Apologies for the delay on this update! Picking right up from a not so happy Samantha haha. xD

Thanks everyone for your favs/follows/reviews/and views! It is all a great boost to keep writing this and everything else that I am! Speaking of which, a Remember Me? update should be next! :)

Disclaimer: STILL WAITING FOR TS OWNERSHIP.

"I don't care. I don't! I really, really, REALLY don't."

Sam tried to placate herself while her whole body literally shook telling her otherwise.

Huffing she gathered up the tabloid off her kitchen floor before throwing it back down onto the table. She tried to walk away from it then to get on with her day only to somehow find it transported right back into her hands like magic.

She became irritated but before she knew it she'd flipped to the 5th page that the cover stated the full story and quote on quote "juicy details" could be found on.

She wasn't sure why but she held her breath as if she were nervous before she slowly started to read the words written there. Her emerald eyes skimmed the print left then right while she absorbed the information and sifted out key bits and pieces mumbling to herself under her breath as she did so.

"Donna Hansen ... daughter of billionaire Thomas Hansen ... new business venture ... partner Tim Scam ... both single ... attractive ... very much coveted ... would make a dream couple ... sparks could fly—"

She stopped right there having reached an important conclusion. An epiphany.

Speculation. That was all this was. Guesswork. An arrow, a dart shot in the dark just hoping to hit anywhere on the dartboard much like most stories found in sleazy publications such as this.

She found herself breathing out a long breath of relief from deep in her lungs while not bothering to ask herself why she was as a small smirk of triumph also tugged at her lips.

Hah! She'd known it all along! This had been written by some reporter with no life whose literal job it was to stalk those who led much more interesting existences than his own; the rich and famous in hopes of landing a good story for his trash paper's equally trashy audience.

It was a no brainer that a super loaded, supposedly sexy heiress that thousands of people admired hooking up with an equally loaded, handsome and elusive billionaire would get tongues wagging and sell tons of issues.

But this—

She paused to glance at the name of the author mentioned under the article in red, capital letters.

—Gordon Alberici of The National Enquirer, had no evidence whatsoever that that was going to happen.

All he had was his outsider, onlooker view on what he thought he'd seen. And he'd decided to run with it salivating at the idea like a famished dog would after having found himself a nice, juicy bone when he'd been absolutely starving.

But that didn't make it the truth. Pfft, far from it. And if anyone was going to take this as gospel and believe that Tim Scam and this Donna Hansen woman were going to get married and make babies or something then they would have nothing but their own gullibility and stupidity to wallow in later when they realized how big of a sham this was.

Then again there was that one tiny thing that he had provided that much to her chagrin did grant just a modicum of validity to his story.

The full-page, color photograph of Tim and this girl looking to be getting hot and heavy while they were cloaked by the darkness of the night and believed themselves to be all alone with each other.

And once again she lost her nerve and with it out the window went her calm composure. Try as she might to ignore it, she just could not get over the physical proximity between them in that picture where Donna was as close to Scam as, as …

She had been to him that night in that lonely alleyway that Scam had cornered her in while she'd been attempting to hightail it away from his best friend's restaurant in a taxi.

His buff arms had caged the sides of her slender body. His strong fingers had been interlocked with her own shaking ones while he'd pinned her hands back against the dirty bricks of the cold wall. The weight and musculature of his entire 6 foot 3 form had squished against her so snugly that there hadn't even been enough room for a fly to get in between them.

Even though she remembered vividly that she'd been angrily screaming for him to let her go and trying her best to twist herself free of him during that ordeal, her subconscious mind had registered some things that she also recalled.

How her heart had been pounding hard and fast all over her body at every pulse point in an excited frenzy. How her skin itself and every pore of it had felt as though it had spontaneously caught on fire and was burning up in his unrelenting embrace. How she'd felt an electric current humming in the air, a shower of hot sparks engulfing her due to that forced contact with Tim Scam in that dark, cramped space which had nearly forced their two bodies to almost become one right then and there.

