Chapter 17
Jessie
The door opens quietly, allowing the light from the hallway to filter through. A heavy sigh escapes from his lips and with it the sound of his sadness, yet another stress that has just landed on his tired shoulders. I stay still, pretending to be asleep in case he wants this time alone and without questions. He slips inside the bathroom, where I hear the sound of the shower running. It lasts for much longer than a regular shower, but eventually, it ends, and he comes out and climbs into bed behind me. His cold arms wrap around me, as if clinging onto me for dear life. He’s hurting and he needs me.
“Warren,” I whisper, “talk to me.”
“I love you,” he says, and I find myself smiling. I turn over to kiss his lips while I cup his bristly chin.
“And I love you, but I’m worried that something has happened,” I tell him. He doesn’t answer me straight away, just looks at me as though he’s seeking the answers to all his problems. When he smiles at me, I give him the same back and let him kiss me with an intensity that is well becoming an addiction.
“I need you,” he whispers between his open-mouthed kisses to my neck and shoulder. He moves over me, sinking between my thighs that open for him.
“I’m starting to believe I will always need you, Warren,” I moan as he moves slowly down my body. His hands massage my breasts while his mouth dips between my lips below. At first, he teases me, but soon he is ravishing me with a pressure and a speed that has me gasping for breath. My need for release begins to build, torturing me with its presence being just within reach. My hips begin to rise to meet his lips more greedily, to chase that high with him. He pushes me back down to the mattress and smiles against my clit before pulsing me with his fingers. It is barely a few moments before I detonate.
“Give it to me, Jess, all of it!” he says as I come undone and groan with such a noise, I’m afraid Jake will hear.
“Now you,” I gasp as I pull myself up to sitting. I get off the bed and watch as he looks up at me with a mischievous grin on his face. “Lie back and legs apart, Warren!”
“Yes, Ma'am,” he says with a huge smile on his face. “I could get used to this dominant side of you.”
I merely smile at him before settling between his thighs to take him inside of my mouth. The saltiness hits me first, his arousal touching my tongue, before I begin exploring all of him. He obviously enjoys what I’m doing for he hisses and begins stroking my hair with a growing pressure on my scalp. As I begin to take him at more of a pace, his hips start to move with me at a pace he cannot control. My free hand reaches up to move over his powerful abs, exploring the rivulets of each muscle. As we move together as one, he emits a few curses through his clenched teeth, telling me he is either fighting off his high or chasing it.
“Stay with me till the end, Warren,” I instruct.
“Fuck, are you sure?” he moans.
“With you, always,” I tell him before returning to what he is so desperately craving from me.
He holds off for as long as he can, but I soon taste him coating my tongue, and all with a gasp of release from him. His hand stills on my head as I eventually slow down and rest against him.
“Come here, baby,” he whispers, and I do.
“How did I do for my first time?” I ask with a shy smile.
“Amazing, Jess,” he says as he strokes my hair, “you are just amazing!”
_____
Phoenix
Jess fell asleep soon after we had indulged in one another, and I couldn’t help but take some time to simply watch her find her peace with me of all people. I stroke back her hair, enjoying the calm before the storm. I can no longer put off what I know is going to devastate me in some way. If Dad’s remaining memoir was in any way happy, there’s no way he or Lenny would have kept it from me. No, they feared for my unstable reaction, one that would have had no control if I did not have anyone to hold my shit together for.
“Sneaky bastard,” I mumble to myself as I stare down at the journal in front of me. I have a beer bottle and a shot of tequila all lined up ready for the moment my world comes crashing down.
I chuck the journal on top of the table and slump my shoulders back against the couch, huffing out a long sigh as I do so. An image of my mother’s terrified face from that night has me slamming my eyes shut and shaking my head. Intrusive thoughts have been the bane of my life ever since that house exploded with my mother still inside of it. Sometimes I wish I had remained inside with her; at least she wouldn’t have died alone. But then I remember Lou, her tiny mouth screaming for air while the thick fog of smoke began burning her body from the inside out. She was the reason I got out and I can’t ever regret that.
Thoughts of my mother bring me back to the journal in front of me, taunting me with secrets I’m certain I don’t want to know. And yet, they are secrets he wished me to know. Secrets about my parents and not only their beginning but also my own. And for the reason that he obviously wanted me to read it, I pick up the old notebook, take the shot of tequila, and will myself to open the cover.
