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It was Kirk’s turn to feel anger. At her—although he knew she was just doing her job. And mostly at himself for being such a fool. He could hardly believe what he was seeing in her eyes. “You’re his judge,” he said, incredulous. Hoping she’d deny his words, deny that she’d deceived him. How could he have been so far off the mark?
“I can’t comment on that.”
“You are.” He’d felt warm moments before. Now he was cold.
“I’ve told you all along I can’t comment on that.”
“There I was, telling you about his problems at home and you were using that information against him, weren’t you?”
“I have nothing to say to that.”
How could she look him in the eye?
“And the smoking!” Kirk continued. “That was a probation violation. Did you write him up for that, too?”
“I can’t comment on any of this, Kirk.”
Furious, Kirk stood with hands in his pockets, his jaw tight. Willing himself to breathe, to think, to stop himself before he said something he’d regret.
“No, but that didn’t prevent you from fishing for information, did it?”
She turned away then, and he grew numb. As though he stood outside himself looking in.
Damn. Wouldn’t half the business world just love this one? He gritted his teeth. The infallible and dangerous, dreaded and revered Kirk Chandler, taken in by a five-foot-five lady judge.
It took him a full two minutes to be able to pry his jaw apart, to remember why the business world—and its opinion of him—didn’t matter. To remember that betrayal was his due. To remember his life’s purpose.
And to realize that he’d just been given the best chance he’d ever get to help Abraham. He was no longer going through a third party. No, he had the sole decision-maker right there in front of him.
He’d had her beneath him recently, too. Naked. Inviting him inside.
“Abraham needs his mother,” he said as calmly as he could. “He’s depressed, sinking under the weight of hopelessness. While it might seem somewhat bizarre considering the circumstances, family is everything to that boy. Do whatever you must, put him in whatever programs, give him however many watch-dogs, but let him go home, Valerie, or we’re going to lose him.” She was watching him. Listening. So he continued. “I know you thought the Mortons would be good for him, but their family closeness just makes him feel isolated. Alone. Apart.”
She started to walk and, hands in the pockets of his jeans, he kept pace. She was quiet for so long he found it difficult to assess his position. In the world of negotiation, silence usually meant you wanted something you hadn’t yet been given. And he’d given everything.
“Do you really care about these things, Kirk?” Her question, when it came, surprised him. “Do you care about him?”
“Of course I do.”
“Enough to get over yourself and let Abraham have the help he needs?”
Heart sinking, Kirk continued to walk. “Why do I get the feeling you didn’t hear a word I just said?”
“I heard you,” she said, glancing over at him. “And everything you said just strengthened what I already knew. It’s your fault that Abraham’s not accepting the help being offered to him.”
“My fault!” He didn’t know what he’d been expecting. Thanks, maybe, for caring so much. It certainly hadn’t been blame. “How do you figure that?”
“Because your presence allows him to hold on to what he had. He has to let go before he’ll be able to see what else the world might have to offer him. That’s why we remove them so completely from the environment they knew.”
Because this was all about saving a twelve-year-old boy, he did his best to listen with an open mind. “I’m sure that works in a lot of cases,” he said after careful thought. “But nothing is a hundred percent in life. Nothing. Abraham is an unusual kid. A strange mixture of confusion and good sense, of little boy and mature young man.”
“You think Abraham is the only one of his kind?” she asked him, slowing more as they neared her driveway. “We see kids like him often, Kirk. Yes, he thinks life with his mother is everything, but only because it’s the only reality he’s ever known. If we can get him separated from that reality long enough to realize there’s a world of choices before him, he’ll be on his way to recovery.”
They weren’t going to agree on this. And if he had to help Abraham on his own, so be it. He could handle it. He’d already been handling it. So coming to Valerie hadn’t worked; he’d just have to think of something else.
“I’m sorry,” she said at the end of the driveway, hesitating as though she didn’t want to go in and leave things as they were.
“Don’t be.” He tried to sound sincere. “While I know you’re wrong, I also know you’re doing what you think is right, which is the very best you can do and all anyone can ever expect.”