A pout rose on her lips as she remained locked in her thoughts. Had Donna felt all that too last night with Tim while this snapshot had been taken of him and her? Had she felt that hypnotic, all-consuming lull of desire reeling her like she was a puppet on a string and he was her puppeteer? The way that he'd somehow made her feel when their lips had met? So much so that despite not wanting to, doing her best never to, she hadn't been able to get him off her mind ever since? Well ... had he?

A sudden knock at her front door made her jump a foot and a half in the air.

"Ah!" Sam screamed alarmed and in her startled state the paper did a funny little spinny dance between her jittering fingers before she firmly caught it again.

Holding a hand to her chest to calm it she caught her breath before quickly springing into action.

She glanced around the kitchen for a good spot to hide the tabloid before finally shoving it under the pile of now sorted out mail on the table. She took a moment to make sure it was sufficiently buried and then made her way over to the door to open it.

Glancing through the peephole she saw that it was Clover. This prompted her to take another few seconds to try and seem normal and put on a convincing poker face for fear that the blonde would suspect something was up with her if she didn't because she knew her that well. When she thought she was ready she finally unlocked the door to let her inside.

"HEY CLOVER!" Sam greeted but then had to bite her cheek hard not to visibly cringe at how abnormally perky she'd sounded at the cost of aiming to not be conspicuous. She'd tried much too hard to seem breezy and carefree, something which she almost never was being a single mum and all and she knew it would tip Clover off for sure.

Gulping a little down a now very dry throat Sam just stared at the woman in front of her without even daring to blink and hoped to high heaven that she hadn't caught on regardless of her bad acting.

For if Clover found out what she'd been doing, what she'd been thinking before she'd arrived she'd for sure get ideas in her brain that she didn't want her to ever have regarding her and their annoyingly good-looking ex-con acquaintance from long ago.

Thankfully for her though, her best friend didn't seem to notice her out of characterness as she smiled her usual bright smile, sent a small wave her way, and said hey back before walking inside her small flat.

Clover took her purse off her arm to place it on the couch and then straightened out her waterfall cardigan floral embroidered top before asking her usual first default question to Sam just like she always did whenever she visited in person or talked to her on the phone.

"Sooo how's Josie?"

"Sleeping like the adorable angel she is," Sam replied, her thoughts finally steering away from Scam and back to those who were actually a part of her life with the mere mention of her daughter who was the bane of her otherwise miserable existence.

Smiling she informed Clover that she was currently napping but would be awake in around 15 minutes knowing full well that as much as Clover stopped by to see her nearly daily, she did so to see her baby niece more.

Because just as she was for her, Josie had become pretty much the center of Clover's world too ever since the day she was born. In fact if Clover had to go even one day without interacting with Josie she would frown about it until that day was over and the little one was in her presence once more. Meanwhile on the other end, Josie would stamp her feet, scream and cry, and throw her own temper tantrum to show how much she missed her beloved aunt.

Clover instantly smiled, her entire face lighting up at hearing this. But unbeknownst to Sam she was happy for a reason other than Josie being awake soon and getting to spend quality time with her.

The fact that she'd arrived in the nick of time while the kiddo was still snoozing meant that Sam would not be able to yell too loud right now. Something which was a blessing if what she wanted to say to her ended up ticking her off.

Which it honestly very likely would seeing its sensitive subject manner that was a guarantee to ruffle Sam's feathers.

But she knew Sam would do almost anything not to disturb her precious princess while she remained in the world of dreams where everything was possible which made this the perfect little window of opportunity for her to take action and finally get the intel she so desperately needed from the redhead. Namely the answer to just one burning query that had been making her itch and twitch endlessly on end:

Had Tim Scam come to see her after she'd told him to or not?

For the last few days something in her gut had been warning her that something wasn't quite right, that something had gone amiss in her plans for Tim and her Sammie getting together, acknowledging and accepting their mutual attraction for one another, falling madly in love, and eventually becoming the power couple the whole country and one day the entire world (including Mandy's dumb face) would envy.

