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“Thank you, Langston. For everything.”
He cups my face in his hands again, wiping away my liquified pain, searching for the heartbreak that was there before. He won’t find it. All he’ll find is forgiveness and gratitude.
“I mean it. We’ve been through a lot you and I. We’ve failed each other so many times. Hurt each other. It stings that you know my child better than I do. That you got part of his life that I will never get. I’m jealous that you married a woman when I always thought deep down that if you ever did marry someone, it would be me.
“But above it all, I’m thankful. My son needed someone to love him. I thought I was protecting him by hiding him away, but you—you showed him love when I couldn’t. You found him, protected him, loved him. You became his father when you had no responsibility to do so. He wasn’t your blood. He was the lost child of a woman you hated. You didn’t have to intervene. You definitely didn’t have to become his father. And yet you did. I can never thank you enough for what you did.”
“I
hid your child. I took him instead of telling you I had him. And I married your cousin when I could have chosen you. Don’t thank me for that.”
I grab his hands and lift them to my lips, kissing them. “No, you loved my child and became his father. The rest is just messy detail. I’ll never be able to repay you for what you did.”
He scrunches his eyebrows and gruffs but doesn’t argue. “Do you want to meet your son?”
I hear the children laughing just feet away from me. My heart pulls toward them. I want to meet my son. I want to meet Langston’s daughter. More than anything in the world.
But I have to make sure it’s for the best to meet them. I don’t want to bring more enemies into their life. When I meet them, it has to be because it makes their lives better, not worse.
So I answer the only way I can, “No.”
2
Langston
She said no.
My mouth falls open. Her hands slip through my fingers, and my eyes are blinking rapidly. She’s joking, or she just said the word because she’s used to telling me no.
“Liesel?”
She stands and starts to walk away from me—away from the kids.
“It’s okay to be scared. I’ll be there with you.” I stand, hoping to lure her back. She lived with a man and agreed to marry him because he said he could help her find her son. Now that I told her exactly where he is, she’s running. It doesn’t make sense to me.
Maybe she’s scared? I’m scared too. I’m scared that I’m going to let my feelings for this woman cloud my judgment and change all my plans.
Liesel stops. She doesn’t turn her head, but I can hear her words clear as day.
“I’m not afraid. I would love to meet my son, more than anything in this world, but I won’t until I know it’s safe for him.” Then she jogs away, leaving me standing alone, stunned.
Why is she worried about Atlas’ life? What is she hiding?
“Don’t touch it! It could hurt you,” Atlas yells at Rose.
I turn and start walking over toward the kids, quietly observing so they don’t notice I’m there.
Rose is bent down in front of what looks like a jellyfish, a small cast still on her arm.
“But it’ll die if we don’t get it back to the water,” Rose says.
“Then, let it die. It’s not worth getting stung,” Atlas says, grabbing hold of the hem of her black T-shirt and trying to pull her back. It doesn’t stop Rose; she bends down and touches the creature. Just like Atlas warned her, the creature stings her.
“Ouch,” she pulls her little hand back.
I shake my head at my daughter. So brave that it will get her killed someday, while Atlas is so cautious that he never really lives.
“Let me help,” I say, walking over to them.
