Vanessa
Vanessa sobbed into Hunter’s shirt for a long while. It wasn’t until she heard a little voice ask, “Mommy? Are you okay?” That she stood up and wiped her eyes.
“Oh sure, baby,” Vanessa said. She knelt down and kissed Opal on the forehead. “You did real good today. Go ahead and play in your room for a while, okay?”
Opal ran back off, and Hunter hugged her again.
“I can’t believe,” Vanessa said, her face pressed into Hunter’s neck, “that after everything we did to make sure we could have evidence against Jeremy, staying to have Opal’s testimony on file and all that, putting her in danger every day that we’re here, that it was all for nothing. We should have taken off.”
“No, that still would have been worse. It’s not like Nicholas’s assessment alone will make the decision. They’ll get other people involved in the case.”
“But if Nicholas didn’t believe Opal, why would anyone else? They’ll all think she’s lying and that I’m making her do it. They’ll take her away, and I’ll never see her again.”
“No.” He smoothed her hair and spoke softly. “That’s not even how the system works. It might not seem like it, but they do believe in reconciliation between parents and child. They’ll make sure she’s safe first, then go from there.”
“This is all my fault,” Vanessa said, fresh tears flowing down her cheeks. “I shouldn’t have stayed with Jeremy so long. I kept making excuses for him, saying he was just tired or high or under a lot of stress, that he didn’t really mean it. Or I’d lie and tell people I fell or hurt myself. I did everything I could to protect him, and in the end, I couldn’t even protect my daughter from him. Now I’ve made it easy for him to take her and keep me from her. I should have left when people wanted to help me. I could have gone somewhere. I could have left when my mother was still alive, and she would have helped me. She would have given us a safe place, and we would have had money to do it. But instead, Jeremy blew my inheritance on drugs.”
She shook her head and looked at Hunter. “I never trusted anyone to help me, and look where it got me.”
“I don’t blame you. How could you trust anyone when the man who was meant to love you and Opal the most treated you so badly? No one would expect you to trust people after that.”
“But when I finally wised up—or really, when it finally got so bad that he started to hurt Opal too—it was too late. I waited too long. I completely failed my child.”
“No, you didn’t. You got her out of a bad place and into safety. Now she has a teacher she loves who will help keep her safe, you both have me to protect you. And this thing will get worked out. She’s away from her father who hurt her, and I’ll make sure he’s never around her again.”
She shook her head and kept shaking it. “I’m no good for Opal. Maybe I just need to trust the system. If they’ll take her some place safe and keep her safe, then maybe that’s what I should do. Jeremy already knows where we are. It’s only a matter of time until he comes or sends someone to kill me and take her. I can’t keep her safe. They should just take her and put her somewhere else, away from me.”
# # #
Hunter pulled her close. She was practically hysterical. And now she was just talking crazy. He chose his words carefully. He already knew what had to be done. Take Jeremy out and prove to CPS that he was the monster, not Vanessa.
“I don’t think you should let them take her like that,” he said. “That would cause Opal more pain and disruption in her life. Just wait for Nicholas to come back, and we’ll talk to him. Opal will talk to him again, and he’ll probably bring in more people to talk to her, and they’ll see.” And, in the meantime, he would find a good time to leave them and hunt down Jeremy.
But then, something hit him. This wasn’t Vanessa’s fault. Opal had looked over at him, too. He realized what it must’ve seemed like to Nicholas. This wasn’t Vanessa’s fault at all. It was his. And then, with a sense of dread, he reminded himself that this was why he couldn’t be with Vanessa. He was no good for them. They needed a steady man and he couldn’t give them the life they deserved.
“I want to protect you both,” he said. “I want to be here for you both. But I think you’re thinking about this all wrong.”
“What do you mean?” she whispered, wiping at her eyes.
“I think I’m the reason Nicholas doesn’t believe you and Opal.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Well, think about it. Look at it from Nicholas’s perspective. He gets a call about a woman abusing her daughter from a very concerned, wealthy, and well-connected father. He probably assumes Jeremy is some decent citizen type, making a difference in the world. Nicholas comes to investigate and the kid isn’t even there, but there’s some guy. He assumes the mom was running around with this guy, because he’s the bad boy type while the father is the straight-laced type. He thinks you’ve sent Opal off to spend time with me, and just want to keep her from her father. Like you’re trying to move on with a new guy and start a new life. And since the new guy is clearly dangerous and has a past, then maybe the mom isn’t the innocent little lady she comes off as. Probably even thinks the whole reason you want Opal is so you can get money from Jeremy. That crap happens all the time.”
Vanessa stared at him in shock. “You’re serious?”
“You don’t think it seems like that?”
“I—but—no, he can’t.”
“I’m sure he does. I intimidate people without even trying. I’m sure Nicholas felt that and assumes I’m intimidating you and Opal into doing what I want.”
“That’s crazy!” she shrieked.
“It doesn’t matter. That’s what it looks like. But I think we can fix it pretty easily.”
“How?”
“I need to leave. It’ll give you leverage and make things easier for you both.”
At first, he thought Vanessa’s voice had gone up a few octaves, but then he realized that it was Opal who had shouted, “No!”
She ran into the room and swung her little arms around Vanessa’s waist. “No!”
Vanessa and Hunter exchanged looks. What exactly had she overheard and what was she protesting?
“Opal?” Vanessa asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want Hunter to leave!” She turned to look up at them both. “He can help us, Mommy. I know he can.”
He didn’t know what to say and it seemed like Vanessa didn’t either. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Opal dropped her voice to a whisper. “I saw his guns.” She looked at Hunter, as if making sure it was okay that she’d seen. She was probably afraid he would yell at her like her daddy did.
“You did?” he asked in a light tone.
She nodded. “They’re kind of scary, but I know you can keep us safe. That’s what guns do, right?”
“If they’re used correctly, yes,” Hunter said. Though, he certainly didn’t intend to use them keep Jeremy safe. Quite the opposite. The more he got to know Opal, the more he wondered how in the world any man could hit a child, and especially this child. She was so sweet and innocent. He couldn’t even picture getting angry enough to do something like that. But maybe that was his own past speaking. All he could ever imagine was taking out his anger on people who deserved it. The ones who did horrible things like beat their children and wives. His hand involuntarily clenched into a fist. It was becoming his favorite thing to image all the different ways he might kill Jeremy. Right now, he was most in favor of strangulation. He wanted to feel that man’s neck in his hands, and watch the light die in his eyes.
“You both keep me safe,” Opal continued.
“Well, we’ll certainly do our best,” Vanessa said.
“You have to do what he says, Mommy.”
“I am, honey.”
“No, you’re going to let him leave. But he can’t leave. He has to stay. You both have to be here to protect me.”
Hunter raised his eyebrows and looked at Vanessa. Maybe somewhere in all the games of Candy Land and all the talks, all the times he told her how he was hurt as a child, when he tried to make her see he had gone through the same thing. Maybe all of that had worked after all. She did trust him, and she wanted him so stay around.
Hunter put a hand on Opal’s shoulder. The sudden urge to protect this small, fragile child rose in his chest and grew hotter. He would do anything he had to for her. “I won’t go anywhere. I’ll stay right here and protect you.”