She'd been so urgent to find out that she'd even harked back to her spy days by snooping around Sam's place in her free time in various disguises including a gray trench coat, black fedora with matching gray stripe, and black Ray-Ban Wayfarer shades (1) from the back of her closet that she hadn't worn in years to aid in secretly keeping tabs on her.

Yet despite all her extreme efforts not once had she caught even one measly glimpse of Scam on any instance. Not outside Sam's house. Not inside Sam's house. No-freaking-where!

And depressedly she'd started to wonder that which she didn't want to. Had he just decided to ignore her when she'd spoken to him that day? If she remembered right then Scam wasn't the best listener. He was a free man and didn't like to be told what to do so it was quite possible that he had just let her words about his needing to pursue her best friend go in one ear and out the other.

But at the same time she had seen the unmistakable flicker of temptation in his eyes the precise moment she'd proposed the idea for a future with Sam to him his office. She remembered the look on his face; it was like she'd been dangling a juicy steak in front of a starving man. She could tell that in spite of his words of denial saying no, he'd been more than eager to go for it.

And factoring in the raw passion and insane hunger that she'd witnessed him kiss Sam with on that restaurant surveillance footage from that date night that he'd shown her? There was just no denying how obvious his romantic feelings for Sammie were.

She had to admit that with all she'd seen and understood on those, honestly she'd half expected for him pound on Sam's door the very same day to be let inside her life where he belonged and for him to break down said door if Sam put up any kind of resistance to let him in.

But then what had gone south? Why wasn't he here right now by Sam's side where he was supposed to be? Where she'd anticipated finding him after their little, heart-to-heart chat?

Ugh she couldn't take all these questions anymore! By now this was all eating her alive! Seriously, she was starting to toss and turn and stay awake all night theorizing when and if the Sam/Scam ship (2) was going to set sail from its harbour already!

And night after night this brainstorming of hers had resulted in fatigue and eye bags which as the model that she was were both no bueno. So in short it was of utmost importance that she just had to get to the bottom of things right this second!

Because the only way for her to get her life back on track was for Sam to get her life back on track with a life partner who could go the distance, be reliable and sturdy enough to share her heavy burdens with.

And that man was Tim Scam. Only after he'd been secured as Sam's husband could she at long last stop worrying and feeling guilty about her.

Only at that point could she finally forgive herself for her part in Sam prematurely choosing the original guy that she had to try and build a future with. The one that had taken everything and more from her, gone through her life like a destructive tornado and left her absolutely devastated in his wake.

No matter how much Sam said she didn't blame her, she herself would never find peace until she cleared her conscience. The last five years were more than enough to tell her that much and she didn't want to spend her entire life kicking herself this way.

But how should she go about asking this? Clover tried to make her mind up as she followed behind Sam into the kitchen.

She sat down at the small round table and was handed a cup of hot coffee just a few moments later. Sam poured herself a refill also in the dirty cup that had already been there that she'd been using earlier before getting to work on some chores around the room, using her day off time wisely to multi-task while making small talk with her.

Sam's words faded in the background of her own thoughts while she went on auto-pilot mode. She sipped her drink, occasionally smiled, nodded her head, and said "mmhmm", all the while zoned out and immersed in deep thought.

How could she bring up Scam to Sam without giving herself away? She wasn't worried about Sam thinking she was involved when she discovered that he had her address and phone number whenever and if ever he did drop by or call her because she knew that Sam knew Scam just as well as she did.

Finding out where someone lived or what their contact number was would be considered child's play for the once criminal mastermind who with his infamous shady skill set, was capable of so much more. He wouldn't need anyone else's help to pull off something like that so she felt that she was totally safe on that front. Sam wouldn't think he had had an accomplice based on just that much.

But if Sam got wind of the fact that she was rooting and actively plotting behind her back to try and set her up with him? That she knew would land her in boiling hot water. Because as much of a sister that she knew Sam saw her as, she would just kill her dead if she found out that making Tim Scam become her man was her ultimate goal.

