Marta Perry - Unlikely Hero

“I’m counseling Ted.” There was a thread of defensiveness in his voice.

She didn’t know where to hit first. “You’re counseling the abuser. Don’t you think that’s a conflict? You can’t help both of them.”

“They both need help.”

“Ted is an abuser.”

“Ted is also a troubled kid who needs my help. I may not like what he’s done, but that doesn’t mean I can turn my back on him. My ministry extends to Ted, too.”

“Your ministry.” She threw the words at him. “What kind of ministry is that? I suppose you think they ought to whitewash everything and get married, just to do the proper thing.”

If her words hurt him, he didn’t show it. “No, I don’t think any such thing. You know that.”

She did, but she wouldn’t admit it, not when he’d let her down so badly. “You’re the one who got me involved with helping Stacy. And all the time you were undercutting what I was doing.”

“No, I wasn’t.” He reached toward her, and she drew back. His hands dropped instantly. “I wouldn’t do anything to harm the good you’re doing with Stacy.”

The pounding in her head had reached mammoth proportions. She’d like to believe him, but she couldn’t. And not just because of her own experience.

“That’s not true, Brendan. It can’t be.” The words tasted bitter. “Because if you really believed that, you’d have told me what you were doing.”

He stared at her, the color of his eyes almost black. He didn’t have an answer. He couldn’t, because there wasn’t one.

The closeness she’d felt such a short time ago was gone entirely now, replaced by a chasm. Wide and deep and dark.

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