“This isn’t really something you fuck around about.”

“No, it isn’t,” Hawk agreed.

It was time to give Hawk the fullness of it.

“She goes every night to make him dinner and clean up after. She runs errands for him. He’s a part of her day-to-day life. And the man I saw last night wasn’t the picture of health, but he could see to himself, even with the errands. What I told her was that I was there to support whatever she felt she needed to do. But full transparency, my hope was that she’d find her way to helping him move on without him infiltrating her life on a regular basis the way he does. Now, I’m not certain.”

“Men do this,” Hawk stated.

“Sorry?” Axl asked.

“We see another man and the shit he’s in and we don’t realize we put ourselves in his shoes. Without knowing where your thoughts have turned, you’re thinking, if I had a daughter and I loved her and I fucked up with her in immense and arguably unforgivable ways, I would not want the door closed to redemption.”

“That makes sense,” Axl said.

“Is Hattie an only child?” Hawk queried.

“Yeah.”

“And her father is ill?”

“Diabetes that he doesn’t manage very well.”

“So she’ll manage it for him,” Hawk deduced.

“Correct. But he has a nice house. A newish car in the drive. She says he has a job where he works from home and makes good money. She started dinner, he was down to finish it and clean up after so we could get on with our plans. She’s had to skip a few nights with him last week, but neither he nor his home looked neglected in any way. He doesn’t walk freely, but he can have groceries delivered. He can also drive through a pharmacy.”

“It’s bullshit.”

Axl nodded once. “It’s control. She knows it. We’ve had some talks. She’s thinking on things and part of what she’s thinking is she wants to pull back from him so she can get her head straight about what he’s done to her and how it continues to affect her.”

“And now that you know he has genuine healthy feeling for her, you’re not sure that’s the right path.”

“That’s why I’m talking to you. I honestly don’t know where to go from here. Again, Hattie and I are new. We’ve talked about the mental abuse, but not him hitting her. But needless to say, because there was both, it seemed cut and dried.”

“And now it’s complicated.”

“Now it’s complicated,” Axl affirmed.

“Have you spoken to her about where the dad might be at?”