She only had to think back to the short conversation they'd had when Sam had come home from running into Scam and she'd dared ask her the trivial question about how he looked now after half a decade had gone by. When she'd answered it for herself because Sam hadn't with the assumption that he still looked hot, Sam had exploded.

"I'm NOT having this conversation Clover. In fact I don't want to think about him or that stupid date. In fact I don't think I want to go on another date for a long, long, LONG time if ever again!"

Sam's words rang in her ears and she felt a nervous goose bump roam down her spine. But regardless she still had to do this, consequences be damned.

She turned her head over her shoulder to find Sam behind her now busied with rearranging the things she had posted on her fridge. Memos and notes from Glassell Park Elementary School that Josie attended and pictures she'd drawn that she had on display. She removed the old ones, tucking them under her arm to store like the precious memories they were just as she'd kept all the others and replaced them with new things.

She was being such a mom right now, smiling to herself with visible pride as she took her time carefully looking at each and every one and putting them up with Josie's favourite, colourful, Disney-themed fridge magnets.

Yet even in this peaceful moment, amidst it all Clover could see a ticking time bomb just ready to go off. Sam wasn't making the connection but she could see that nearly all the recent artwork Josie had made featured one familiar face. It wasn't one from a movie, TV show, or book but rather of someone very, very real.

A man.

Clover's eyes peeled wide stared directly at the many cute, crayon doodles of a smiling, brown haired male with eyes consisting of a blend of blue and green to make a signature sea foam hue. And in it she saw the other reason that she had for so severely needing to find out where Tim Scam stood.

Josie.

Sam's little girl was already so attached to him, so much in love with him ... and for good reason. After all she'd been the one who'd planted that idea in her sweet innocent head like a seed that it was he who was her long missing, true, and much wanted daddy. And by now that thought had grown into a full fledged tree.

It had been nearly a week since she'd shown his face to Josie and while she'd kept her word and not breathed a word about him around her mommy, whenever they were alone now he was all that she ever talked about.

"What my daddy's name auntie Clover?"

"Where my daddy?"

"Why doesn't he come home?"

It was so easy to see that Josie so badly wanted to meet Scam. To get to know him. A lifeless photograph was not nearly enough to sate her. Josie wanted her dad in the flesh and present at all times. Wanted him living with her like every other dad of every other little girl in her kindergarten class did.

There when she woke up in the morning to greet her with a good morning pat on her small head and a tender ruffle of her bedhead hair and there when she went to bed at night to tuck her in under the blankets with a kiss on her tiny forehead and a bedtime story.

At her birthdays to wish her and help her blow out the candles on her cake, Halloween to take her trick-o-treating around the neighbourhood, Christmas to spoil her rotten with an ocean of presents ...

And most of all for Father's Day so that she could finally celebrate the 3rd Sunday in June which up until now was treated like any other day in the year and went by completely unobserved.

But she couldn't give her that, any of that without Scam's cooperation. And that was something which she sadly had no idea if she even had or really ever would.

Clover breathed a sigh into her warm cup in concern unable to keep from worrying if she'd maybe jumped the gun with this. What if Scam wasn't ever on board and she'd messed up by thinking that he was?

If that was the case then that would simply crush Josie's little heart and she couldn't, just could not live with that. She had to find out of if was willing to do this and he just HAD to be!

Taking in a deep breath to prepare herself, Clover counted to ten backwards inside her head before finally breaking her long silence.

"So Sammie … did you ever run into Scam again at all after that night?"

Her words caused an immediate commotion as Sam choked on the coffee she'd paused to slurp.

The lukewarm liquid gargled in her throat as she coughed for oxygen like a fish removed from water for a long minute before managing to breathe again. She put her cup down shakily before looking back at her like a deer in headlights.

"Wh-what?" Sam spluttered out while using her sleeve to wipe off her mouth as she took deep breaths to recover her airflow while wondering why on earth Clover was bringing him up like this out of the blue.

Suddenly she felt panic jumping up and down inside her chest like a see-saw on a playground on a particularly windy day.

