Page 91 of Tough Love

“Yeah, mate. I am.”

I slot the puzzle piece in my hand in place, and nudge Briar. “Your turn.”

He concentrates on the picture we’ve half put together, deliberating over which piece he’s going to select.

I leave him to it, and get up off the floor to join Evan in the kitchen area. “How did it go?”

He left at first light to head in to work, hoping to pull a few favours and find out a bit more about why Kath banned Tristan from seeing Briar.

“I found out a few things.” He leans against the counter, taking a sip from a bottle of water. “How much do you know already?”

I glance back at Briar, checking he’s still distracted.

“She fell pregnant about the same time I left home. Mum said she kept her involvement with him a secret.” I shrug. “Everything after that was kept hidden from me, so until I found out about Briar the day of the accident, it’s all new to me.”

He nods, reaching out to pull me into his front. I nestle between his legs, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“She placed a Protection Order against him a few months after she had Briar.”

“Figures.” Finding out he turned violent toward her is nothing unusual, considering how he treated me.

“He broke it three times before Briar turned one, showing up at her work, at her house, and even stalking her at the supermarket.”

“I can’t believe my parents hid all this from me.”

He shrugs, one hand stroking my back. “They might have worried it would trigger you, or if you got involved that he’d return to abusing you?”

“Possibly.”

How did Kath and I get to this stage with such an abusive man? For the first time since her passing, the desperate need to sit down and talk to her about it all grips me.

“Is there more?” I lean back, looking up at Evan’s face.

He tips his head down, nothing but regret in his eyes.At what?

“Two months before her accident, Tristan got out of jail after serving eighteen for armed robbery.”

I frown, wary of where he’s headed with this.

“She filed a report three days later about her car being broken into. Two days after that, she’s on record as being back at the station with the suspicion Tristan was stalking her again.”

“What was done about it?”

“Nothing at the time.” He closes his eyes briefly, sighing out his nose. “There was no evidence to go off, nothing they could use to prove he’d not only violated parole, but her Protection Order.”

I step away, my clothes suddenly scratchy, feeling too hot. “She must have been terrified.”

It’s so fucking surreal. I simply stare at Evan, wondering when my life story became a rival for a Hollywood script. Who in the hell would have wished this kind of nightmare on themselves, let alone chosen to keep living it?

I spin and look over at the one innocent party in all of this—Briar. There aren’t words to describe how sorry I feel for him that this monster of a man is his father, that he lost his mother, and that he’s tangled up in this bullshit through no fault of his own.

“He can’t get access to Briar,” I say. “I don’t want that poor kid to know his father at all. There isn’t one good reason why they should ever meet each other.”

“I know.” Evan’s hands find my waist, and he wraps me in much needed warmth and support. “We’ll figure it out.”

We’ll.He’s promised to stand by me through this, support me in something that’s not his problem. He could so easily toss up his hands and walk away, ignore problems that aren’t his, but instead he’s throwing himself into the fire for me.

I love him for it.

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