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“Yes, I do,” Bella said. “If my mom wants to have some kind of relationship with me then she has to get along with you.”

Not going to happen, but he wouldn’t voice that out loud either.

“I can get along with anyone,” Holly said. “If it means being part of your life.”

He turned to see Bella’s reaction to those words.

The ones that turned his stomach. He hoped to hell Bella wasn’t falling for it.

“I don’t know,” Bella said. “I have questions.”

“Ask them.”

“All of them?” she asked.

“As long as we are here for lunch,” he said. “You’re not getting more than an hour.”

He had to put a limit on this.

For Bella.

He wasn’t going to let her be opened up raw and bled out.

There was only so much he was going to let her have the say on.

He was still her guardian. Still her father in his eyes.

And that meant he knew what was best for her, even if she didn’t know herself.

“Where did you go after you left me?” Bella asked.

“Like right after?” Holly asked, wincing and then looking up at the ceiling. “I’m not sure I remember.”

“You walked away from your husband and child and don’t know where you went?” Bella asked, sounding almost as confused as him. “I’d think you’d remember that, since there had to be a big enough reason for you to leave.”

Holly looked at him, held his stare as if she thought he was going to stop the question. “Fine. Your father hit me.”

Bella turned to him quickly. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I didn’t know until your mother told me and I’m not one for believing her word. I know there were never any calls into the police for domestic violence because I checked.”

“Dad never hit me,” Bella said. “Ever. Half the time he didn’t care what I did or where I was. And when he talked about you, he said you were the one that always threw things at him. That you used to jump on his back all the time and scratch him.”

“I suppose you believe it,” Holly said, putting her head down slowly again, but he wasn’t buying her performance. Their food was brought out and Holly dove right in not bothering to defend herself anymore.

He was positive she was just formulating her next plan of attack.

“Since it was the only parent I had talking to me and in my life, I didn’t have much of a choice. Or another side.”

Good comeback.

“I’m here now,” Holly said.

“I guess we’ll see how long you stay,” he said.

“You’d love nothing more than for me to leave,” Holly hissed. “Just say it.”

“Fine, I’ll say it. I’m not hiding that fact. I don’t want you causing her any more pain than you already have. But it’s more important what Bella thinks. It’s her decision.”