Oh God ... did Clover somehow know that Scam had been on her mind? Why else would she have popped this question to her?

Oh god she knew, Sam felt her eyes bulge while her body started to squirm in a guilty manner as that terrifying thought settled in. Her secret was out. Clover knew. She knew! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god, she knew!

Incorrectly reading Sam's silent state of sheer hyperventilation as anger, Clover sweat-dropped before raising her hands up to defend herself as she explained her intentions quickly.

"I'm just curious you know? I mean he's not exactly the leave you alone type. I remember from back when we had to face him during WOOHP missions, every time we locked him up the man had escaped just like an hour later!"

Hearing Clover's practicable reasoning for saying Scam's name, Sam felt her tension fade away as her heartbeat quickly returned to a normal pace.

Clover didn't know anything. She was just worried about her safety because she was her best friend and if the shoe had been on the other foot she'd be doing the same thing. That was all there as to it. That was all.

Noticing the instant relaxed shift in Sam's mood, Clove bravely retouched on the subject.

"Sooo ... " She idly tapped the tips of her index fingers against each other over and over to look harmless. "It was just that once chance meeting right?"

Even though she knew the answer already, Sam didn't speak right away as she thought over Clover's question some more with her lips set in a thin line of concentration.

While she had truly expected there to be more of a chase from Tim Scam both based on the tenacious personality he was once rightfully reputed to have and the long and moving speech he'd given her about how fate had reunited them and that meant that they were meant to be together ... there just wasn't.

Once she'd told him she didn't want any part of him, he'd left without so much as even turning to look her way.

A small pout unconsciously formed on her lips, part of her unable to help but feel just a little let down at yet another man giving up on her without even breaking a sweat.

Then again that picture of him and Donna; maybe he'd never really been that into her in the first place. Even if to her ears it had felt like each and every word he'd said to her had come straight from his heart.

But when was she the expert on deciphering if there was truth or deception behind what came out of a man's mouth? Never.

Brushing off that last part laden with the usual bitterness and self-loathing towards herself that she felt every day, she focused on Clover who was still patiently waiting to hear from her. Deciding to just be honest because this seemed to be over and dealt with, Sam told her that that hadn't been the only meeting after all.

"Actually ..." Sam confessed with a defeated sigh. "He came to see me after that. Somehow he tracked me down to my address."

"He was here?! Oh my God when?" Clover first shouted but then cleared her throat and lowered her tone remembering that Josie was sleeping nearby.

"… When?" She repeated barely above a whisper with her eyes glued onto Sam's face anxiously.

"Five days ago," Clover heard Sam say and immediately her face screwed up. This ... it didn't make any sense! If Scam had been here five whole days ago why hadn't Sam said anything to her about it until now? Until she'd prodded her to?

But she got her answer to that just as soon as Sam relayed to her just how that unexpected visit from him had gone. How he'd said to her that he wanted a chance to be with her because he was in love with her, how she'd declared him completely insane for doing so, and most of all, how much and how hard she'd degraded him for it.

"And life's been back to normal since," Sam informed her with shrug while Clover did her best not to look outright horrified at what she now knew.

It turned out that Scam hadn't been the one to spoil her plans. The person who had thwarted her was Sam. Scam had actually taken her advice and come to Sam pretty much right after she'd asked him to ... it was Sam who had thrown him out.

"That's uh ... that's just great. I'm happy to hear that it's all um ... over Sammie," Clover slowly managed to breathe out with a fake grin plastered to her face all the while feeling like actually breaking down crying.

When Sam went to go wake up Josie just a moment later now that nap time was over, she allowed the groan of frustration that she'd been holding back to release itself as she mourned her spoiled hopes and dreams.

Why? She asked herself as she lowered her face and planted it into her crossed arms against the tabletop. Why? Why? WHY couldn't things just go smoothly for Sam for once? Just once in her life?!

Aggravated, Clover sat back up and ran her fingers through her blonde hair pulling at some of the strands to relieve some of her pent up disappointment.

