No Man Left Behind: A Veteran Inspired Charity Anthology by Elizabeth Knox (black authors fiction TXT) 📕

anyway. Her mother thought so lowly of me to not allow me the decency of knowing I had a daughter.

Fuck.

Charlee. God dammit!

Rather than let my anger show in front of the girl, I smile and let her know I was a whiz when it came to electronics and could help her out. I didn’t bother looking at Charlee at this point. If I did, I’d snap and the kid didn’t need to see that. Not when she didn’t know who the fuck I was.

“You had the audacity to hate me for breaking up with you? We were eighteen, Kaden. We were practically children, trying to figure out what to do. One day you were telling me you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me, couldn’t see your life without me, and the next you enlisted in the Marines without so much as a conversation with me. You didn’t even talk to me about it. I wanted a life with you, not one without you.”

Charlee’s words circle around in my head. Is that why she broke up with me? She found out she was carrying my kid and was afraid I’d be killed?

Naw, something about this bullshit isn’t right. From the time we started dating she knew I always wanted to be just like my ol’ man. To be respected for what I did for our country. Too bad it didn’t turn out that way. I was medically discharged with a Purple Heart after the hostage event. I was lucky they allowed me to keep Koda. It’s a rarity that handlers get to keep their dogs, but he’s more than a dog to me. He’s my entire world, gotten me through many sleepless nights.

“What’s your name?” the little girl asks.

Fuck, she’s not just a little girl. She’s my daughter. That’s something I’ll have to get used to.

“My brothers call me Kinetic,” I tell her as she shows me the TV that she was complaining about. Taking a quick look, I figure the issue out. All I needed to do was pop the cord back into her Roku. “Easy enough, the HDMI cable was pulled out a tad. Just needed to be pushed all the way back into place. Might need to get your mom to go get another cable though. If it happens again, try troubleshooting it yourself and do what I did.”

“Troubleshooting? What’s that mean?”

I smile. “Fixing it. It’s just a fancy way of saying it.”

“Cool, thanks. So, if they call you Kinetic, is that your real name?” she asks, scrunching her nose up the same as her mom used to do when we were together.

“Nope, name’s Kaden Kelly. However, no one ever calls me by my name anymore except your grandma and my mom,” I chuckle, grinning at her.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Charlee standing there watching her daughter interact with me, arms crossed over her chest, pushing her tits up higher.

“Mom, how cool is that, Kaden’s last name is my middle name?”

What the fuck?

“Mr. Kaden to you little girl, but yeah, baby. It’s really cool,” Charlee stammers, clearing her throat.

“It is. Mom picked my name. My real dad wasn’t around, so he didn’t have any input. I’m Vivianna Kelly Bailes, but everyone calls me Vivi. My dad likes the name though, so that’s good! Right, Mom? Dad likes my name!” she declares with a shrug only a kid her age could pull off.

Charlee presses her lips together and nods.

Fuck. She calls Charlee’s husband, Dad? Talk about yet another blow Charlee has dealt me.

Burying the anger once again to keep Vivi from noticing, I give her a grin. “That’s a pretty awesome name. I dig the nickname. My momma’s name was Anna so gotta respect your full name.”

It pisses me off even more that she gave my daughter ‘Kelly’ as a middle name rather than last. Then again, in Charlee’s eyes Vivi isn’t mine. She’s her douche of an ex’s kid.

Suddenly the air in the room becomes stifling and I need to get out of here. “Well, kiddo, I gotta be going. If you ever need help with electronics get your mom to give me a call. Your grandma has my number.”

“Ugh, sure, but why does my grandma have your number?” Vivi asks, brows furrowing.

“A couple of my brothers and I help her out when she needs it,” I inform her.

“Oh, okay, so you were talking to Mom on the porch to check on her?” Fuck me she’s just like her mom always with the questions.

“Yeah, baby girl, I was checkin’ on your grandma. I’ll catch ya later,” I state, keeping my grin in place, only to lose it when turning from Vivi to meet Charlee’s gaze. “I’ll be in touch,” I tell her without giving her a chance to respond. I storm past her and out of the house doing everything I can not to slam the door shut in the process.

With fast strides, I get to my bike in order to get as far away from Charlee as I possibly can right now.

Looks like tonight will be another one with a bottle of Jack at my side.

Chapter Five

Charlee

“Vivi told me Kaden came over earlier and helped her with her TV. Is that true?” my mother asks from the couch with both her feet propped up on pillows on the coffee table.

I nod, sipping on my hot peppermint tea, reading my daily E! News celebrity gossip. “Yep. He did. Thank goodness too, because you know I’m horrible with computers and stuff,” I comment, floating around the subject. My mother’s never flat out asked me if Kaden is Vivi’s father and while I’ve been thankful for that, I really have a gut feeling like this is going to end soon.

“You’re pussyfooting around it, aren’t you?”

Cocking a brow, I divert my attention away from my phone and look directly at her. “Why ask questions when you already know the answer?”

A smug smile pulls at her lips. “Because I enjoy