Free Protecting Her Child by Debby Giusti

needed to know the truth. She and her parents had trusted a lawyer to find a good home for her daughter long ago. Meredith’s reaction when Pete had mentioned Sam and Hazel Collins proved that the wealthy family had made a mistake then.
    Pete couldn’t let Eve make another mistake now.
    â€œYou’ve got to believe me, Eve. Meredith is your daughter.”
    When Eve failed to respond, the memory of allthat had happened so long ago threatened to explode.
    Ever since the first time he’d seen Eve at Magnolia Medical, Pete had tried to contain the frustration that bubbled close to the surface.
    â€œYou don’t believe me and worse than that, you don’t trust me. That’s it, isn’t it, Eve?”
    â€œPete, please.”
    â€œYour parents said I wouldn’t amount to anything. The apple never falls far from the tree. Wasn’t that the phrase they used?”
    â€œThey were upset.”
    â€œUpset? They kicked my father and me off the estate. I was twelve years old.”
    He glanced around at the lazy street with the regal homes. Wealth and prestige. What Eve’s family had and his father always wanted.
    Pete shook his head. Why was he opening himself up to relive the pain of the past after he’d kept it buried for so long? This wasn’t the time or the place.
    But one question haunted him. “Why didn’t you try to see me again?”
    â€œOh, Pete, I tried. It took me a few weeks, but when I found your father, he forbade me to have contact with you.”
    â€œSo you did nothing?”
    â€œI…I gave him money each month.”
    Pete couldn’t believe what he heard. “My father accepted your money?”
    â€œThere were things you needed that he couldn’t provide. I knew times were tough.”
    An understatement. They’d gone from a comfortable lifestyle on the estate to a hand-to-mouth existence that had taken every ounce of determination to survive. His father had chosen the easy way out. He’d turned to the bottle for relief.
    Now Pete realized where he had gotten the money to buy the booze.
    â€œYou didn’t help me. Don’t you see, Eve, you made it worse. Your money enabled my father to become consumed by a disease that eventually killed him. All the while, I was studying to research a cure for yours.”
    He pressed the disconnect button, his insides churning with anger and frustration.
    His father had accepted money from Eve, all the while continuing to fill his only son with hate for the wealthy family who had cast them out from their home.
    Pete had known his father had a warped sense of right and wrong, but he hadn’t thought the old man had been so far off base. Now the reality of what and who his father had been hit him in the gut.
    He wanted to scream to the heavens and ask theGod Eve claimed was so merciful why people twisted love and made it so destructive? Why children were innately programmed to believe they were loved, despite the outward signs that smacked of manipulation and control.
    If his father were still alive, Pete would demand to know the truth. Could Eve be right?
    All these years, Pete had harbored resentment against her and her parents. Now he realized that he should have reserved some of that anger and resentment for his own dad.
    Pete jerked open the door of his Jeep and slid behind the wheel. Too many emotions swirled through his mind.
    He needed to push them aside for now. Bury them, as he had done for so long.
    Someday he would try to make sense of what Eve had just told him.
    But, right now, he had a woman waiting for him. A wonderful woman who needed his help, despite Eve’s hesitation to accept Meredith as her daughter.
    He wouldn’t let Meredith down. Not like his father, who seemed to have let everyone down. Not like the Townsends, who had banished a little boy and his father from their home. Not like Eve, who had failed to follow him and now failed to accept that Meredith