That not being enough she next began to shuffle through the envelopes and papers on the table to take her mind off this long enough so that she could calm down before Sam brought Josie out.

It took her a few to regain control of herself but little by little she succeeded. And when she did she decided that it was okay. Everything was still alright. Sam may have thrown a rather unnecessary and annoying curveball her way but she had faith in Scam.

He had taken the pivotal first step had he not? A smile finally reformed on her lips at finally knowing at least that much. That meant he wanted this too. And when Scam wanted something, she knew that he wasn't one to let it go without a fight. Which proved that he wasn't going to scared away by Sammie's outburst even if she'd thought she had chased him away with it.

So really then, there was no need to despair. All was not last because she at least had him in her corner. She was 50% towards the finishing line and now just had to figure out the remaining half way to bridge the distance.

And she would, Clover grinned now feeling optimistic once more. Together with Scam's help, she most certainly would.

But when her gaze just so happened to land on the cover of the glossy magazine she had been absentmindedly opening and shutting while she'd been thinking, Clover stopped dead.

Picking it up she stared hard at the image of the unfamiliar woman and familiar man on it to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. But knew she wasn't just seconds later when the picture nor the incriminating headline that accompanied it changed in any way.

An outraged gasp left her and that was soon followed by a vociferous growl of rage. Her eyes became stormy and narrowed into thin slivers of utter shock and disgust as they remained fixed on what she could not believe she was seeing.

Her long manicured nails nearly tore gaping holes into the tabloid particularly where the picturized blonde slut's face was as her grip on it tightened and she frowned so deeply that her lips started to ache as she felt just one emotion invade all her senses with a crippling force that made her erupt like a volcano.

Betrayal.

Before she could stop herself Clover rose from the table. She walked into the living room to the couch and picked up her purse. Opening it she shoved the tabloid inside before shutting it again and making her way to the front door.

Leaving Sam's place in a huff she quickly hailed a cab. Once in the backseat she instructed for the driver to take her to an address in downtown L.A. that she had memorized.

Where she knew a certain man could be found who owed her some fucking answers.

Josie smiled to herself as she played on the grass on the small lawn outside her house.

On the wooden porch on the creaky steps sat a bored looking blonde teenager from a few houses up the neighbourhood. Once every five or ten minutes she would pause and look up to make sure she was okay before returning to her phone where she was busied with texting her boyfriend.

This wasn't her usual babysitter Becky Lavoie. When her mommy had called Becky because something had come up that she had to suddenly go take care of and her auntie Clover had left for some reason, she had said that unfortunately she couldn't make it today.

So her mommy had frantically asked around the block and luckily Mrs. Vargas' said that her daughter Tiffany was free and could watch her just as long as her mommy could get back soon to take her off her hands.

In return her mommy had thanked her profusely and promised to make her a dress as later payment for this favour before turning to her, bending down to be at her level, patting her head and apologizing a hundred times for having to take off on a Saturday. The only day they normally spent every minute of together unlike every other day of the week where she had to work long hours.

But she had smiled sweetly at her mama and said that it was okay and she really didn't mind. She knew that it had to be something weally weally important that her mommy had to deal with or else she would never go anyway.

And as much as she would have liked her auntie to be the one to take care of her when her mommy couldn't like she usually did, she understood also that just like her mommy, her auntie too must have something super duper important that she could not get out of doing. Why else would she have gone without saying anything about it to her first? She would never!

So like the good little girl that she was, she was content with waiting for her and her mommy to come back home as she happily passed the time by playing with her favourite blue, metallic, glitter ball.

She laughed as she dribbled it up and down with her hand while counting inside her head to see how many seconds she could keep it going without having the ball bounce away. She did that for a good while before her arm started to ache so she switched hands. When that one too got tired from the repetitive activity she decided on starting up a new game.

Putting the ball down on the ground she walked around the dirt to find something she could draw with. Locating a twig she could use, she picked it up only to pout because it had a blunt end. Putting it back down she stepped on it snapping it carefully under her shoe to not give her fingers any splinters her mommy would have to take out later.