_____
Diesel
I shouldn’t be here I tell myself as I walk up to Clara’s front door. I should be leaving well alone, trusting that my old foster mom can look after Mia without my input. But after five months of endlessly thinking about the poor girl who had had to sit in a puddle of her own urine, I can no longer stand the thought of not ever knowing what happened to her. To understand how she ended up in that house, desperate to be anywhere but there.
As the front door looms in front of me, with its big brass knocker that isn’t in any way in keeping with the rest of the houses along this street, I flex my hands in and out a couple of times. They’re clammy and itching to rub through my hair. Ridiculous, considering the types of men I’ve come across over the last two weeks alone. I’ve been beaten to a pulp more than once in my life and have a broken nose to prove it. But this is terrifying. The thought of what Mia is going to say when she finally sees me again has been enough to keep me up at night.
Before I can do anything else, the door opens wide, letting a stream of light attack my eyes without warning. My breath gets caught in my mouth and I must look slightly out of it because Ruth is now looking at me with all kinds of concern.
“Dee, are you ok?” she asks, grabbing my arm and pulling me inside. I remember having a little crush on her when I lived here, but she only ever saw me as a skinny kid with puppy dog eyes. I may have filled out a lot, but I’m still nothing more than a puppy dog to her, and she’s more like a big sister to me.
“I’m ok,” I lie, with my heart beating at what feels like twice its regular rate.
“You look awful,” she laughs, and I cannot help but smile. Even on my worst days, Ruth would always turn my problems into a joke, something to laugh about. Without fail, she could bring me out of my angst, if only for a few moments. “Who are you here to see? Mom or Mia? I’m quite protective of both, you know.”
“Is that so?” I tease, walking past her as she opens the door wider for me.
“Little Mia and I have become firm friends, almost like sisters,” she says, and I lose a little of my anxiety. With Ruth on her side, Mia will have strength behind her. “I won’t let just any old guy come and talk to her.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not any old guy,” I tell her, “I consider us family, Ruth.”
“Hmm, sounds kind of strange; she’s my sister, you’re my brother, but you are not that to each other. I knew Mom’s profession would land me in therapy one day.”
“Has she said anything about any of it yet? Like mentioning the asshole who had her hiding inside of the cupboard?” I ask with every muscle in my face tensed up in apprehension.
“Nope,” she says bluntly, “you obviously weren’t worth mentioning. However, regarding everything else, where she came from, she refuses to talk about it. You can tell she thinks about it though, she often falls inside of her own daydreams. When the police came looking for her, she told them she hadn’t seen her mother for months, that she had run away to live on the streets. Mom didn’t correct her, which I know she’s conflicted about, but you know Mom; she likes to earn their trust before anything else.”
“No, that’s good,” I tell her with a nod of my head. “Their deaths were ruled as gang-related. Between you and me, I went back to the house once more, to trash her room so nobody could see she had been living there. I promised her I wouldn’t let her go back there, figuratively or literally. I keep my promises, Ruth.”
“I know,” she says sadly, “but tread carefully now, Diesel. Don’t push her beyond her limits.”
I nod before reaching a bedroom door, behind which I’m guessing I’ll find Mia. Ruth knocks twice and with a gentle call of her name. We listen to a scuffle coming from the other side, then step back when her footsteps pace toward the door. When the door finally opens, bringing with it a waft of fresh cotton sheets, the same scent I remember from when I lived here, I drop my mouth open in shock. Before me stands a girl who looks almost like a different person. Still shy and nervous, she glances to the floor before looking up at me with big brown eyes, long dark hair, and a complexion that looks a hell of a lot healthier than it did. She even has a rosy hue to her cheeks.
“H-hi,” I whisper, to which she momentarily smiles before straightening her features again. “Do you remember me?”
“I do,” she says with the softest of voices, “you’re kind of hard to forget.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” I reply, “one or both of my parents must have been tall. I wouldn’t know, never met them.”
“I’m sorry,” she says sadly, “though sometimes that’s a blessing.”
“Mia, Diesel’s come to talk to you; you ok with that?” Ruth asks, looking into Mia’s eyes as if to say it’s ok if she doesn’t want to. She says nothing but nods her head.
“Has Clara still got that old yard set out back?” I ask Ruth.
