Never Again Good-Bye Read Online Free Page B

with the force of its soft anguish. “Don’t you think I know that?” she sobbed. “I gave up my rights to her seven years ago, whether I wanted to or not. She’s a happy child. I’d rather die than spoil that.”
    He studied her for a moment, gauging her eyes for something he could trust, something he could believe in, then dropped his focus to his tennis shoe. “How do I know I can believe you? You’ve lied to me about everything so far.”
    “I’m not lying about this. What more have I got to lose?”
    What more have I got to lose? Heaven help me, Wes thought. Amy was all he had left. Absolutely all. He focused his misting eyes on the ceiling and bit his lip until he drove out the color. “I want you to stay away from her. You’ve got your precious pictures, but I don’t want you anywhere near her again.”
    “Don’t worry,” Laney said ruefully. “She thinks I’m a criminal now, remember? She saw the police taking me away yesterday.”
    “Just the same, I want you to stay away from her.” He clenched his hand and pressed it against his mouth. A vein in his neck throbbed, and the muscles in his temples tightened. “If it wasn’t to take Amy, then why did you come back here?”
    Her shaking hand went up to dry her eyes in vain, and she walked across the room to drop onto the sofa. “Because it’s my home. I grew up here.”
    “What about your work?”
    “I quit my job in Houston. I worked in the advertising department of a department store, and I do freelance photography on the side.”
    “So you came back here without a job, just because it’s where you grew up? Why now, after seven years?”
    Laney dried her face with both hands and met his piercing gaze. How could she tell him that her father’s death had triggered her need to right things, that until he died she had been emotionally dead and dictated over, even though she hadn’t seen him in years. “As long as I leave Amy alone, Mr. Grayson, it’s none of your business why I came back here. The fact is that I’m staying.”
    Wes took a few steps closer and leaned over her, the pulse in his neck throbbing visibly. “I don’t like it. I want you out of this town. I have enough problems without worrying what you’ll do next.”
    “Take my word for it,” she choked. “You’ll probably never even see me again.”
    “Take your word for it,” he repeated with disgust. “Under the circumstances, that’s a little easier said than done.”
    “Try,” she said. “I’d never hurt my daughter by trying to take her from the only family she knows.”
    Wes shifted and began to pace the floor, studied her at each turn, then slowed to a stop. “It looks like I don’t have a choice. I can’t force you to leave or to sign in blood that you’ll make no claim on her, can I? You’ve backed me into a corner, and I have to trust you.”
    “That’s right,” she said quietly. “You have to trust me.”
    He rubbed a hand over his chin, and she noted the brown stubble that looked surprisingly dark against a complexion growing pastier by the moment.
    “I hope you’re a decent person,” he said on a ragged sigh.
    “I am,” she said, lifting her chin with an unmistakable degree of pride. “It took me a long time to believe that, but I am.”
    Their eyes locked for a moment, and she knew he wanted desperately to believe her, to leave her house and not look back. He had to trust blindly, the way she had had to do when she left Shreveport seven years before, praying the adoptive parents were decent people. Wes swallowed with great effort, as though all his anger and fears were trapped at the back of his throat. Finally he nodded his head and started toward the double oak doors.
    “Mr. Grayson?”
    He stopped, leaned against the door, then reluctantly turned back to her.
    Laney struggled with the question, but finally it stumbled out. “Does Amy know she’s adopted?”
    “Yes.”
    “Oh.” She looked down at her hands for a moment.