She shook her head. Her face was screwed up like she was in physical agony. “Evil lived here. I lived here with evil. This house has to go.”
Prosper took a small step toward her. “I understand that, but what about Angel’s things, huh? You have her things still, right?”
Teonny stilled for a moment, and her eyes unfocused like she had just realized Angel’s things were, in fact, there.
“Oh God.” She dropped the canister again and put her hands to her face as she sobbed. “My baby’s things.” She moved her hands and looked up at Prosper with red, swollen eyes. “Her things, Patrick. I almost burned down my baby’s things.”
Prosper gathered her in his arms and hugged her to him tightly. He wished his embrace could suck every bad thing out of her life that had happened to her.
“You not in your right mind right now.” He kissed the top of her head. “We gonna do this the right way, okay? I’m gonna help you. You trust me?”
She leaned further into him and nodded her head as she clung to him and sobbed.
They stayed like that for a long time. Long enough for the gasoline smell to make Prosper lightheaded. He knew if he was feeling that way, she was too.
“Is there anything you want to grab from here?”
Teonny didn’t respond at first, and he thought maybe she had zoned out again, but finally, she pulled away from him and moved toward the stairs without a word.
He followed her to make sure she was good. It would be a while before he let her out of his sight again.
When they made it into her room, she went into her closet. He followed and saw her trying to reach for something on the top shelf. He grabbed the box for her, and she took it from him with a sad smile.
She opened it gingerly, and right on the top of the box was a photo of a pretty little girl with curly pigtails.
“This is Angel,” she whispered.
Prosper gazed at the picture and found himself getting a little choked up. Angel looked like such a happy little girl. Teonny’s little mini me.
“She’s beautiful. Just like her mama.”
“Shewas.” Teonny emphasized was, letting Prosper know it was okay to talk about her in the past tense. This moment may not look like strength to a lot of people, but to Prosper, it was. He marveled at her strength as she looked through some of the items in the small box with a smile on her face. She closed it and looked up at him with glistening eyes. A sense of calmness seemed to wash over her. “For now, this is all I want. I need to sell this house though. I can’t have any ties to it.”
“We’ll handle it. I’ll hire a cleaning company,” he offered, suggesting that someone needed to clean up the mess she made. “I’ll talk to my realtor about putting it up for sale. We can come back when you’re ready and go through your things. Whatever you want to sell or donate, we will handle. Anything you want to bring to my house, you’re more than welcome.”
“Your house?” she asked timidly. He hated that she was in such a fragile state, but he promised himself he would nurse her spirit back to health.
“Where else you gonna go?”
She shrugged. “I could go anywhere, really.”
“Is that what you want?” The thought of her leaving him suddenly had him winded. He felt like she’d punched him in the gut for even saying something like that.
She thought about it, which hurt his feelings even more, but he told himself that whatever she wanted, he would make it work for her.
Finally, she shook her head and looked up at him with tears splashing out of her eyes once again. “I need you.”
He wrapped a strong arm around her waist. “You have me. For life.”
“Promise? Everyone else has left me. I can’t handle another heartbreak.” She sounded so vulnerable. So broken. He could never let her down. It wasn’t in his DNA. From that day forward, he lived to make her happy, and there was no greater purpose than that, in his opinion.
“You have my word.”
She nodded tiredly, as if her fatigue wouldn’t allow her to fight him on his response. “Can we leave, please?”
Prosper grabbed the box from her and nodded. As he followed her out of the house, his mind shifted gears slightly. Now, he was in plan mode. He wanted to make sure he could get Teonny on the path to healing. Whatever she needed to bring that pretty smile back to her face was hers. That was his word.
Afew months had passed, and Prosper had refused to allow Teonny to hide within her shell.
