"Start where it all went wrong."
She bit her lip and looked away for a moment and then back to me, "This is hard!"
I nodded not liking my role in this one bit either, but I wanted to know what possible motive there could be for someone to put a bounty on Anna's head.
She looked down at her lap. "I'm not sure where life was ever all that good. Don't get me wrong I've had good times, but the underlining thread of my life hasn't been one I'd like to do over again. Growing up was hard, but my mother made it at least somewhat fun at times. I'm kind of like her in some ways not so much in others. She liked to have fun and she smiled a lot like me. She was a whore before she married my father."
She stopped and looked over at me and I saw a deep-seated embarrassment and fear in her eyes, like I would think less of her because of what her mother had been.
I realized two things instantly in that moment. She hated what her mother had been and because of Kevin's illegitimate birth she thought of herself as no better than her mother.
What does one say to that? I struggled for words because she was the furthest thing imaginable from a whore, but I stopped because I rightly surmised that she really wouldn't listen to words so convinced was she of what she felt about herself. Maybe she didn't want words. They did say that actions speak louder than words didn't they?
I opened my arms and she fairly flew into them. After a moment she relaxed her grip to sink to her knees on the carpet as she laid her head across my thigh. My hand found its way into her hair and began to stroke through her hair. It just seemed the natural thing to do somehow.
"Anna?"
"Yes?"
She wouldn't look at me so I turned her head in my lap.
"You are not a whore!"
She started to say something, but I didn't let her. Holding one finger up for dramatic effect I said, "But you have my permission to act as sexy as you would like with me."
A little smile touched her lips and she turned her head away as my hand continued to play with her hair. It was quiet as I waited.
"I'm not sure why he married her. I guess he thought he could save her, but you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved."
"Your father was a preacher?" I asked on a hunch.