Merrillee Whren - Montana Match

Parker remembered the day Sydney had come to him for help. Looking at Brittany, he took a deep breath. “When Rose and Jasmine were almost a year old, Sydney brought them to the ranch and begged me to keep them there. She was afraid that her stepfather would harm them.”

“Is that when you got them?”

“No. I tried to persuade her to let me take her and the girls to a women’s shelter in Billings, but she wouldn’t go. She told me she was afraid to leave her mother alone with her stepfather.”

“Had she mentioned this problem before?”

Parker shook his head. “I knew people were coming and going at all hours of the day and night and that Sydney lived in a circus atmosphere, but I had no idea she was afraid of her stepfather or that he was violent.”

“What happened then?”

“She shoved an envelope into my hand, then ran to her car and left. I couldn’t stop her.”

“What was in the envelope?”

“Her last will and testament—the kind you can make on the internet. She’d named me as the girls’ guardian. It was quite a shock.”

“So that’s how you came to adopt Rose and Jasmine?”

Parker nodded. “But right then, I wasn’t thinking about that. I was worried about her and those little girls. I immediately called the sheriff’s office and asked them to check things at her house. A deputy went out there, but they found nothing wrong. So they couldn’t do anything. Two days later Sydney’s stepfather shot her as she attempted to wrestle the gun away from him. She was trying to protect her mother.”

Brittany said nothing, only stared at him with sadness in her eyes. Laughter sounding from inside the house belied the solemn discussion outside.

“Of course, when I took in Rose and Jasmine and eventually adopted them, the rumors started again.” Telling this story made him shiver more than the cold night air. “As I said, that’s why I don’t go into town.”

“Don’t people have other things to occupy their minds by now?”

“Maybe, but I don’t want to take the chance that Rose and Jasmine might hear any unkind remarks.” Brittany sounded like Heather and his family. They expected him to be over the thing that had turned his world upside down and inside out. But they’d never had to deal with the looks of contempt and derision he’d endured. He was in no hurry to interact with the people who had made that time of his life so difficult. Still, despite the troubles, he’d adopt the girls again in a nanosecond. “Rose and Jasmine mean everything to me.”

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