CHAPTER TEN #2
I feel my shoulder jolt forward, and realize that Mom just pushed me towards my daughter.
The one I’ve dreamed of almost every night since I received those newborn photos from Saylor.
My feet sway over to them, as I sit down next to Grandma and my baby girl on the couch.
She’s still being shy and not looking at any of us.
I drop down to my knees in front of her, and lightly run my fingers over her head and down her back.
She’s so small and delicate, like a little China doll.
She is the perfect mixture of both Saylor and I.
She finally turns, and it’s like I’m looking at myself in her eyes.
Our matching blue eyes sparkle in hers, and I can’t help but smile so brightly and big at her.
“Halo, can you say hi?” Grandma pats her tiny back.
Halo. My baby is named Halo.
Recognition hits as that was what my Grandpa called Grandma.
She hated when he called her his angel because she said she was anything but an angel.
So, he started calling her Halo because when she was younger she had almost white hair when they met.
I remember Saylor swooning when Grandpa explained his moniker for her.
Tears well up in my eyes as I think about my wife naming our daughter after someone on my side of the family.
It’s also a reminder of how much I’ve screwed up all of this and all the time that has been wasted from the biggest regret I’ve ever made.
Not wanting to focus on that dark path, I turn my mind off and give all my attention to my little love.
“Hello, Halo. I’m your daddy,” I finally find my voice and a small crack comes at the end. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, to meet my little girl.
“She doesn’t take to strangers very well…” Grandma starts to say, but Halo surprises us all and reaches out for me. Like she’s been waiting for me too.
I pull her into my arms and try not to squeeze the ever-loving shit out of her.
My face goes to the crook of her neck and I inhale, smelling her baby scent.
I feel the moisture leave my eyes as I realize I’ve been through hell to get to this moment, but everything that has happened in the last two years has been worth it.
She wiggles in my embrace and I know that it’s a sign to let her go.
As much as I hate it, I ease up on her tiny body and set her down on the ground.
Halo straightens, then turns to go to the corner of the room, where she has an entire section of toys for her to play with.
I watch with fascination as she plays and busies herself.
I never paid much attention to children before, but now I can’t seem to tear my eyes away from her and every little move she makes.
“Levi, why are you here now?” Grandma asks, breaking my tunnel vision.
“What do you mean? I’m here for my daughter and wife,” I say, sitting back on my heels.
Grandpa tenses next to Grandma.
“Why now and not when you first woke up from your coma?” he snaps back at me, and I take a seat opposite of them. “You never mentioned looking for them.” I realize now that I should’ve had my entire family in the loop as I tried tirelessly to locate Saylor and our baby.
The next twenty minutes I lay everything out for them.
I tell them about someone trying to harm Saylor while she was pregnant, and how I orchestrated the entire restaurant debacle to buy us some more time.
About the car bomb and how we think it was connected to the threats against Saylor.
I tell them about Daniel giving Saylor divorce papers against my wishes, and all the events that happened after that.
When I’m done, both are in tears but also very mad at me.
I can’t blame them for it but I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping some of these things from them.
There was no need to worry them when I had a massive team to solve this situation, but I can see now that this is just another mistake to chalk up with all the other ones.
“Damnit Levi!” Grandpa yells, and it makes us all jump.
“Don’t you see what all those secrets have caused?
If we had known… then Saylor would never have…
” Grandpa looks over at Grandma, and a flash of regret passes through their eyes, making me wonder what their unspoken conversation is about.
“This is going to be so devastating.” He scrubs his hands over his face, then through his salt-colored hair.
I’m about to ask what they are talking about when I feel a small amount of weight touch my knee. Looking down, my precious baby girl has a toy in her hand, showing it to me.
“Pay ball?” Halo asks in the softest gibberish I’ve ever heard. All conversation forgotten, I get on the floor beside her.
“Of course, baby doll.”
