Chapter 38 Slide Away
slide away
Sariah
With those words, my heart plummets to my toes, and it’s not because of lift off.
My mom, my daughter and I, along with an unsuspecting friend who was along for a birthday Mexican food celebration are crammed onto the floor of a dumpy plane that doesn’t sound like it has the guts to get off the tarmac.
And below us, our lives slide away.
My home. My love. My safety. My protection.
And those for my daughter are a thing of the past.
Because I saw his face.
I saw the evil glint in his eyes when he found me.
I saw the glee when we turned the corner and Renée called “Mom.”
I saw the moment he knew. At that moment, I knew too. I vomited on my shoes for all to see and screamed through tears for her to run. I served her up to her father, unknowingly and unwittingly, on a silver platter.
For a split second, she froze. That hint of indecision when she wanted to save me and save herself and couldn’t decide which.
That moment I’d spent my life protecting her from…
And failed.