Tuesday Tales: From the Word WRITE

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. We’re almost mid-way through April. Time sure flies. This week the Tuesday Tales authors are writing to the word prompt WRITE. I’m continuing with my romance/suspense, And Justice for All. Enjoy!

Harry unlocked the passenger door and went around to the driver’s side.

“Jac is short for Jacinthe,” he explained, mangling the French name. He started the engine.

The truth hit her almost as hard as the sight of the dead officers had. Harry wasn’t alone. There was a woman in his life. Thank God that she’d kept her wits about her and had refused to discuss what had happened in the past.

“She’s great with Liam,” he continued. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without her. When he got out of the hospital, he needed so much care, and you know what our hours are like. They’ve formed a deep bond.”

Instead of letting the pain of the fact that he had another woman in his life cripple her emotionally again, she chose to write off the agony as another lessoned learned. Whatever Harry wanted from her had nothing to do with what had happened between them eight years ago. That was ancient history. If she couldn’t accept that, then this partnership, or whatever it was, was doomed to failure, and that was not an option. Lives depended on them. She zeroed in on his son.

“I didn’t realize Liam had been ill.”

Harry turned onto the on-ramp and merged onto the highway before answering.

“Liam didn’t seem to be thriving like the other kids his age. He wasn’t much of an eater, was tired a lot, and sometimes had trouble breathing. When he was two, he was diagnosed with Aortic Valve Stenosis. He needed surgery to repair the valve in his heart.”

“My God, that must’ve been terrifying. I can’t imagine any mother or father having to go through something like that with a toddler. Is he alright now?”

Harry had mentioned that they were divorced. Dealing with a sick child was often more than a relationship could survive.

“He’s as good as any other seven and a half-year-old. They performed something called a Ross Procedure. Essentially they replaced his aortic valve with his pulmonary valve and were able to replace that one with a donor valve. The good thing about that surgery is that the new heart valve grows as the child grows. Today, everything works as it should, but I still worry about him.”

“I’m sure Becky does, too. It’s normal for parents to worry about their kids, but I’m really glad he’s okay.”

Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.