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Chapter 16
Matt didn't have to worry about figuring out what to do about Randie. She left him. When he returned she had taken Olivia and every trace that she had ever been in life. Except for one thing. His mother's ring. She left it sitting on his night stand.
"Matt!" he heard Sloan yell. "The police are here."
He rushed out of the room, swung open the front door and his heart dropped. The social worker was back and she brought not one, but two officers with her. Another car, obviously belonging to a government worker was coming up the drive way.
The social worker pushed passed him, invading his home without a word to hint of what she was going to do.
"Step outside, sir." The officer insisted before going inside. They wouldn't even let him in his own home.
"What is this?" he asked as the woman came out, holding the hands of his youngest brothers.
"I'm removing these children." She spat at him.
"No!" Both the twins screamed as she forced them to out of their home. She placed them in the back of her car and Matt sunk to the front porch swing. He could hear them crying. He could hear Jeff arguing with the people. He heard Sloan asking why?
"I'm not going any damn where." His father yelled.
"Sir you are not able to care for yourself." He'd never met the social worker who insisted on him going with her, but he knew the woman was not going to convince his father to go willingly. And Marty ran to him and clung to his neck while the social worker tried to pry him away.
He felt lower than he ever had in his life. He was helpless. He couldn't protect his family and for some reason he couldn't shake the image of the finger print he had left on Randie's arm.
After his family had been loaded into the waiting vehicles, Matt was called inside and the door was shut. He didn't like the sound of his home. He'd never heard it so quiet before and he couldn't concentrate or absorb the information the social workers were spitting out at him.
There was another knock on the door. He went to answer it, unsure of who it could be. He hoped it wasn't a bill collector. They had never come to the door before but it would be just his kind of luck the way the day was going so far.
"Hello, Matt."
"Randie's not here." He said sadly.
"This isn't a social call I'm afraid." She said with a sympathetic smile. On closer look he saw she too was caring a clipboard. Great. Another woman in a suit. Another case worker. That was all he needed. No one she'd walked right past all the people in his yard.
"I'm Margret Parker with the department of social services." She extended her hand to the officer who'd come up on the porch.
"We are ready to leave ma'am." They told her.
"No, not yet." She looked at Matt. "May I – come in?" Matt stepped to the side and watched her examine his home as her colleague had, but she had a smile on her face.
"Miss Foster." She turned to the younger social worker. "I've had a complaint about how you're handling this case."
"Ma'am?" her voice shuttered.
"Tell me what exactly is the problem with this home is?"
"Ma'am, there are three and a half bedrooms and nine people."
"My paperwork says seven."
"He now has a woman and baby living here." She added. "And the young lady seems to be a threat …"
"The young lady is my niece and she had every right to ask you to leave her home." She stated.
"Miss Foster. I grew up in a two bedroom home. At one time my uncle lost his job and he, his wife and their five children came to live with us. A month after that, my mother's father had a stroke and he came to stay. We had eleven people in our home Miss Foster for over six years."
"Things are different. There are rules."
"Rules?" The older later looked at her. "This home is clean. The children look healthy and happy. Mr. Hardy seems well cared for, not to mention he is still a grown man who can still do a great deal for himself. Don't patronize him. He's a hardworking man who became disabled. He's not an invalid child. And this young man has been working hard all his life. I don't know many his age who would do what he has done." She looked at her paperwork. "This case has been open six months, Miss Foster and I have yet to see any reports come across my desk. So, if you please, what are your recommendations for this family?"
Miss foster curled up her pointy little nose. "My recommendation is that this family would be better off in the state's care. There is not enough room, not enough finances and not enough care."
"Not enough care?"
"Mr. Hardy can't be alone and there is no one above the age of fourteen supervising these children."
"My niece is home all day. It sounds to me like your decision is based on some kind of prejudice." "No ma'am."
"Hmmm. I don't know if you're aware of this, but I have lived next door to this family for years."
Miss Foster turned pale again.
"I witnessed fighting in front of the small children and I myself was attacked. That is not healthy for these children. And it is not healthy for the children to be exposed to an inappropriate relationship."
"What's inappropriate about their relationship?"
"They were only recently married and she spent nights here before …"
"Miss Foster you live with a man who is not the father of your small child." She reminded. "Are you married?"
"No, but."
"Is your child in a dangerous environment?"
"No."