We roll the bouncy ball to each other and I do some silly moves that make her squeal in laughter. I catch Mitch recording the event, and will have to get him to share those with me. I’ve never been around children before, especially this young, but it feels…right—natural.
An alarm goes off on Grandpa’s phone and he quickly turns it off before standing.
“I’m sorry Levi but they’ll be here soon to pick Halo up.”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on seeing Saylor until the morning but I guess we’ll see how she takes seeing me.”
“Not here Levi. We’ve spent the last year being there for her and Halo.
She’d be devastated if we ambush her like this.
She doesn’t know everything that you went through, and her version is not a pleasant one with you,” he informs me.
I can’t believe they’ve known her whereabouts for a year and not said a word.
“I’m asking you to not be here when they get here.
This might turn into a huge confrontation, and you wouldn’t want to do something you’ll regret in front of your daughter. ”
“I’m not leaving,” I start to say, but Grandma interrupts me.
“You can stay but you must keep out of sight. All of you,” she demands, shaking her finger at all of us.
“You’ve created a shit storm and it’s going to take some time to get out of it.
Right now, you’re the enemy in Saylor’s eyes and until she can calm down and listen to what really was going on, she won’t hear a word out of your mouth and might try to hightail it out of here.
This conversation needs to happen when Halo isn’t around in case things get heated. ”
After a long moment, I concede.
“Fine.”
Mom, myself, and the security all make our way to my grandparent’s room to wait until after my wife and daughter leave. I want so badly to come out and surprise her, but deep down I know Grandma is right. Saylor doesn’t know the entire story and only thinks I’ve been living the single life.
We hear the front door open, and my wife’s angelic voice rings out in greeting our little girl.
There are several voices in a conversation but I can’t make out what they are discussing.
Mom and the security are waiting in the bathroom, while Mitch and I wait in the closet, with plantation bi-fold doors that you can see out of through little slits.
A man’s voice rings out in laughter and it grates on my nerves.
It must be Brody Jackson, the man who’s been hiding my wife and daughter for the past two and a half years.
A tightness forms in my chest, knowing that they’ve been under one roof longer than mine and Saylor’s entire relationship.
I hate it. And him. My hands ball into fists as I want to punch the life out of the little fucker.
Dr. Blake has warned me that Saylor may have moved on since not knowing the whole truth, but I can’t bring myself to think about that.
I know after the last letter she vowed to move on, but I’m hoping and praying that it’s not the case and that by some miracle she’s still mine.
What am I saying, she’ll always be mine.
The door to the bedroom opens, and my heart stops.
My body is frozen as I hold in my gasp. My beautiful wife slowly walks in and takes in the room, as if she’s looking for something.
Our daughter is on her hip, playing with her short black hair.
She’s still just as beautiful as the day I first met her, if not more holding our baby girl.
She’s wearing a pair of short black athletic shorts and a team jersey with the name, ‘Bombers’, across the front.
Saylor walks to the middle of the room next to the bed and scans the room.
Something catches her eye and she lazily walks over to the bookshelf, next to the closet where Mitch is all but holding me back.
My grandparents are very proud of their family and display photos of all of us over every wall in this house and in the one in LA.
I have the perfect view of her and it wouldn’t take much to reach out and touch her.
Her chocolate eyes look over every picture and when she comes to the one of me outside of my first completed flip house, she runs her fingers lightly over my face.
I long to have those fingers run over my skin, just to feel her again.
I see a wedding band and engagement ring on her left hand and my throat starts to close up.
She can’t be married, we aren’t divorced.
She doesn’t know that; the documents have been sealed.
I don’t think I could recover if she was ever married to anyone but me.
Please God, don’t let her have remarried .
“Dada!” my perfect little girl says, looking at my photo, and my heart grows two sizes bigger.
Saylor gasps, then squeezes her a little tighter.
“Yeah, baby bear, that’s Daddy,” she whispers in her ear like it’s a secret, then kisses her temple.