Page 131 of Fierce-Jax

“They do,” Martha said. “But Luke wasn’t an easy man to be around.”

“Then why did you stay?” Dillion asked. “Or aren’t you together now?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Martha said. “You’ve got money and a place to go if you wanted to leave. I had nothing for years.”

What she didn’t understand was that if her mother was being abused also, she would have gotten her out. Once she had the means to support them both. She would have helped.

Alec had the means to do that and chose not to.

He blamed his mother, who was a victim just the same.

And that was where she was struggling here just as much.

That Alec’s character when it came to question, always took the easy way out.

“What about now?” she asked. “Are you still with your husband?”

“I am,” Martha said. “I threatened to leave every time Luke started drinking heavily again. He’d get clean for a long time.”

“And then fall off the wagon,” she said. “But you’re still there.”

“Luke has been clean for ten years. He’s a different man. I’ve not wanted to bring up Alec’s name for fear...”

“That he’d start drinking again?” she asked. “And if you think I’m going to let my daughter near this man, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“I know,” Martha rushed out to say. “Hear me out. Luke is the one that brought up Alec last year. That he had a lot of regret. Alison let him back into her life and he realized what I had given up with his behavior. I let it go when he brought it up in case he changed his mind. But he didn’t. So then I looked for Alec and found out he’d died. I don’t even know what happened and how he was shot. He was so successful by the sounds of it and then to have his life taken from him randomly like that.”

Her shoulders dropped.

Could she be honest and tell Alec’s mother what his life was like?

How he was killed and why?

That he was selling the drugs he’d stolen and had been shot by his supplier who thought he’d be busted too.

“What do you hope to get out of this?” her mother asked before she could say another word.

“I’d like to know more about Alec. What he was like as an adult. I’d like to know and be part of his daughter’s life. I don’t expect you to just hand her over to us for a weekend or anything.”

“No way,” Dillion said firmly. “Not happening.”

Martha nodded. “We will go to court if it comes to that, but I thought maybe we could just talk and start things slowly. I made a lot of mistakes as a parent that I have to live with. I lost my son twice in my mind because of it. I don’t want to lose the only thing I have left of him. If it means I can get some pictures or information on her, it’s more than I had of my son.”

“So you don’t want visitation with her?” she asked.

She was trying to understand what this was really about.

“I’d love to meet her. I’d love to see her and get a hug. Lots of things. But I also know that might not be possible while she is a minor. I’m more than willing to start small and compromise.”

“Which was your plan all along?” she asked.

“It was my hope,” Martha said. Their food was brought out and placed in front of them. “If you don’t mind, could you tell me more about my son and what he was like?”

Dillion looked at her mother and felt her heart soften. It seemed unfair to let the horrible mistake that got him killed erase all his years of hard work putting himself through med school, his achievement of becoming a doctor, and the effective emergency treatments she’d seen him give to patients. “Alec was a great doctor...”

41

MY DECISION