Chapter 196
“Still need a roof over your head. And it happens that my roof is in Virginia. That’s an awful long commute.”
She made a face, clearly not having actually considered it but trying to make something up on the spot. “I could stay with Aunt Dani.”
“Your Aunt Dani is a police officer. She works even more than your mom did. Anyway, it happens that your mom wanted you to come live with me and Uncle Andy. We signed a piece of paper to that effect last year. She thought we’d be able to provide for you better.”
“Nuh-uh,” she said, but that looked more like shock than real denial. “Really?”
“She really did. I can show it to you if you want to see. It assigns me and Andy to be your legal guardians, in case something happened. The only person with more claim to you than us is your father, and we don’t know who he is, sweetheart.”
“I don’t need a daddy,” she said airily, obviously another thing Mace had said. “I wanna see it.”