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“You did your best. Mikel is a grown man making his own decisions. He’s sick. I tried to help, but …”
“You’ve helped, Remy. More than you know.” Bently reached his hand out to cover hers, the warm connection in his touch offering her some comfort.
“The people that ran you off the road, Joe Canoby and Jim Fisher, are in jail. Joe’s looking at a decade behind bars, and his accomplice much longer for having the weapon. You’re safe.”
She nodded, glad to hear she wouldn’t have to keep looking over her shoulder. “How is he?” she asked, not able to say Mikel’s name yet.
Bently sat back in his chair, clenching his fists in his lap.
“Tell me,” she prodded.
“I don’t know. He took off. Can’t locate him.” He sighed, the worry written across his face.
“He said he was leaving.”
“He left knowing you’re pregnant?” he asked, anger simmering just beneath the surface of the question. He assumed Mikel had abandoned her.
She shook her head. “He believes I lost the baby, and I didn’t tell him otherwise. I love him, Bently, with every cell in my body, but he’s in no place to be a father. He can’t take care of himself. I made him promise to come back once he gets clean for good.”
“You … he doesn’t know?” he asked in disbelief.
“Promise me you won’t tell him,” she begged.
“That’s a big ask, Remy. When he finds out I knew and didn’t tell him, it could destroy any progress he’s made.”
“Don’t put him in the position to choose his addiction over his child, because I could never forgive him for that.” Her voice trembled as the words cut like glass from her mouth.
“If he asks … I can’t lie to him. I won’t do that,” Bently said, standing and pacing the short room.
“My child almost died because of him, and it still might. I can’t endanger this baby further. He promised me he would never touch the stuff again and then I walked in and found him with that junkie on his lap with her hands all over him while he got high. He told me to go, to stay away from him. I’m finally listening.”
Bently tugged the hair on his head and grit his teeth. “I’ll try to get him into rehab when he picks up my call.”
“Thank you,” she said. She closed her eyes, exhausted. She just needed to sleep again, escape her reality for a little while. Maybe when she woke up, this would all be a bad dream.
Her hand rested against her belly as she imagined a life where her baby would get to grow up with two parents who loved her, like she had. Would she have her father’s eyes? Would he have Mikel’s love for astronomy?
Remy slipped into a peaceful dream of the fictional family she’d created in her mind.
