Page 85 of Worth of Waste

They were all that existed.

Karen buried her face in Dino’s neck, and he held her a little tighter. He didn’t think the position could be all that comfortable for her, especially not with the steering wheel driving into her back, but she didn’t make a single complaint.

“Give it to me,” he murmured.

She sucked in a hard breath, and he braced himself for the impact of whatever might come next. Her anger, probably. Her bitterness. Anything.

Karen had every right to it all.

“Come on,” he said when she stayed silent.

Finally, Karen shook her head. “You said I wouldn’t have to do this alone, Dino.”

He had.

And she wouldn’t.

“Look at me.” Dino grabbed Karen’s face, tilting her head up so he could stare her in the eyes. The tears were there, fresh and ready to fall, but she didn’t let them. His thumbs stroked her cheeks as he kissed her mouth once, then twice. “We’re going to be just fine.”

“How many years?”

He hesitated, but answered. “Over twenty.”

“Twenty.”

“Over, Karen.”

The sound that broke free from her chest was raw—pain-filled, aching, and low. It cut him straight through the bone and into his heart, but he welcomed that pain. He deserved it.

“That’s not going to happen,” he promised.

“Don’t say things that you want, say what is true.”

Dino nodded, and kissed her again. “I’m not going to prison.”

That was going to be his mantra for the next little while.

And no matter what, he was going to make it happen.

Dino

THERE was a side to Karen that no one really got to see, and if they did see it, they couldn’t possibly understand it enough to appreciate it. It had been her bright soul, shining straight through the darkness of Dino’s that had drawn him in—her perpetual happiness, always seeing the good, and never indulging the bad.

Yes, that had drawn him in, but her strength was the part of her that amazed him the most.

He made a great effort never to show his weaknesses, to never appear less than those around him. And yet, in the face of adversary, in the midst of her pain, Karen never blinked a lash. No one would ever know how hard she struggled, or how much her heart hurt, because she just kept going.

Even knowing how her world must have felt like a hurricane because of him and his actions, Dino watched her from the sidelines as she picked their son up from daycare, chatted to the workers like nothing was amiss, and went about her routine with Junior at her side. She played silly games with their son, kept him distracted, and cooked supper while Dino had Junior in his lap. She went about her day without mention of any problem or pain.

She didn’t let her son see their chaos.

She didn’t let the world know her concerns.

That amazed him.

Her strength amazed him.

Dino knew, one day, he was going to sit his son down and explain how incredible the boy’s mother really was. Mothers were so often overlooked—they were the people who wiped faces and tucked babies into beds at night. They were constant figures of love and warmth.