This has gone far enough. I’ve done everything you’ve demanded of me for years and it has to stop. You got what you wanted. Why can’t that be enough?” I plead as I stare at the man standing across the room, casually picking up a framed photo of Shelby as a teenager.

I want to scream at him not to look at her, not to touch her, but I keep my anger and fear in check, knowing it will only enrage him.

“You know why it’s not enough, Georgia. You were supposed to get rid of him for good, and now he’s back, threatening to screw everything up,” he informs me, placing the photo back on the shelf as he turns to face me.

“I never had any intentions of getting rid of him. That was your doing. I got him away from Shelby, like you asked. I’m sure he has enough problems to deal with after what you had done to him, that coming back for Shelby is the least of his concerns,” I reply, hoping, wishing, and praying that what I’m saying is true.

If Eli James comes anywhere near my daughter again, bad things will happen to everyone. This man has proven that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants, and what he wants is Shelby. The idea that I’ve fostered his needs, even encouraged them, makes me sick to my stomach, but there is nothing else I can do, short of turning myself in. I made the selfish choice. One I will live with for the rest of my life. Someone is bound to get hurt no matter what I do.

I’ve never been very good at being a mother. I had bigger and better things in my sights than being stuck at home with a child, and when I found out I was pregnant, it was too late to do anything about it. I never could figure out how to stop blaming my daughter for ending all my dreams. I knew Shelby hated me for the way I treated her, the way I stifled her, and the way I tried to turn her into something she wasn’t. I can only hope that Shelby will see that all the things I’ve done recently were to protect her and the man she cares about, in my own twisted way. To make up for never being a very good mother. For allowing this man to blackmail me so I could keep my reputation intact. I knew that shouldn’t have been my one and only concern at the time, but my status in this town is all I have. The only thing that makes me stand out and makes people notice me. A way to relive my glory days, back before I had a child, when all eyes were on me and everything I ever wanted was in the palm of my hand.

I’m a coward and I’m a fool, and if this man weren’t standing right in front of me, I would crumble to the floor, the pain of what I’ve done to my daughter so acute that it almost takes my breath away.

I had no way of knowing that each time I succumbed to his threats, Shelby would pay the price and I wished more than anything that I could go back and make a different decision. Tell the truth instead of covering it up. Deal with the consequences instead of worrying about my reputation.

I hoped that he would lose interest when he saw that Shelby never returned his feelings, but it only made him angrier, more aggressive, more vicious with his warnings and his extortions.

“You better hope that’s true, Georgia,” he says in a low voice with a raise of one eyebrow as he stalks across the room to stand right in front of me. “You better hope he stays far away from Shelby or there will be consequences. I’d hate to have to let this town know all of the things you’ve done with their money, right under their noses. I’d hate for anything to happen to Mr. James and his family…or Shelby.”

I want to scream and shout at him that he’s the one using charity money for evil instead of good. He’s the one fooling everyone. He’s the one forcing my arm, threatening me to do corrupt things because he knows I’ll do anything to make sure no one else loses their life, but you can’t reason with someone who is crazy. Someone who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. And he wants my daughter, even if he threatens her life in the same breath.

I made the mistake of trusting him to fix a problem for me years ago, and I never lived it down. I could only hope that Shelby was strong enough to stand up to him when the time came, no matter what I’d done to keep her down all these years.

“Shelby has always known what’s at stake. She knows that with one phone call the rumor of Eli being a traitor can be brought to light again and Eli’s sister and brother-in-law’s businesses can be shut down,” I remind him, hating the words as they came out of my mouth and the part I played in all of it.

Hating everything I had to threaten Shelby with just so she didn’t stray from the path. So she didn’t do anything to anger this man and give him another reason to make threats. This man claimed to love Shelby and would stop at nothing to have her, but he had no idea what love was.

I wish I learned what it meant to love something so much you would do anything to protect it before it was too late. Before I’d fallen so far down this deceptive hole that there was no way of finding my way out without good people being hurt. Without my daughter being caught in the crossfire.

I can’t take it anymore. I can’t take the lying and the deceit. I can’t take one more second of letting this man bully me. I’ve done enough damage and it’s time to pay for my mistakes.

“But it doesn’t matter anymore, because I’m done. With all of this. I’m finished with your threats and I’m finished with you hurting my family just to get what you want. I’m turning myself in and I’M DONE!”

He laughs cynically then immediately wipes the smile from his face and stares at me with so much anger that it chills me to the bone.

“You’re done when I say you are.”

As he walks out of the office, whistling to himself like he doesn’t have a care in the world, I hope and I wish and I pray that Shelby will find the strength I know she possesses to see through this man and what he’s done.

And to someday forgive me for the part I played in all of this.