“No, that old set got put on the bonfire years ago,” she laughs, “but there’s a shiny new one in its place. You go outside and I’ll make us some tea. Still two sugars, Dee?”
“Sure. Thanks, Ruth.”
I smile nervously before leading the way to the backyard, with Mia following behind me. Neither of us talks until we’re outside, sitting uncomfortably on the yard couches, all soft and squeaky from how new they are. From the looks of things, I’d say Mia is feeling as anxious as I am.
“Do you like tea?” I ask, and she nods, just once again.
“Sometimes, tea was all I would have,” she admits with a nervous smile, “there wouldn’t be anything else in the house.”
“Oh,” I reply sadly, not knowing how to respond to that for a moment or two. Fortunately, Ruth comes out and sets down a mug of tea for the both of us, to which we both smile in thanks. Ruth then looks between the two of us with a frown, as if waiting for something to happen or to be said. When it doesn’t, she sighs and steps back.
“I’ll just be inside,” she says. “Mom’ll be back soon, Mia. Diesel, I know she’d love to see you.”
“Me too, thanks, Ruth,” I tell her, and she smiles before shuffling inside again.
“I guess that’s why you were so thin when I found you,” I begin, “but it looks like Mom’s been feeding you up.” She says nothing but looks at me with a bright blush spreading over her face. “Oh, shit, I didn’t mean anything bad by that, just you look so much better. God, even I know you don’t say that to a—"
“It’s ok,” she laughs, no doubt thinking how ridiculous this six-foot-something ape now looks with my flustering. “I know what you meant.”
“As you can tell, I don’t have a lot of experience with young girls,” I admit with a small smile, “apart from Ruth.”
“She’s nice, I really like her,” she says shyly, pushing her hair behind her ear.
“Good, I’m glad. And how about Mom? She ok?” I ask, even though I know she will be. You couldn’t ask for a better stand-in mother.
“Yes,” she replies with a small smile. “Thank you.”
“For what?” I ask her with a confused expression. I thought she would give me a talking down, a release of her anger over everything; I thought she might even threaten to turn me in.
“For getting me out of that place,” she replies with emotion beginning to seep through her voice. I stare at her for a moment or two, contemplating leaving it there, but curiosity wins out, and I have to ask the obvious.
“What was your situation there, Mia?” I ask with a barely there voice, almost wishing she hadn’t heard, particularly when her face drops straight to where her tiny hands are clutching hold of the warm mug of tea. “You don’t have to tell me, but I want to help if I can.”
“My mother, the one who you saw in that house, the one who was already dead from what I heard, was a prostitute when she met my father. I guess it wasn’t his proudest of moments when he made me with her, but it was what it was,” she explains, then puts down the mug to wrap her arms around herself, providing a shield against all that she is telling me. I choose to keep quiet, to let her get out what she needs and in her own time. “As soon as I was born, I was left on his doorstep with a note to say she was sorry, but she was in no position to look after me.”
“I bet that was quite the shock,” I comment, and she smiles shyly. “Sorry, go on.”
“As far as I was concerned, he was the best father there ever was,” she says with fond recognition in her voice. “We had a nice house, went on vacations, and lived a good life. But more than that, he came to every school event, read with me each night, took me to the movies, all of it. He was as good as any of the moms my friends had, better even.”
“What happened to him, Mia?” I ask with sadness for her. This story can’t end well.
“Heart disease happened to him,” she says with a ghost of a voice. “It was relatively quick but brutal. He paid for a Carer, but I still saw it, still heard it. There were no other family members, but my friends were really good, as were their moms. One of them even offered to have me when the time came for him to…well, you know. I was numb to it all at the time, I couldn’t see anything beyond him dying.”
She pauses for a moment to wipe away her tears, then takes a slurp of her hot tea with what looks like reverence.
“When the time did come, however, Children’s Services tracked down my mother. She was seemingly in a different position, married, and with a legit job. He was a banker, and she was a housewife. We had these meetings twice a week while I temporarily lived with my friend and her family. She and her husband, Dennis, seemed ok. I mean, it was weird, but they were keen to form some sort of relationship with me. It was enough to convince Children’s Services that I should be rehomed with them. Things were ok for a month or two, but after that, it became apparent that they both regularly took drugs. His job was fake, the house was owned by a friend, and they were pretty much penniless.”
