Take This Regret by A. L. Jackson Page B

sounded, especial y because it was directed at my daughter. The look on Lizzie’s face tore me apart, the confusion at being yel ed at when she had done nothing wrong. Tears fel down her chubby cheeks, and she hesitated only a moment longer, looking one more time at Christian before running into the house.
    Undoubtedly, I had broken a part of my daughter’s heart by sending her inside, but what I was protecting her from was so much greater than that. Her innocent mind could not begin to fathom the hurt this man would ultimately bring her.
    Slowly, I turned back to Christian, struggling to appear strong, to be forceful, and to make him understand he was not welcome here. My knees were shaking almost as much as my bottom lip, and I was certain he knew I was anything but. Every emotion I’d ever experienced boiled just under the surface—the love, the hate, the fear, the loss, and most of al , the betrayal— the turmoil within causing my body to tremble with rage.
    He looked at me, his expression remorseful, earnest, hopeful even. It made me furious. Standing in front of me was the man who had left me to raise a child on my own, certainly never giving us a second thought. Now he stood just feet from me, expectant, as if Lizzie and I owed him something.
    Unbelievable.
    “How dare you.” The words were not what I expected to flood from my mouth, but they were fitting. How dare he show up here at my house after what he’d done. Quickly, I wiped my tears, trying to erase them from my face. He didn’t even deserve them. He deserved nothing.
    “Elizabeth.” His eyes fil ed with emotion that I had once believed to be genuine, a softness that spoke of love and loyalty, but I knew now it was nothing more than a tool of manipulation. I refused to fal victim to it again.
    “How dare you come here.” I stood up tal er in an attempt to stand my ground.
    What I said did nothing to sway Christian from whatever purpose had brought him here, and he took another step into the street. I began to panic, my mind grasping for anything that would make him comprehend just how serious I was. “If you take one more step, I’l cal the cops.”
    Christian halted in the middle of the street, looking shocked and a little bit frustrated as he roughed his hand through his black hair. He shook his head, the pain in his voice catching me off guard.
    “Elizabeth, I’m not going to hurt you.” His words brought me firmly back to reality.
    A barking, contemptuous laugh escaped my lips.
    “You’re not going to hurt me?” I looked him in the eye, making sure he understood. “Nobody has ever hurt me as much as you hurt me, Christian. No one .” Yes, I sounded like a lover scorned, but that was exactly what I was. “Now I want you to leave.”
    “Elizabeth, I’m so sorry . . . It was my fault . . . I know . . .
    Please.” I watched as he stumbled over himself, tried to apologize as if any excuse he could give would gain him access into our lives. I refused to believe his lies. Once I would have trusted him with my life, but now I knew better.
    I’d never al ow myself, especial y my daughter, to be put in the position for Christian to freely dispose of us again.
    “Leave.”
    “Please, Elizabeth. I need to see my daughter.” His daughter? Al these years I had known Christian to be a selfish man, but I could never have imagined the depths it went to. I swal owed hard, shaking my head at his impudence, unable to believe what he had just said. “She’s not your daughter. She’s my daughter.” He could apologize al he wanted, but it would never change what he did. He had discarded us, and he had no right in our lives.
    I turned and left him standing there. I couldn’t bear to be in his presence a moment longer.
    Lizzie was at the window, appearing wounded and frightened by events she couldn’t understand. In just five minutes, Christian had managed to throw my family into complete turmoil, and I had no idea how to repair the damage he had