Brave (New Earth Saga)

Ch. 41

**JOE POV**

I had to hold my breath and bite my tongue from the moment I saw my little girl on the stand. Morgan was turning into such a strong young woman, becoming more and more like Mel each day. The last thing she needed after losing Mel was to be uprooted and put through this whole ordeal. This whole event was more personal to get back at Mel and I versus actually wanting Morgan.

Anthony Trust is like so many humans who have colonized this planet. They show up, and immediately decide that they own everything they touch, even though this was obviously giants' planet first. According to people like Anthony Trust, a giant should never have anything a human doesn't have. That's why giants don't have the technology, weapons, and even transportation opportunities that humans have. So when a giant like me, who already threatens a human's territory by becoming a business mogul, a role usually reserved for humans, has the nerve to win the heart of a human that everyone finds so irresistible, it was perceived as me stealing something that belonged to humans. Anthony Trust believed he owned Mel. He even traveled across the galaxy to stake his claim. And now that he couldn't have Mel, he was set on stealing Morgan from me. Anthony didn't want to spend time with Morgan, supporting her, caring for her, and being the best dad he could be... No. Anthony just wanted the title of father so that I wouldn't have it. Ugh. And now Morgan was suffering because of his greed.

Of course, Anthony wasn't the only person who was involved in all this who had been pining for Mel's affection. Ben Sharp was damn near obsessed with Mel back when we all worked together. Not only were his affections toward Mel inappropriate because he was already a married man at the time, but he would constantly handle Mel without asking, leading to the incident that ultimately led me to firing him.

I looked over at Ben's purple eye, and still injured arm, and was truly annoyed I hadn't caused more damage. The entire altercation began when I tried to have a frank conversation with him, man to man. Giant to giant. Afterall, we were friends once.

**FLASHBACK**

"Thanks for meeting me," I said, trying my best to greet Ben kindly so he'd know my intention was to have a cordial conversation.

"What do you want?" Ben spat back as he leaned back in the chair that was already groaning under his weight.

"Ben, you're a father. You know this is wrong,"

"You can't compare my role as a father to yours,"

"Giants and humans have been adopting within their own races for generations. How is it any different for me to have adopted a child of a different-"

"Humans are not just a different race. They are literally a different species. A species that doesn't mix,"

I rolled my eyes hearing Ben try and pretend he's never wanted giants and humans to mix. If I recall, it was less than a decade ago that he'd certainly been trying to mix with Mel. Ben had no problem mixing with humans if Mel was concerned.

"You being one of Anthony Trust's lawyers is showing the world that even giants would support losing a right we had fought to get,"

"Pssh please. Giants didn't fight to be able to adopt humans. That was pretty much just you. And for the record, what I'm doing is fighting for our equality really. It's not fair that giants have started adopting human children but humans aren't adopting giant children,"

"Do not pretend that a human can feed a giant on their own,"

"See. You understand how small and pathetic they are,"

"No, that's not what I said. Ben, I know you know that Morgan just lost her mother. Is it really beneficial to make her lose the one stable part of her life left?"