Chapter 48
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Mei Lin held still beside Ethan, whose breaths were shallow and careful, each one measured against the ache in his ribs.
They sat on the couch in the living room of Sam and Eliza Wright’s home.
Sam was one of Ethan’s cousins, and he and his wife were two of the many people she remembered from the hospital—kind people who’d driven from a couple of hours away to try to help Mei Lin and Ethan escape Lu and his men.
Her family had been so small—Mama, Bàba, Renshu, and Bàba’s mother, who had lived close by.
Mei Lin’s parents had no siblings, so Mei Lin and Renshu had no cousins, no aunts and uncles, no extended family.
She’d never known enough to want a big family—there were no large families in her small village.
But the more Wrights Mei Lin met, the more she realized what she’d missed.
And the more she hoped to fill her own house with kids someday.
Ethan shifted, his hand pressing against his ribs.
She grabbed a throw pillow from an adjacent chair. “It will help, you know.”
He took it and hugged it against his chest. “But I look ridiculous.”
His eyes were bruised. He had a cut on one cheek and a sling holding his left arm still against his torso. “You look like a man who almost killed himself saving his wife’s life. Not ridiculous. A hero.”
He shook his head as though he found her amusing, despite the fact that her words were as obvious as his wounds.
He’d been discharged from the hospital that morning, and Gavin had driven them two hours from the mountains in northern New Hampshire, through forest and farmland in Maine, and then up a long hill to a house with a wall of glass that overlooked the rocky coast.
Ethan had climbed the front steps without help, though both she and Gavin had hovered, just in case—which seemed to annoy him, but what did he expect?
Her own body ached, though her injuries were minor—bruises from being tackled into the dirt, scratches from snapping tree branches she’d driven too close to in her desperation to escape Lu and his men.
Plus a few aches that came from sleeping beside Ethan, taking up as little space as possible.
Or maybe those aches were from not sleeping, thanks to the monitors and nurses and her fear that the doctors had missed something, that he wasn’t going to survive.
But they had both survived, somehow. It was a miracle.
Eliza stepped in from the kitchen with a tray of drinks and a small board of cheese and cured meat. “To keep your strength up until dinner.”
Eliza was older than Mei Lin and beautiful with shiny dark-brown shoulder-length hair and large hazel eyes.
“You don’t have to fuss over us.” Ethan tried to sit up straighter and failed, wincing with the effort. “We could’ve gone to a hotel.”
“And offended both of us.” Eliza winked. “We’re happy to have you.” A squeak of springs carried down from upstairs, and she tipped her face toward the ceiling. “He’s jumping on the bed again. You two make yourselves at home.” She started up the stairs, calling, “Levi, you know the rules!”
How was Mei Lin supposed to make herself at home in a place like this, with a family she hadn’t known a week before?
And yet, Sam and Eliza seemed to want them to feel comfortable.
They’d given them a bedroom upstairs with a view of the water and an attached bathroom.
They were planning some kind of party for the next day because, as Sam had explained, “Everybody wants to see you before you head back to Virginia. Not that you won’t be back. ”
Would they be back? Mei Lin didn’t know if this family would truly embrace Ethan, much less herself. They’d been kind, but how did they really feel about a son who didn’t belong to his father’s wife? Or about having an Asian in the family?
These Wrights had been welcoming, but how far would that extend? And if they ultimately rejected Ethan…how much pain could they inflict?
Too much, she thought, for a man who deserved only good things.
She chose a cracker, a slice of meat—she didn’t know what kind—and a sliver of cheese and handed them to Ethan.
“Thanks.” He ate them, then took a sip of the water she held for him. “I’m not really hungry.”
“Not hungry?” She pressed her hand to her heart. “Are you sick? Dying? Should I call an ambulance?”
“Haha.” His not-real-laugh died on a yawn, which made her yawn as well.
Ethan set the pillow on his lap. “Take a nap, sweetheart.”
“Here? In the living room?” They would think her rude, asleep in the middle of the day in another woman’s home.
“Suit yourself.” He leaned his head against the cushion and closed his eyes. “I need to rest.”
She held out against it for a little while, but when Eliza came back down the stairs, she barely glanced at Ethan and Mei Lin on her way back to the kitchen.
Ethan’s breathing had already evened beside her, and the warmth of the room and the long weight of the week pulled her down, and she lowered her head to the pillow on his lap and let go.
Voices woke her.
