HAZEL WAS EVENTUALLY brought to an outpatient room, where she’d stay until she was discharged.

She was surrounded by her grandparents, who all lavished love and attention on her.

Loretta had to admit that, despite her irritation with her parents at the moment, they knew how to cater to their granddaughter. Tom’s parents were equally as loving, bringing her a bouquet of flowers along with a stuffed animal that made her grin a loopy, half-drugged smile that Loretta caught on her camera phone.

Deacon stayed in the background, but hovered nearby, and it meant so much to Loretta to have him there. Whenever Hazel asked for him, he was right there, holding her hand and making her laugh, which then made her wince. Then they both laughed about her wincing. He told her she’d forever have a battle scar and she should be proud of that. That made her happy.

There was a knock on her hospital room door, and Loretta went to answer it.

It was Tom.

“Hey,” he said. “I got here as soon as I could.”

“I’m so glad you made it. Come on in.” She opened the door, shocked to see some dude she didn’t recognize and a guy with a camera behind him.

She frowned. “Tom. What is this?”

He at least had the decency to look sheepish. “Well, they’re documenting every step of the campaign.”

She rolled her eyes and was about to hit him hard about it, but then Hazel saw him.

“Daddy!”

Tom brushed past her, and so did the other two guys.

“Hi, pumpkin. Heard you were sick, so I rushed right up here to see you.”

Tom sure knew how to turn it on for the cameras. And suddenly they were on, lights blazing, as Tom sat on the bed, kissed Hazel, and listened to her tell the story of how she got sick and had to have surgery. He gave her all the appropriate sympathy and love.

For about ten whole minutes before he said he had to leave.

So much for Tom’s record parenting skills.

“I have to go, pumpkin,” he said to Hazel. “But I’ll see you soon.”

Hazel’s eyes welled with tears. “Okay.”

He brushed her forehead with his lips. “Love you.”

“I love you, too, Daddy.”

As he walked out, he stood in front of Loretta.

“Sorry. I have an event I have to be at by four.”

There was so much she wanted to say to him, and none of it was good. And she wouldn’t do it in front of Hazel. “Yeah. Thanks for stopping by.”

“Sure. She’s my kid. I’d do anything for her.”

Bite your tongue, Loretta.

Tom’s parents walked out with him, so there was finally some breathing space in the room.

Especially now that the blowhard politician had left.

“I’d love something cold to drink, Loretta,” her mother said. “Would you like to come with your father and me to get some iced tea?”

Loretta looked over at Hazel.

“I’ll sit with her,” Deacon said. “You take a break.”

“Yeah, okay. Sure.” It would probably help to walk off her irritation at her ex-husband.

They headed toward the elevators. When they opened, Loretta pushed the button that would take them to the cafeteria floor.

“Wasn’t it so nice of Tom to take time out of his busy schedule to come visit?” her mother asked.

Loretta couldn’t help the eye roll. “Yes. So nice.”

“I mean, to drop everything like that and fly to his daughter’s side.”

“With a camera crew in tow,” Loretta added.

“He has to do that, you know,” her father said.

She turned to face her parents. “No, he doesn’t have to do that. He does it to make himself look good. The doting father so concerned for his daughter. You do realize he hardly ever sees her, and when he does, it’s only for campaign purposes?”

Her mother looked shocked. “Loretta. He loves her.”

“No, Mom. He uses her. If he loved her he’d see her every other weekend like he’s supposed to. He would have dropped everything having to do with his campaign this morning and he would have been here by her side. That’s not what just happened up there.” When the elevator doors opened, Loretta walked out with her parents, then stopped in the hall. “What you saw up there? That wasn’t a father concerned about his daughter’s health. That was a photo op, and nothing more.”

Her father frowned at her. “I think you’re blinded by . . . by whatever is going on between you and Deacon Fox.”

Her anger had reached the boiling point. “Oh. That’s funny, Dad. Do you want to know about Deacon? Deacon was the one who held Hazel in the bathroom while she threw up. He was the one who was there cradling her in his arms while she was shaking with fever. She clutched on to him like a lifeline. He’s the one she trusts. He’s the one she asks for when she needs something. And you know why that is? Because her own father isn’t there for her. She doesn’t realize it now, but someday, when she’s an adult and can reason it out, she’ll realize how very little her own father cares about her.”

“Don’t you say that, Loretta,” her mother said. “Tom is a good man. He loves Hazel.”

“In his own way, he does love her. But not enough. Not as much as she needs.”

She turned to her father and advanced on him. “And don’t you ever belittle Deacon Fox ever again. He’s been there for both me and Hazel. If you don’t like him, that’s just too bad, Dad, because he’s in my life and in Hazel’s life, and you’d better get on board with that, because I don’t intend for that to change.”

She walked away from both of her parents, nearly shaking with anger and frustration.

Maybe it was the aftereffects of everything that had happened with Hazel, or maybe it was that, for the first time in her life, she’d finally stood up to her parents and told them how she really felt.

Either way, she was done listening to bullshit about Tom and Deacon from her parents. They needed to open their eyes and see the truth, and she’d laid that truth out clearly for them.

As she made her way into the cafeteria, her lips curved into a smile. That had been a long time coming.

And she felt really damn good about it.