“So why did they offer to—"
“I had just inherited a lot of money, Diesel,” she says deadpan. “That house, the filthy belongings, the drugs, they were all paid for by my inheritance. They told me if I didn’t give them the money, they knew people who would pay them to use my body instead. They took me far away from where I had lived; I knew no one and I was scared.”
“Shit,” I gasp through shock and anger.
“By the time you found them, all the money had gone.”
“Oh, Mia, I am so sorry,” I tell her, taking a chance and placing my hand over hers in support. She merely shrugs, but with tears now filling her eyes.
“So, you see, you turning up that day and killing them, wasn’t a reason for me to hate you,” she says with a crack in her voice, “you were merely doing what I had so longed to do for years.”
“Fuck…I mean, fuck!”
“It’s funny though,” she says with tears now streaming down her cheeks, “I am not far off turning eighteen; I am very nearly an adult. I was going to make a run for it, take my chances on the streets, or whatever. But then you brought me here, and although I am no longer considered a child, your foster mom and Ruth said I am welcome to stay for as long as I want. I haven’t felt this cared for in such a long time, and I guess I just needed it. I know I can’t stay forever—"
“You can stay as long as you like, Mia, any costs incurred, I will cover,” I tell her. She looks up at me in surprise, then bursts into floods of tears. I take a chance and wrap my arms around her, letting her shudder against me. When I look up, I see Ruth standing in the doorway, with her own tears streaming down her face. She’s heard some sad stories from girls and boys just like Mia, but hers is one of those that sticks with you. Suddenly, I don’t feel so guilty about that day.
“Mia, baby, you know my mom and I will have you live here for however long you need,” Ruth says, prompting the poor girl to look up to face her. “You’re one of us now.”
_____
It’s been a month since I last saw Mia, and I know she’ll be angry at me for missing her birthday. Eighteen is important for a person; it means you’re officially an adult. I turned eighteen five years ago, and I can still remember how freeing it felt, not to be caught up in the foster care system anymore. I would still be a lost figure but on my own terms. Mia is now a woman and truth be told, that terrifies me. I know she wants more from me, and I could so easily fall into my growing feelings for her. Feelings I began to realize six months ago when she was showing off her prom dress. She was so beautiful, and I had wanted to rip her date’s arm off. But what on earth can I offer a girl like Mia? She deserves a regular life after all she’s been through. I am nothing more than a cold-blooded killer, traveling around the state collecting debts that people were stupid enough to fall into over the poison they like to inject inside of their bodies.
“Diesel!”
She’s seen me, there’s no going back now. What will be will be. Her infectious smile comes charging toward me where I am perched against my bike. Her arms wrap around my shoulders as she leaps forward and embraces me like she always does. I cannot help but inhale her scent of honey and coconut shampoo.
“You missed it!” she grumbles as she gets back onto her feet with her arms folded, her right foot tapping, and her lips pouting; she looks breathtaking.
“I’m sorry, Mia, truly. But I’m sure Mom gave you a special day with all the money I sent?”
“Na-ah!” she says with a mischievous smirk on her face. I instantly frown, knowing that Mom would have gone to town on Mia’s birthday, so I can only assume Mia found out and intervened.
“She made me wait,” the woman herself says with a smile that reminds me of all the kindness she has shown me over the years. Clara was my last foster mom. She tried to put me on the path of morality, attempted to dissuade me from falling into the line of work I’m in now, however, by the time I reached her, it was too late for me.
Mia was different, and Clara knew this. She also knew the way Mia and I had been looking at each other was more than platonic. I think she believes she can be the one to save me. But what if I’m the one who destroys her?
“Come on, Diesel,” Mia whines with a full set of pouty lips, “you can’t say no to me after missing my birthday! Clara’s made a delicious dinner, Ruth made her specialty chocolate cake, and I’ve rented every single Die Hard film I could find. Please?”
“You know I can never say no to you, Mia,” I smile a little sadly, for in the end, I know I won’t.
_____
On Mia’s twentieth birthday, I was a bundle of nerves. Not only had I spent an absolute fortune on the tiny box resting inside of my suit jacket, but I’d also already planned the whole ceremony. Was I confident or just plain stupid? I was hoping I was the former. Clara was sitting beside Ruth, both waiting with small smiles as they watched me pacing around in the front room. Mia made her intentions clear on the night we had celebrated her eighteenth birthday. Shy, nervous, completely beautiful, and as clear as day. She wanted me to love her like she loved me. She wanted me to give her what she had been searching for her whole life, and while she seemingly held her breath in anticipation of my answer, I realized I wanted that from her too. I kissed her rather than verbally answered her at first, but when she began to release tears of relief, I kept repeating the same word over and over again – yes, yes, yes!
