prison?” she shot back. She was shocked to hear he’d been in prison, but she was about to be sick to her stomach, and she’d come too far to let him hurt her like this. Not again.
“I don’t know how much you know about prison,” he said, “but it’s not quite a country club. I was fighting for my life in there.”
“Lots of men in prison still reach out to their families.”
“I assumed you meant it when you said you loved me, that you’d wait.”
“Just how long did you think I’d wait?” she asked.
“As long as it took.” He snatched up her left hand and smiled. “I see you’re not married. No one wants used goods, huh?”
She took a step back and shook her head. “I don’t have to listen to this. Have a good life, Roy.” She started walking towards the elevator but he fell into step behind her.
“Where are you going, Charli?”
“None of your business.”
“You owe me an explanation.”
“I don’t owe you anything.”
“Like hell.” He sped up and got in front of her, preventing her from continuing. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you since I got back and now you’re here. So we’re going to talk.”
“How did you even know I was here?” she demanded.
“We live in a small town,” he said with a shrug. “I heard about it the minute you got here. Everyone did.”
She internally winced but refused to show it, merely shrugging. “Well, I don’t live in this small town anymore, and I don’t owe you shit, so please excuse me.”
“I want to know where my kid is.”
She met his gaze. “I have no idea.”
“What the hell do you mean by that? How can you not know where it is?”
“That’s how adoption works, Roy. I wasn’t in any position to make it an open adoption, and they took him from me the day he was born.”
“Are you serious right now? You just let them take our baby?”
Charli swallowed, fighting off tears as she tried not to think about what was still the hardest day of her life. “I was alone, Roy, and I had to do what I thought was best.”
“Best for who?” He threw up his hands. “I mean, you held our baby in your arms and no maternal instincts kicked in? You just gave him up? What the hell kind of person are you?”
“A scared, young one,” she whispered. “It’s not like you were there with me.”
“What kind of woman gives away her baby?” he continued, as if she hadn’t said anything. “If you’d been any kind of mother, you would have found a way to make it work. You don’t throw away a child like some kind of inconvenience.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “Coming from the guy who couldn’t even be bothered to call or write a damn letter, don’t you dare talk to me like you know anything about what I did. I gave him to a family who’d provide a home for him.”
“Him? It was a son?” His face contorted angrily. “And you just gave him away? That was illegal, Charli. I’m his father and I had no say in it.”
“You had the option of getting in touch with me,” she said. “You chose not to.”
“Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night? Because there’s no excuse for giving away a baby. I hope you don’t have any more kids, because you definitely don’t deserve them. No mother worth her salt would give up her baby. You’re the worst kind of human being and I’m ashamed to say I used to love you.” He turned and stomped off in the other direction, leaving her on the verge of tears, her heart breaking all over again.
Miikka hadn’t heard from Charli for two days and was starting to worry. He’d texted her twice today and she still hadn’t responded, so his gut was beginning to churn with fear about what might be going on between her and her parents. He knew her well enough to sense she was upset about something. She tended to retreat into herself when she was unhappy or trying to work something out, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it from so far away.
“Call her,” his mother told him that night.
“I’ve been calling,” he said miserably. “She’s not answering. I should have gone with her. I knew letting her go alone was a bad idea.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
He sighed. “I wanted to be here. This is home. This is…” His