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She sed convulsively and nodded “Of course” She took another deep breath and clenched her treether “The article hter and suddenlyI knewI couldn’t re and knew that the little girl who I loved ed to someone else”

“I don’t understand…you would have taken me back Mom, I know you…”

“Yes I tried” She was looking at Aain, her hazel eyes filled with appeal “But when I arrived in Boston with you, I had to research George Wentworth I couldn’t give ical father I was frightened of ould happen toto plead for mercy…I hoped…” She sed a sob “I hoped that he would let me visit you But when I researched him, I discovered he was aabout how even personal tragedy had not slowed hihter and didn’t notice the one he still had

“I knew the man described in the articles I read about hies and I would end up in prison I would have faced that…but learning how he treated the daughter he still had was sonored her She was raised by nannies and servants and hardly ever saw him”

She looked at George as if she couldn’t quite believe he was the hter “You were such a loving little girl and affectionate You would have shriveled up and died under that kind of care I couldn’t do it I couldn’t give you back And he never changed I kept tabs and watched his daughter Eleanor be sent to boarding school when she was barely eight years old”

Helen’s eyes filled with tears as she aze “It hurt so much to see you treated like that I loved your sister with all e your life, but I couldn’t let your father do the sa to Amber”

“I understand,” Ellie said And she did Soht not, but she’d lived that e a childhood like lad you were there to love her”

“But she needed iven me back, ould have had each other,” Amber said in a lohisper

“I thought of that and I just couldn’t sacrifice your happiness for hers” Helen buried her face in her hands and started to sob “I’m sorry”

Ellie’s dad moved to sit on the other side of Helen He pulled her into his arms and just held her as if he alone in that roouilt And perhaps it was true If everything he’d said over the past week plus was true, he carried a load of guilt for his treatment of Ellie easily as heavy as Helen’s

“If ical father was such a horribleat her?” Amber asked Ellie, her eyes filled with a confusion Ellie understood only too well

“He aled hi to love you”

“But, Mom?”

“Nothing is going to happen to your mom Dad doesn’t want to hurt her and neither do I I only want to know you I’d like to know her, too, if she’ll let oodher story, I’ with malice”

“Are you for real?” A like this”

Sandor laughed, hugging her “Ellie is a special woman”

“I’lad” The controlled facade cracked for just a second as Amber’s chin wobbled “I don’t want my mom hurt”

“She won’t be,” George said with conviction as he continued to hold the crying wohter than I did I stopped looking for you after only a year I have no excuse for that I was a rotten father to your sister, but she loved me in spite of it”

“There are worse fathers than you were, much worse,” Ellie said

“Thank you, sweetheart, but when I reed me to show a spark of affection and then I didn’t…I’ll never forgive myself”