As we held each other on top of her bed, fully clothed, she admitted that she wanted to wait until marriage before she gave herself to another. It was a shock at first, but giving Mia a promise to stick to her boundaries became just as special to me. Though I’ll admit, I want her badly. To the point where I worry, I won’t be able to last long enough to give her a very exciting first time.
“Hello, you,” I hear her sweet voice say from behind me.
Clara and Ruth both take an audible breath as I turn around to see her dressed in a beautiful violet dress, her hair all curled to one side, and wearing just a hint of makeup to bring out her mossy green eyes. She’s…breathtaking.
“Marry me,” I blurt out, not even thinking about it and completely ruining the proposal I had planned.
“What?!” she gasps, bringing her hands to her mouth as if in prayer. I can hear Clara and Ruth laughing from behind me, but I can’t move from where I am currently losing the ability to breathe.
“I-I-I mean…God, I ruined it!” I stutter and fall to my knees while flustering about to try and get the box out of my suit pocket. “Shit, Mia, you deserved the best, and I—"
“No, baby,” she says as she flies down to meet me on my knees, her hands stilling mine in an attempt to get me to look at her instead. “This is perfect, this is real!”
“I was going to surprise you in the restaurant and everything!” I almost cry, suddenly overcome with emotion. “You mean the world to me, and I want nothing more than to be your husband.”
“This is you…us, Diesel, and I want that more than anything too!” she says with a huge smile taking over her gorgeously tanned features.
“Is that a yes?” I ask, urgently needing clarification on the matter before I pass out from heart failure.
“That’s a hell yes, Diesel Flynn!”
“She said yes!” I barely whisper as I turn to face our audience in happy disbelief. “My baby said yes! YES!” I shout before turning back to see her laughing over my theatrics. It’s enough to take her inside of my arms and give her the most delicious kiss I’ve ever had. “I love you, Mia!”
“And I you,” she whispers back.
This, her…it’s everything.
_____
“Negative,” Mia says with so much disappointment in her voice, it physically hurts to hear it.
“Hey, it’s ok, we can try again next month,” I try to reassure her, only to hate myself for trying to end her pain with such a throwaway comment. “These things can take time, Mia, you know that.”
“It’s been eighteen months, Dee, it only took two months with Warren,” she grumbles, “why am I not working this time?”
“Don’t talk like that, baby, it’s not you, it’s just nature’s way.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have waited so long,” she says, getting to her feet, “but you had stuff going on and Warren wasn’t sleeping through the night. God, what if we can’t give him a sibling? You know we both wanted to give him what we didn’t have.”
“You have Ruth!” I laugh as I wrap my arms around her shoulders to try and stop her from stomping about the place.
“I know,” she replies, kissing my naked chest as she tries to try and calm herself down, “and I love her like a real sister; she’s my best friend. But I was already seventeen and practically broken when you rescued me.”
“I wouldn’t call what I did rescuing you, baby,” I utter with a guilty smile, “I was sent over to kill your parents.”
“They were not my parents, not even the woman who called herself my mother,” she says with resentment in her voice. “They were the assholes who stole everything from me.”
“I know, Mia, I know,” I whisper as I feel every muscle inside of her body tense up with anger. “What do you want to do? About getting pregnant, I mean.”
“I want to see someone, Diesel,” she says guiltily, but also with desperation in her voice, “just to check.”
“Ok, baby, whatever you want,” I tell her, even though I’ve always hated doctors, which Mia is more than aware of.
She turns to kiss me ever so gently before walking out to go and check on our son, our little boy, Warren. She’s still breathtaking and I thank my lucky stars I get to hold her tight and bring up our son together.
______
I sometimes consider the trip to the fertility doctor as the beginning of everything, our downfall, and therefore, my greatest regret. If we had never been to see that doctor, and never taken his advice to have a surrogate, Mia might still be alive today. She was so consumed with the need to have another baby that she didn’t think twice about asking Ruth to carry our child. Except it wouldn’t just be our child, it would be part Ruth. Mia was told her eggs were few and far between, or something more medical-sounding at least. It meant getting pregnant would be a shot in the dark. She was cut up about it for a few weeks or so, but after she had seemingly made her peace with it, she suggested Ruth to me with so much hope in her eyes, I couldn’t be the one to say no.
