Page 136 of Charity's Redemption

“How do you know that’s who that is?”

He tilted his head towards me with a look. “Come on. Do I look like I was born yesterday? I’ve been doing this job for longer than you’ve been alive.”

“Yet you didn’t recognize me?” I winced as the sarcasm escaped my lips and watched his smile fall off his face. The light-hearted mood bled into a somber one as I took a shot at him.

I’d been so on edge with Elias that the sarcasm meter was in the red, going full bore, that I’d forgotten to turn it off and inadvertently rubbed salt on my father’s wounds.

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. Every professional has some sort of blindness with the people they’re closest to. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had calls for suicides and their parents or someone they know were a doctor or counselor and they never saw it coming.” He sighed. “Even cops have criminals for children, and they don’t see it until it’s too late.” He started driving down the road, taking me the rest of the way home. “Are you going to tell me what happened there with him?”

I glanced around his car, looking for the dashcam most officers have in their vehicles, and came up empty.

“Elias Hernandez was the man I used to help me find Allie.” I left out the part where the now-deceased Senator Adams was my link to that dark underworld. “He didn’t particularly like the way I went about it, so he was expressing his displeasure with the situation.”

“Elias helped you rescue Allie… when he was suspected of being involved? Why would he take away from his own profit?”

“The case became too high profile, and he didn’t want the trouble.” Or what I should say is he didn’t want me to be around him, but now I see that was all just some stupid game to him.

He was like a teenage girl who couldn’t make up his mind. First, he wanted me to work with him, then it became all a game for him to watch me lose… or was I supposed to win… I don’t even know anymore.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

The long walk I had been facing turned into a quick drive as he pulled into my driveway at my home. “Dad, can I ask you something?”

“Sure, cupcake.”

“Have you forgiven me? We haven’t exactly talked about anything since… you know.”

I sunk into my chair as I waited for him to tell me I was a despicable human being, and he’d never forgiven me. He told Luca he loved me and wanted a relationship with me. He’d risked his badge on the golf green for me.

“I do forgive you.”

“But why? Not that I’m not grateful and all, but why?” Tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision.

“Charity, I know you loved your brother. And I know you are where you are today because you protected him. How can I fault you for that?” He shrugged and glanced into his lap. “How can I damn you and our relationship for sacrificing your future for him when you could’ve let him suffer the consequences of his actions? I can’t do that. I would’ve done the same thing.” He looked out the window and squeezed the steering wheel.

“And I have. I threw away my morals to protect you. Because you’re my daughter, and I love you.” He swiped at his eye and glanced my way. “I may not be okay with the people you associate yourself with, but you’re a good person. You’re still my little girl, and I know you have a heart of gold. Why else would you do what you did for him and Allie?”

My throat constricted as his gaze roamed my face.

“Is that why you met with Luca?”

“I needed to hear it from him as well. I wanted him to know that even though we were on the opposite sides of the playing field, I wouldn’t let that impede our relationship.”

Pain hit my chest as my heart mended back together. How did this day become so emotional?

“What did he say?”

“He said they love you too much to let you go, but they wouldn’t step between us, instead he encouraged it.”

He did? Of course he did, he told me as much, but to hear it from my father’s lips and his words the way he understood it had me tongue-tied. I didn’t know what to say.

“Do you love them?”

I nodded as a tear escaped me. “Very much.” I swiped it away with the back of my hand, then wiped it on my jeans.

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