A Hard Man To Love

Resolution

As you promised Merle the Monday after his little adventure to the cabin you were sitting in a lawyers office waiting for your consult over the ridiculous paternity order. You'd spent Sunday researching lawyers and discovered quite by accident that your parents were friends with an excellent family law attorney in the city. Ultimately that turned out to be a good thing because your Mayor held no influence or sway over him.

So you sat in the lawyer's office waiting for your appointment time with Merle sitting next to you constantly rubbing his hand over his jaw and bouncing his leg. His other hand held yours and you could tell that he was more worried about this whole charade than he'd ever been. You knew that Andrea's baby wasn't Merle's, you never had any doubts about that. What you didn't know was why she and creepy crawly Phil were pressing this issue so hard.

Merle hadn't worked for the Mayor for several years, not since he'd been on the Town Council, and while you knew he was angry when he quit he'd never told you specifically what happened. All he would ever say was that he'd made a few people aware of some of the man's sadistic qualities. You genuinely believed this whole fiasco was somehow related but weren't sure how or why.

When you finally got in to see the lawyer he looked over the paternity and child support order, asked several questions, and seemed genuinely baffled as to how you got to that point. Merle explained that he had the occasional sexual relationship with Andrea in the past but that the last time was ten months before she ever became pregnant. You interjected that you attempted to have a non-invasive paternity test done on multiple occasions but that she'd never allowed the blood to be drawn with her routine labs at her OBs office.

The lawyer, a older man by name of Bryan Quinn, found all of this highly suspect.

"Ya think?" Was Merle's response to that.

"Is there anything in your past history with this woman or your town's mayor that would make them pursue something like this?" Mr. Quinn asked while he read the paternity order again.

You snorted which drew the eyes of both men to you. Flicking your eyes between the two you finally huffed. "Andrea has been pursuing Merle for years. We've been together just over sixteen years now..." The lawyer's eyes narrowed slightly and flicked to Merle before returning to you. "...She's always believed their brief sexual encounters meant Merle was in love with her. Andrea is an addict, she's weak minded and easily influenced. Philip Blake is a predator of the worst kind, I can't prove that, but I know it. Merle worked for him when he was on the town council and quit after bringing some of the man's activities to light."

Mr. Quinn leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands in front of him while he looked to Merle. "What kind of activities?"

Merle rubbed his hands over his thighs several times and flicked his eyes back and forth between you and the lawyer in front of you both. "Listen, imma lot of things but I ain't never touched a woman without her sayin' I could and I don't go for that hittin' shit. Phil don't subscribe to the same philosophy. That's why I quit workin' for him. Saw the women in the office was real uncomfortable when he was around. Caught him touchin' one in the kitchen and threatened to chop his hand off. His wife used to come into his office with a lotta bruises too then she and their daughter just up and disappear?"

Mr. Quinn's brows drew together as he stared hard at Merle. His demeanor relaxed when Merle didn't back down from what he'd revealed and the man sat back again. "Let me start out with this paternity order. I have some suspicions of my own and if they prove true then getting this order overturned won't take much."

You breathed a sigh of relief but then realized you needed to have a discussion about the lawyer's fees. "Mr. Quinn, I know this might take some time and your secretary quoted your fees as $300 an hour. We have some money saved but with finding out we're pregnant I don't want this to eat everything we have."