Ruth was hesitant at first, for who wouldn’t be? I couldn’t blame her as much as I couldn’t blame Mia for wanting it so badly. She said she wanted to discuss it with Clara before she made any kind of decision. Clara must have given her the green light to agree because she came to see us the very next day to say yes. She was knocked up within a year, Mia was over the moon, Warren was excited, and I was just happy that everyone else was happy. Besides, a new baby is always a blessing, especially when you’ve been faced with the possibility of not being able to have one.
The trouble started when Ruth met this strange new guy. He seemed to come on much too strong, and much too quickly if you ask me. He was creepy and always looking at me with what looked like rage. He knew about Ruth’s pregnancy and the fact that it was a child for Mia and me, but he didn’t seem to mind…at first. When she was five months gone, she began to say things that you just knew were coming from this guy. The way she spoke wasn’t natural to her usual way of talking. By six months, she told us that she had changed her mind, that she wanted to raise the child with this guy, Robert. As you can imagine, Mia was distraught, as was I. There was no consoling her and no reasoning with her. She became even closer to Warren, knowing that he was going to be her only child. They were practically glued together, which was sweet for the time being. I only worried that she wouldn’t ever let him grow, that she would unintentionally smother him.
When mine and Ruth’s baby was born, I feared the worst from Mia. Knowing the child that was going to be ours was now out in the world, a time when he should have been coming back to our house, was going to kill her.
“Mia, baby, you ok?” I ask cautiously as I walk into our bedroom after having put Warren to bed. I could hear her sniffing, so I knew she was crying. The sound was piercing right through my chest. I could never stand to hear her crying, not when she was seventeen, and certainly not now.
“Ah-ha,” she whimpers at the same time as she holds something out to the side of her. As I walk closer to see what it is, she turns to look at me with tears streaming down her cheeks and the widest smile I have seen on her in months. “I’m pregnant, Diesel!”
“Y-you’re pregnant?!” I gasp in complete shock. “Do you know how far along?”
“It’s early,” she says with a hint of concern, “so I’ll need to be really careful, but—"
“Holy shit, this is amazing!” I cry out as I take her inside of my arms and kiss her head with so much relief, I begin to release my own tears.
“It is,” she laughs with joy, “it so is!”
_____
Louisa Mia Flynn was born eight months later, safe, healthy, and oh so beautiful. Alas, several months later, Ruth fell prey to cancer. It was a fast killer, leaving my little boy, Jake, motherless in less than a year. Robert had taken him as his own, and even had his name on Jake’s birth certificate. However, from the stories I was hearing from Clara, I knew I couldn’t just give up on him. He was my son and I owed it to him to try and fight Robert for custody. It would be hard but Mia and I both agreed it was the right thing to do, even if it meant Robert became my next hit.
Robert was served with papers and told not to leave the state. It placated me for the time being, knowing he couldn’t leave without police interception. I had to go out of town for a few days for a job, one that was paying too well for me to turn down. What I didn’t know at the time was that it was a job that couldn’t have ever paid enough.
I returned home just a few hours too late. By the time I crossed the town limits, Mia, my beautiful wife was already gone, and my son had had to endure what no little boy should ever have to.
____
To my son, Warren, I have a lot to be sorry for. You might think my keeping this from you as one of those many things, but I needed you to live for someone before you found out something that could destroy you. I know vengeance will be on your mind, but if you’ve found your very own Mia, please don’t make the same mistakes that I did. Make her more important than any of it; more important than me.
Jake is your brother and has had the hardest life already. I never got the chance to protect him, to give him the family he should have had, because Robert managed to escape. And I had to let him go, for both yours and Louisa’s sake. It hurts so badly to admit that I had to choose two of my children over another one. I don’t deserve his forgiveness, neither do I deserve yours or Louisa’s. But I still hope you might give it one day.
And so, I leave you with this, my beloved boy, I know who killed your mother. It wasn’t anyone connected to my old life. It was Robert, the man who took your brother and kept him prisoner, along with the poor little girl who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I love you all, and I sincerely hope I am once again with my Mia, my home.
Dad
X