Slater found himself chuckling and he set Delia with one of his beady, calculating stares despite his smile. "I 'decided not to tell you' that she was Fisher's girl? Delia," he said, shaking his head as if she were silly to say it but continuing in the same calm tone his daughter held, "I don't have to tell you everythin' about her. You might want to know every thing there is to know but what I choose to keep back and what I think is necessary to divulge to you is my business. Yea she was with Fisher a while but he didn't show her anything nice like affection and he threw her out on the streets, beaten and alone in the pouring rain as soon as he heard she'd been with me. She was almost dead cause o' me."
With a sigh he looked away. This was all too complicated. "We've been through it. Viv and me. She knows I got reasons not to trust her. But I know her, Delia. I know when she's lying, what she's likely to do. You might think she'd pull the wool over my eyes but she ain't the greatest actress in the world and I can tell when people are trying to fool me. You got nothing to worry about."