Free Never Again Good-Bye by Terri Blackstock Page B

questions.
    The missiles were expertly aimed and just as destructive. Laney listened with disbelief as her attorney drilled him in a mocking voice about his financial state, about the fact that he’d declared a loss on his income taxes for the preceding year, about the judgments against his home and his business, about the bills that Wes still hadn’t been able to pay off.
    “I’m self-employed,” Wes said in a shaky voice, trying desperately to restrain his anger. “My health insurance costs a fortune, and it doesn’t cover much. When my wife got sick …” His voice cracked, and he stopped and steadied himself. Swallowing, he started again. “There were a lot of expenses, and my insurance didn’t cover much at all. I had to pay for most of it. It set me back a little.”
    “A little?” LaRoux echoed. “Exactly how much do you still owe, Mr. Grayson?”
    Wes glanced at his lawyer. The man gave him a nod, telling him to go ahead.
    “Somewhere around thirty-five thousand dollars,” he said quietly.
    “Do you have any hope of paying that off, Mr. Grayson?” LaRoux asked.
    Wes looked at the judge, then at Laney. “I’m doing the best I can.”
    “And does your ‘best’ include possible bankruptcy?”
    Wes took a beat too long to answer. “I don’t know.” He took a deep breath and tried to explain. “I have several bids out, and I’m working on one for the new amusement park project. I might be able—”
    “But no contracts?”
    “Not at the moment. We just finished a project, but it was over budget because of some problems that came up—”
    “Thank you, Mr. Grayson,” LaRoux said, cutting him off. The attorney smiled and turned to the judge, but Laney’s eyes remained on Wes. His jaw tensed as he stared at the floor, bracing himself for what he knew was to come. His eyes were opaque, but behind the dullness was fear so great that it made Laney shiver. The man had lost more than his wife. He had almost lost his business and his home, he had gone into debt so great that he had little hope of ever getting out from under it, he faced the prospect of losing his daughter, and now he was losing his dignity as well.
    Her eyes darted to her lawyer’s, and she wondered where he’d gotten his information and what bearing he thought it had on this case. Surely he didn’t think that a lack of money made Wes a poor father. That wasn’t what she’d wanted to prove. All she wanted was to have her own place in Amy’s life, without hurting Wes in the process.
    “Your honor,” LaRoux went on in a bored voice. “It’s apparent that this man is under a great deal of stress, financially and otherwise. He hasn’t even had the money to take his child for her checkups—”
    “I take her to the doctor when she’s sick!” Wes blurted, his face reddening.
    “Your honor,” the attorney went on, as if Wes’s outburst was irrelevant, “a man in this much debt has to cut corners. Where does he cut them? With the child’s clothing, food, medicine?”
    “I object!” Wes’s lawyer said, and Laney breathed a sigh of relief.
    Laney wanted to object as well. She hadn’t done this to humiliate Wes Grayson and strip him of his dignity. She’d never said he neglected Amy! She half rose in her chair, trying to get her attorney’s attention and stop him, make him take back what he’d said on her behalf, make him give Wes back his pride. When her attorney ignored her furious eyes she sank back down.
    What had she done?
    The objection was sustained, but LaRoux had other aces up his sleeve. “We’re talking about a little girl. A little girl in a home with a man who can hardly support her, a man who may not even be able to keep a roof over her head, a man with a failing business to run, a man who isn’t even her natural father.”
    Wes’s eyes snapped to Laney’s and locked with them. How could you do this to us? they asked.
    She arched her brows helplessly and shook her head. Had she really paid that man to