She came up slowly and found Derrick—the pilot—stepping into the room with a Middle Eastern woman and a small girl toddling free of them both. The girl made for a basket filled with toys.
“Michael’s not here yet, I guess.” Derrick surveyed the room as though his brother might be folded into a corner of it. “Hope it’s okay we stopped by.”
Ethan stood, using the armrest for leverage, and shook his hand. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Derrick always seemed to be smiling, and his smile only widened when he indicated the woman at his side. “This is my wife, Jasmine.” He nodded toward the toddler. “And that’s our daughter, Karima. Kari.”
Ethan nodded to the woman. “Nice to meet you. This is Mei Lin.”
The woman gave them a shy smile.
It seemed Mei Lin wouldn’t be the only non-white person in the family.
Derrick said, “I should warn you—” The front door opened again, and his voice dropped. “My brothers are all coming. Well, except Bryan. He’d be here, but he and his wife live in Munich.”
Another man came through the door, and Mei Lin recognized him—and moved toward him automatically.
He’d been a voice on the phone who’d come up with plan after plan.
And he’d been part of the reason she and Ethan had come out of those mountains alive.
She crossed the room and put her arms around his waist. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to him before.
She only knew who he was because one of the women in the SUV had pointed him out.
“Thank you,” she said against his chest—he was as tall as her husband. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” He shifted, a little embarrassed. “Anytime.”
She stood back. “There will not be another time.” The thought of it stopped her breath.
Derrick was grinning. “This is Michael.”
“Oh.” Ethan stepped forward, hand outstretched. “We wouldn’t have survived without your help.”
“Honestly, I’m surprised you survived even with my help.” Michael wore a smirk that looked permanently installed.
Ethan laughed and pressed a hand to his ribs. “Ow. Low expectations much?”
“Always.” The smirk warmed into a smile as a woman stepped forward. Mei Lin’s first thought was that Jasmine had crossed the room, but this woman wore jeans and a sweater, whereas Jasmine wore a dress. Otherwise, they looked exactly alike.
“This is Leila,” Michael said. “My wife.”
Mei Lin glanced between them, and Leila laughed.
“They didn’t tell you we’re twins.”
“They did not.” Mei Lin took the woman’s hands in both of hers. “Thank you for sharing your husband with us. He saved our lives.”
“That’s his specialty.”
“I’m thankful for both of you.” Mei Lin turned to include Jasmine. “I’m glad there are more normal-sized humans. I was beginning to wonder.”
“We’re normal,” Michael said.
Leila turned a grave face up at him. “You are not normal in any way.”
“You’re right. I’m extraordinary.”
Ethan laughed again and winced again. “Stop doing that.”
Sam came in from the hallway opposite the kitchen. “That’s why I needed the oversized front doors. To fit Michael’s giant head.”
Another man and his wife arrived. He was older than the rest with gray at his temples. His wife had brown hair and the clearest blue eyes Mei Lin had ever seen.
Mei Lin looked up at him. “You saved his life.” She didn’t normally hug practical strangers, but she couldn’t help herself. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his middle. “I never thanked you. I owe you…everything.” She stepped away, a little embarrassed, wiping her eyes.
“You could’ve done it without me, but I’m glad I was there.” He looked over her head and frowned. “You should be sitting.”
“Probably.” Ethan braced himself against the sofa. “It’s Daniel, right?”
“Yes, and this is Camilla.”
Camilla shook Ethan’s hand, then took Mei Lin’s. “How are you?”
“So good, because my husband is.”
Daniel stepped forward to shake Ethan’s hand. “Your wife risked her life to get to you.”
Ethan gave her a look she read as half proud, half frustrated. “That sounds about right. She’s braver than I want her to be.”
Daniel was nodding. “I get that. I think, like the rest of the Wright men, you married up.”
Ethan swallowed a laugh before it could cost him. “You’re not wrong.”
She scanned the faces. They were all familiar, and not just from the hospital. “You were all there? In the woods?”
“We got there late,” Sam said. “Grant, Asher, and Callan had it under control.”
“And Alyssa and Summer,” Mei Lin said gently.
“Who could forget them?” Michael asked. “Alyssa was giving us orders like a general, and Summer…”
“She was trying to keep me from being stupid,” Mei Lin said, “but she got distracted, and I had to see.” She looked at her husband, who’d survived only because God had chosen to step in. “I wasn’t going to answer him, but they were beating you. I just wanted them to stop.”