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It’s done. The massive weight of the world that has been on my shoulders for seven years has finally been lifted. I take in my first deep and easy breath, and it is good.
“Great. How soon can we get out here?” I ask, not wanting to be in Cuba a moment longer than necessary.
“We’re ready now. Give your car seats to Mullens and Jenkins and we’ll get you to the airstrip.”
“Thank God. What about the house?” I ask as an afterthought.
“It’s still standing but they were emptying it out when we arrived. I don’t know where most of it is, but we did manage to get a lot.”
“I understand,” I reply, knowing full well where my father took everything. I might want to be free of him and his immoral ways, but I’ll use the money. I don’t have a problem using the money to take care of my family.
“Great. We should get the show on the road though. Are you ready?”
“We’re ready,” I say, turning to go back inside. “It’s time.” I help Chassie up off the floor and kiss her soundly.
Silently, we gather the kids and head out to the SUVs. Inside, the ride to the airport is loud as the kids laugh and play. I hold my wife’s hand and think of our future. The future we both fought so hard for. The future we’ve both earned and deserve.
After arriving at the airport, we are in the air in less than ten minutes.
“What will you do after this?” Lawrence asks from his seat across from us.
“Eventually we’ll head to New Jersey. My uncles are waiting for us to join the family bus-” I begin, but he cuts me off.
“Stop right there. I don’t need all the details, I’m still a fed after all.” I chuckle.
“But first we’re going to see my brother’s right?”
“That’s right. They are waiting for you in a small Minnesota town, Bleak.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Most people haven’t, but the people there are salt of the earth, really. Your brothers are too.”
“That’s nice,” she says, nervously fiddling with the hem of her shirt.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper in her ear after placing my hands over hers to quiet them.
“I know it will be,” she whispers back.
Now that this is really happening, I can’t help but feel like everything is going to be different now. Before, we were in our own little bubble, but now it’s popped, and everything is going to fall apart at my feet.
What if our love isn’t enough?
What if the family we’ve made isn’t enough?
What if she wants to stay with her brothers?
There’s no way in hell that I’d ever let her go, but that doesn’t mean that she’ll want to stay. What kind of man would force his wife to stay with him? A fucking desperate one. That’s me. Desperate for this woman doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about her. Doesn’t come close to the protectiveness and possessiveness I feel for her. For the love I feel for her. The connection is so true and so genuine that I knew that first day. I may not have been able to act upon it, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my soulmate had been found. Had been placed under my care. She gave me hope where there was none before. But at the end of the day, I want her to be happy and I know I’ll do whatever she needs me to do as much as it might kill me to do so, but I’ll do it.
Chapter Nine
Chassie
This is happening. Like really happening. I am minutes away from seeing my brothers for the first time in seven years. This is the one thing I have been hoping for since the moment I was taken. To be back with them. Not my parents. My mind watches the road pass us by as we drive through this small town where they have built their life and all I see is blurs of concrete.
I can feel the tension in Milo by the way he is squeezing my thigh and hand. I look up at him, his head facing away from me, his gaze out the window. I watch as his jawbone protrudes. He is gnashing his teeth and it makes me sad for him, the thought that he is allowing to go through his mind that somehow I won’t want our family once I see them. I have been trying to assure him, tell him, but I am going to have to show him.
“We are here.” The voice in the front of the car says through the speaker. Suddenly my stomach is doing flips and it is not the baby.
“Mommy, where are we?” Gen asks in her curious voice. For the first time I recognize that this is going to be new for my kids as well. All they have ever known was Milo’s family.
