Free All for Maddie by Jettie Woodruff

in the dining room. Maddie
laying in the parking lot, screaming and throwing a fit because I wouldn’t let
her ride her bike around the cars. There were too many cars coming and going.
Maddie asleep in her car seat alone in the truck. I was carrying in groceries.
Me dancing pretty provocative with Naomi, holding a beer. It was bad. I knew it
was bad.
    This was suddenly real. I was
scared and afraid of the unknown. I had to tell my dad now. There was no other
way around it.
    “Mr. Wesson feels that you
are unfit and thinks that his daughter would be better off with him.”
    “She wouldn’t be, he can’t
take her,” I demanded, unable to control the tears that streamed down my face.
He couldn’t take Maddie from me. He just couldn’t. I would die without her. She
couldn’t live without me.
    “Ms. Bradshaw, do you want my
honest opinion about all of this?”
    I sniffed and wiped my nose
with the back of my hand and nodded.
    “I really think the best
thing that you could do, would be to talk to Mr. Wesson and work this out
between the two of you. You don’t want this to go to court.”
     
    I drove home in a fog. How could
this be happening? How could he do this? Was he really that callous? Did he not
care what this would do to Maddie? I wanted to call him, but I couldn’t. I
couldn’t stop crying long enough to breathe, let alone talk.

Chapter 4
     
     
     
    I should have wanted Maddie
with me. I did want her. I just didn’t want her to witness the state of my
emotions. I called my dad and told him that I didn’t feel well and was going to
lie down for a while; of course he was fine with it. He loved her. This was
going to kill him. What have I done?
    Most of the day, I laid
around in a daze.  By four o’clock I thought that I had finally cried the last
of my tears. There just couldn’t be any more. It was impossible. I had already
thought that many times over the past few hours, but the tears just kept
coming.
    I finally picked up my phone
and dialed the dreaded number.
    “Hello, this is Whitley
Bradshaw. Could I please talk to Mr. Wesson?” I took a deep breath waiting for
Alex to pick up.
    “Good afternoon, Whitley. I
told you that the temperature would change in hell. I have a way of making
things happen.”
    “What do you want, Alex?” I
asked, sounding defeated. I didn’t want to sound that way. I didn’t want him to
think he had the upper hand. Truth was, he did. He was a slime ball, but was no
doubt holding the control.
    “I want my daughter. The one
that you chose to keep from me for three years.”
    “What does that mean, Alex?
You want to take her from me?”
    “Yup, I want you to see how
that feels. Let you see how it feels to be kept from your own child.”
    “Alex, you raped me.”
    “Yes, yes, Whitley. I think
we have established that. I apologized for that.”
    “You apologized?” I asked.
Really? He apologized for raping me?
    “Yes, now let’s move past
that. The paternity test is the same no matter how you look at it.”
    I shook my head. This guy was
unbelievable. “I don’t want to go to court.”
    “I was hoping you would see
it that way. I want Madelyn this weekend. Here at my house. I can come and pick
her up or you can bring her to me. It’s your choice.”
    “Alex, please don’t do this.
She doesn’t even know you, I can’t just drop her off to you.”
    “She doesn’t know me, because
you chose that. Not me, not her, you are the one that did that. Have her
here by two on Friday,” he ordered and hung up.
    “I’m not a bad mom, I’m not,”
I said to the silent phone.
    My tears were replenished. I
couldn’t breathe as I heaved in sobbing breaths. How was I supposed to just
take her there and drop her off? I couldn’t do it. I would run with her. I
would go to Mexico or some place that he couldn’t find me. I would change our
names and dye our hair. He was never taking her. Over my dead body, would I let
this happen.
     
    <><><> 
     
    I should have told