? I don’t know this one.”
Fawn replied with a high giggle. “You are sooo adorable. No, I want you to say ‘Okay, Mommy.’”
“Okay, Mommy,” she mumbled.
“Good girl! Now say ‘Merry Christmas, Mommy.’”
“Stop it,” Morgan said. “Stop coercing Ciara to say things she does not want to say. You are making her uncomfortable.”
“She is enjoying our little chat.”
“You can’t see her upset expression.”
“You are such a liar,” Fawn said. “You always were a control freak. We should Skype next time so you can’t get away with this. Now, put my daughter back on. Ciara, I am sending a gift for you that should get there this week.”
When Ciara was silent, Morgan prompted, “What do you say when someone sends you a gift, Ciara?”
“Thank you, Fawn.”
“You mean ‘Thank you, Mommy,’” Fawn said.
Ciara answered with, “I’m going to have a real mommy soon. When Blake and my daddy get married.”
Morgan could not suppress his grin at the bomb Ciara just dropped. He had no time to pay attention to the accompanying agitation around that subject because Fawn quickly responded with, “I’m your real mommy, Ciara. No one else can ever be that. And you are going to come live with me in my big, big house.”
Ciara gaped at Morgan with a look of panic. “Daddy, you said—”
Morgan hugged her. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I won’t let that happen.”
Ciara kissed him on the cheek and snuck quietly out of the room as if Fawn were coming to get her right now.
“I heard that,” Fawn growled. “How dare you twist her mind against me.”
“It’s not my fault that she remembers how badly you’ve treated her in the past,” Morgan said. “Ciara is not stupid.”
