The Billionaire Married a Homeless Girl novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Six O'Clock

A cheek swab goes to the lab, and a caseworker says Benji goes to foster care tonight unless she has a home.

At seven the next morning, a black car pulled into the church lot where I'd parked.

I watched it in the mirror with a cold hand on the steering wheel.

Nolan Laughlin got out wearing a wool coat and no tie, and he looked like he hadn't slept.

He held a paper bag and a thermos.

He stopped ten feet from my window.

I rolled the glass down an inch.

"I'm not here to push," he said. "I brought cocoa. I didn't know what four-year-olds drink."

"They drink cocoa."

"Good. I got that right."

Benji sat up in the back, hair flattened on one side, and looked at the thermos.

"Is that for me?"

"If your mother says yes."

I looked at Benji's face.

I looked at the gray eyes I'd stared at every day for four years, and the man holding the thermos with the same eyes.

"Yes," I said. "Pour it into the lid, and make sure it isn't hot."

Nolan crouched at the back door and poured the cocoa as carefully as a surgeon.

Benji took the lid in both hands.

"Do you have a dog?" he asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I travel a lot."

"Mama says that's what people say when their house is sad."

I almost laughed.

Nolan did not look at me, and the corner of his mouth moved.

"Your mama is very smart," he said.

"She is. She knows all the words, and she can do the voices."

Nolan stood up slowly.

"Bridget. I want a swab. A cheek swab, his and mine, at a lab on Penn Avenue that opens at eight. I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking for the answer, for his sake."

"And if the answer is yes?"

"Then I have a son, and I missed four years of him, and I'll spend the rest of my life being worth the next one."

"That's a speech."

"It's the only one I've got."

I turned off the engine.

"Two rules," I said. "I'm in the room for every swab. And the paper goes to me when it goes to you."

"Done."

"And you don't tell him anything until I do."

"Done."

The lab was a white room with a fish tank in the corner.

Benji got a green sticker for being brave, and he put it on Nolan's coat without asking.

Nolan looked down at it for a long time.

"They'll courier the result by five," the technician said. "It's rushed. It'll cost extra."

"I'll pay for it," Nolan said.

"I will," I said. "I have a hundred and ninety-eight dollars."

"Bridget."

"I said I would."

He closed his mouth, and he let me hand over my cash.

The technician took a hundred and forty dollars for the rush.

I walked out of that lab with fifty-eight dollars and my back straight, and I felt better than I had in weeks.

I would owe him nothing for this.

We stood on the sidewalk in the thin sunlight, and Benji ran ahead to stomp on a frozen puddle.

"I'll take you somewhere warm," Nolan said. "Anywhere. You choose."

"The day center on Fifth. They have showers from nine to ten."

His face did something I could not read.

"You shower at a day center."

"Yes. Benji takes his bath in the sink at the church, and I take mine at the center. If you want to buy me a hotel room, I'll take it in exchange for a job."

"I don't want you to work for me."

"Then we're done."

"That's not what I meant."

"Mr. Laughlin, I know exactly what you meant. You mean you want to fix it. I'll let you fix it when you've earned it."

He went still.

"All right," he said. "Then I'll earn it."

We walked into the day center at nine on the dot.

The woman at the front desk took one look at me and her face went tight.

"Bridget," she said. "I'm so sorry. Someone is here to see you."

A woman in a gray coat stood up from a folding chair.

She held a clipboard, a county lanyard and a very polite expression.

"Ms. Maslowski? I'm a caseworker with Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families."

My knees went soft.

"We received a report at seven this morning," she said. "A child living in a vehicle, in sub-freezing weather. Two witnesses described your car and your plates."

"Who called?"

"The report is anonymous."

I felt Nolan move up behind me, and I did not look at him.

"I've been feeding him and keeping him warm every single day," I said. "He's never missed a meal."

"I believe you. I've seen the file. But I have to verify a safe, stable place to sleep." She glanced at Benji, who had gone very quiet and was holding my pant leg. "I need a lease or a signed address by six o'clock tonight."

"Or?"

Her eyes were kind, and that was the worst part.

"Or I place him in emergency foster care tonight, Ms. Maslowski. I'm so sorry. I really am."

Benji looked up at me.

"Mama? What's foster?"

I could not make a sound.

Behind me, Nolan Laughlin said very quietly, "Six o'clock."

I turned and saw his face.

There was nothing in it but a flat, terrible calm.

"Someone knew we'd been in that alley," he said. "Someone called before the sun was up."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend