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“I had to get away,” Holly said. “He hit me.”
It wouldn’t surprise him if that happened. “Why didn’t you report any of it?”
Holly looked as if she didn’t want to say more.
As if her words might get tangled up in lies.
He’d had enough people try to pull one over on him. Nothing would surprise him about his father, but he’d be willing to bet there was more to the story.
“He’d just get you to get him off. He’d said it more than once.”
“Bullshit,” he said. “Don’t pull that with me. You know damn well I didn’t talk to my father. Not before you and sure the hell not after you.” Holly was looking around. “Why are you here? Why are you looking for him?”
“I’ve been clean for a year.”
“So you’ve been gone for years getting high? Drinking? Doing what?”
“I was too young to be saddled with a kid,” Holly said. “I was out living my life. Maybe things got out of hand.”
“You think?” he asked.
She still hadn’t asked about her daughter.
He even gave her an opening. But nope.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have done what I had. But now, I just need some help.”
“Help with what?” he asked.
“Money. I’m tight. I got out and used what I had to get here. I thought maybe I could stay with him. Try to see Bella. But, wait. Where is she if Robert died?”
Bitch.
“It just occurred to you to ask that now?”
“I wasn’t thinking. I was stunned that you said Robert died.”
He could lie, but it’d serve no purpose.
It was best if Holly knew he not only had Bella but that he was going to protect her.
“She’s with me,” he said firmly. “I’ve got custody.”
“But she’s my child. I can see her.”
“Actually,” he said, leaning back, “no. You can’t. Not without me. You abandoned her. You haven’t seen her in eleven years. That’s right, eleven.”
“It hasn’t been that long,” Holly argued.
Maybe he was wrong. He only knew she was nowhere to be found two years ago. Bella had said she had no memory of the last time she talked to her mother.
“Then when was the last time you talked to her?”
“Well, I haven’t talked to her. But I was back in the area six years ago. Maybe seven. I talked to your father. He gave me money. I saw Bella from a distance.”
Seven years ago was when his father made him the guardian of Bella.
He wondered if that triggered it.