Holding the stick up to her face she grinned when it now had a pointy end and she carried it back to where she'd left her ball. Bending down she drew herself a starting line in the mud. She did her best to make it as straight as possible and after two minutes of failed attempts she finally made one that was even enough.

Placing her ball on that line she started to kick it to see how far she could make it go. Her first kick made the ball skid a quarter of the way across the lawn.

Clapping her hands and giggling in amusement she raced over to pick it up and bring it back to same starting point before kicking it once more.

This time it got as far as halfway. She repeated the process but this time when she kicked it she wound her leg back as far as it could go in her skirt and kicked the ball with all her might.

With great force it took off like a speeding bullet and flew through the air. It hit the top of the picketed fence and ricocheted off it to land outside the perimeter of the lot and out onto the sidewalk. Then it slowed down but kept moving, rolling along until it trickled off the concrete path and ended up smack dab in the middle of the street.

"Uh oh!" Josie thought, her emerald eyes going wide from panic at seeing that her ball had gone in forbidden territory. She hadn't meant to kick it that hard!

Turning her small head over her shoulder she opened her mouth to ask Tiffany to please get her ball back for her.

But when she looked the lady wasn't there. The stairs were empty and the screen door was halfway open. She must have gone inside to get something or go to the bathroom.

Josie turned back to look into the street where her ball sat. Every time a car passed by it, her heart had a mini heart attack for fear that it would hit her toy. If she didn't get it soon, she knew it would be ruined.

She felt tears start to well up in her eyes at that thought. This was her favourite ball that her mommy had gotten for her as a special gift. She couldn't stand the idea of wrecking it. What was she going to do?!

Suddenly she got an idea and she stopped sobbing. What if ... she got it herself? Her mommy had told her to never step off the sidewalk into the street unless an adult was holding her finger but she needed to get her ball.

She chewed on her lower lip as she thought this over. She was a very fast little girl. Her friends always said that she was as quick as a bunny. So if she was really, really speedy then there was no reason why she couldn't do it.

She looked towards the porch one last time to see if Tiffany had returned so she would not have to do this but when she didn't see her she made her decision. She was going to get her ball.

Walking across the lawn she put a palm up against the fence and pushed on it but it didn't open. The fence was locked but she remembered that its latch was not a particularly strong one. She'd seen her mommy simply lift it open plenty of times.

Knowing what she had to do to, Josie leaned up on her tippy-toes and put both her hands on the fence. Then she began hitting it over and over making sure to use the entire weight of her body. Soon enough the latch gave way and the fence simply swung open for her.

A happy gasp of delight leaving her she put herself back down on her feet fully before walking out of past the fence and making her way to the edge of the sidewalk.

When she got there she stopped and made sure to look at both sides of the street just like her mommy and auntie always did whenever they crossed one. Seeing that the coast was clear she took in a deep breath before counting to three.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

With that she broke off into a mad dash and just two minutes later she was close enough to her ball to reach down and grab it.

But the digits of her tiny fingers had just barely brushed the surface of the polished plastic when she felt the ground rumble as a strong gust of wind came front just ahead. Then the sound of tires screeching loudly could be heard and Josie looked up in alarm just as a big, white, Bugatti Veyron came into view.

Her mouth dropped open, her eyes flew wide, and she dropped her ball with a scared gasp when she realized the car was now just a few inches from her.

And then she screamed at the top of her lungs as everything turned to black.

(1) Reference to Season 2, Episode 22: "Matchmaker". Clover wears this disguise while investigating Eugene Snit undercover and it always makes me laugh how "sleuth" it is haha.

(2) Sneaky little nod to us Sam/Scam shippers. I could not resist lol.

Okay so ... scary ending. I wonder who is in that car? Any guesses?

I'm actually REALLY curious to hear what you thought about Clover and Sam's talk and ofc what's going to happen to poor Josie! :(

But also Scam ... when Clover gets through with him lol.

More to come and till next time!

Love always,

Cresenta's Lark! :)