Read Online Substitute Daddy by Dahlia Rose - Free Book Online

wait, first I’m a bad parent, then a whore, and now you want money? Why would you want anything that I apparently earned on my back?”
    “Grace, we say things in anger—”
    “Then you’ve been angry all my life because that’s all I ever heard from you.” Grace sighed. “Why did I even bother to try? I should’ve known we could never be anything better.”
    “Because you’ve always been a bad child. I don’t know what broke in you but I suspect it is your father’s blood that put it in you,” her mother said viciously.
    “I think maybe his blood is the only thing that kept you from breaking me,” Grace answered. “Mama, I have to love you because you’re my mother, but this is poison, and now I have Lilah to think about. I will do my damn best not to ever have the relationship with her that we have. This is it, Mama. Even if I fall flat on my face you’ll never know because all I’ve ever got from you was this cruelty. I won’t be calling you again. Be blessed, Mama.”
    Grace pressed the button to disconnect the call and took a deep, shaky breath. She closed her eyes to hold back tears because in her heart she knew she could never call her mother again. Their relationship had never been good, and no matter how much she tried to please her mother or fix their relationship, there was no step forward. It just seemed that the foundation was never there or it had crumbled before she was even born. Did her mother hate her for being born? It wasn’t like she had a choice in the matter. Stop it, Grace. You’re a thirty-year-old woman. Big girl panties time. You knew this was coming.
    She looked out the window and saw Matthew’s royal blue SUV coming up the secondary driveway. She got her purse together and got the blanket she finally finished for Lilah out of the simple nursery she created in the second bedroom. Matthew would honk his horn and she’d go out. He hadn’t come inside since she took up residence in the house. She thought he was giving her space and she appreciated it, but she honestly missed him and his company. The air was more chilly than usual for Nevada, so she grabbed her coat and pulled it on just as he honked the car horn. Grace sighed and opened the door to go outside. She locked the door behind her and went down the steps quickly.
    “Hey, ready to go?” he asked when she got in the car.
    Grace smiled and held up the package. “I finally finished her blanket, washed it last night, and it’s ready for her.”
    Matthew touched an end poking out of the gift bag gently. “It’s soft. Do you want to make me one?”
    “I’ll get started on it, but you may need to give me a few months,” she answered with a laugh.
    “I was just kidding. You don’t need to make me a blanket,” Matthew said as he reversed and headed down the driveway.
    “I don’t mind. It’s the least I can do for all you’ve done for me,” Grace said.
    “I did nothing but give you what was rightly yours in the first place,” he answered. “Let’s not keep thanking me, okay?”
    “Okay...” She drew the word out and then went silent. He was either having a bad day or was tired of chauffeuring her around.
    “Can you drop me off at a reputable car dealer after the hospital?” Grace said. “I’d like to get a car, that way when Lilah can come home I can pick her up. Besides, you have better things to do than drive me around.”
    “It’s fine, Grace, it’s not a bother. If you need to drive somewhere there are at least four cars in the garage,” Matthew said.
    “I’d like to get my own, please. You seem to be bothered, and I don’t want to be a bother,” Grace said stiffly.
    “Fine,” he muttered and then added under his breath, “because you don’t need anyone.”
    She heard him clearly, but decided to keep her mouth shut. Either he was spoiling for a fight or something had made him upset that morning. She wasn’t about to ask which one it was. Her conversation with her mother had rubbed