"Oh, so it's only people whose daddy doesn't pay their bills who are setting bad examples?" she set narrowed her eyes. "Miss Foster and I don't like the way you have handled this case. I will take it over myself and I am suspending you for the remainder of the week while I review your other cases."
"Fine." Miss Foster warned. "But I'm going above your head. You are related to this family and that's a conflict of interest."
"No ma'am, it's called avoiding a lawsuit." She spat in a very sweet voice, much like Randie's. "You failed to offer services that this family needs. Which if provided they could have been able to put money into other things they desperate need. What they need is another bedroom and walls and flooring for the one they've tried to construct. We have companies who donate supplies and their time for things like that. Yet you've done nothing but demand that they do things that are impossible to do with their means. You're lucky I don't fire you. Miss Foster. The children will remain here until I have time to evaluate them, then I will make that call."
"I will have your job." Miss Foster sneered before storming out of the room.
"Children." The woman turned her attention back to him. "It's all they send me these days."
"I didn't know you worked for social services." Matt put his hands in his pockets. "Thank you."
"This wasn't a favor Matt. If I had come in here and saw a need to remove your family, I would have."
Matt nodded his head.
"I have some paperwork I need you to fill out." She sat down at his table as his brothers came in and hugged his neck. "I know you are proud, but these are things you should have been offered at the beginning." She laid a hand on his shoulder. "I know how hard you work, but this is a big family and you've had a lot fall on you that one person just can't do alone. It's just not possible. This will help and I don't want you to feel like you've failed."
"It's welfare." Matt groaned. "How does that not make me a failure?"
"This is not welfare." She corrected. "Your family needs insurance. This insurance just happens to be based on income. That's what it's here for."
It didn't sound so bad the way Peg Parker explained things to him. It honestly made him feel relieved because it would pay for thing three months prior to filling out the application. Which mean a lot of doctor bills would be paid and his father wouldn't be turned away from appointments because he owed for past visits.
"I still don't have anyone to stay with my dad and the boys." He sighed. "School starts back soon. I could move to another shift. Jeff could stop working and be home in the evenings after school, but I don't know what to do until then."
"You don't have to change anything." She said with a laugh.
"Randie left me." He lowered his head. He felt ashamed especially admitting it to a woman who had been nothing but nice to him, even though she obviously was as well off as the rest of the town.
"Randie is not going to abandon your father or brothers." She told him. "But as far as you and her – well that's something I can't help you with." She stood over him in a way he found authoritive. He could tell she was a tough, confident lady desptier her size and sweet disposition. "Young man, Randie has not had an easy life. She's endured and survived things that no human being should have to."
"Spare me." Matt's attitude returned. His bitterness returned. "This is a hard life." He said throwing his hands to show his home.
"Hard?" Peg Parker sneered. "Yes, it is hard to have to be the sole provider for a family. Yes it is hard to have to do so much at the age you had to start doing it, but you, young man. You are richer than most the people in this town."
"Ha!"
"You have love." She told him. "You know what you mean to each other."
"Are you saying Randie didn't have love?" Matt laughed. "Seriously? All families love each other. Even if they don't show it the same way."
"Randie never had family." She spat. "You're a cynical little hypocrite." She hissed. "You hate. You despise the people in this town. They gossip about you, yes. But you don't know what their lives are like and you are no better than they are. They look down on you for having nothing and you look down on them for what they have. You're just the same."
"I am not like them."
"You have no compassion for the suffering outside of your own. You're not like them?" she slung the strap of her briefcase over her shoulder. "I think you are."
"And you do?"
"I care about that girl." She told him pulling an old newspaper article out of her bag. "Even if she's not my niece."
Matt came face to face with the photo of a toddler side by side with an age progressed rendering that looked an awful lot like Randie. She was a missing child. An abducted child.
"Jake Parker didn't just sign custody over to me." She stated. "It was given to me. She doesn't know yet and I just don't know how to tell her. How do you explain to someone that they've gone through a life of hell just because someone wanted to make a quick buck? How do I tell her that she was stolen?"
"That makes no sense. Don't the cops take a child into custody when they find them?"
"They didn't find her." Peg Parker admitted. "I found evidence in a box in my attic and thankfully I know some powerful people and have banked plenty of favors. That girl's been through enough." Peg Parker showed him what she could be under her sweet exterior, protecting what she loved and wanted by all means necessary and she obviously cared a lot about Randie. "She doesn't need any more from you."
