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The girl had not spoken a word in a year. She feared Eva wouldn’t speak at all at this rate.
The door creaked open downstairs, and Nyana’s body stiffened as she listened to a pair of footsteps enter her home. The footsteps stepped on shattered glass, and when the bottom stair creaked, her pulse spiked with ice.
Her arms tightened around Eva as trepidation crawled across her skin in the form of shivers. She should have reached for her cane to use as a weapon, but she froze again. Horrifying images flashed through her mind. Liam’s hand striking her face. His glass of alcohol shattering across the wall. Darkness. So much darkness.
She squeezed her eyes closed.
The bedroom door opened.
A sliver of dim lantern light fell across the wall.
And the sound of Joel’s voice instantly eased her tense shoulders and dampened the fear running rampant through her veins. “One. Two. Three,” he counted. He breathed out a sigh and murmured under his breath. “Thank the sunshine.”
Moments later, the door closed, and the room fell into darkness once again as he descended the stairs. But heaviness no longer pulled the darkness over her head. She was safe. Her children were safe.
With the sweet realization, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift off to sleep.
****
The children were gone.
Nyana burst upright in a sitting position, panic rearing its head within her as her gaze roamed over the empty bed. Sunlight filtered through the window, bathing light on the empty room.
She fumbled for her cane resting against the end of the bed and used it to support her weight as she limped toward the door and threw it open.
Only to pause.
Joel’s deep laughter rumbled up the stairs, jolting her awake even more. “You want two bunnies?”
“Yes,” Maisy said in a serious tone. “Then they can sniff out carrots in the forest!”
Slowly, Nyana peered over the railing to find Maisy sitting on Joel’s lap, reading a book about fairy tales. Eva sat alone in an armchair with a book draped over her legs, quietly flipping through the pages with more pictures than words.
Her gaze roamed over the room below. Clean. Spotless. No evidence of the scare the day before. Three hardy locks now kept a new, sturdy door closed. Broken dish shards no longer lay scattered across the floor. Several new pieces of furniture stood out in the shabby room. And she knew for a fact they hadn’t owned those books yesterday.
The top stair creaked beneath her weight, and Joel’s gaze darted in her direction. A smile blossomed across his face. Her bad knee suddenly weakened, and she tightened her grip on her cane. No, she certainly was not affected by that smile. Not at all. Never.
“You did all of this?” she breathed.
“Good morning,” he said as if purposely avoiding her question. “I made breakfast.” He winced. “I also burned it.”
Maisy also grimaced. “I took a bite. It was gross. Eva didn’t try it.”
In response, Eva slightly shook her head.
Joel’s laughter rang through the room. Deep. Beautiful. Magical. “Hey now. It wasn’t that bad.” His smile turned toward Nyana. “Ready to get married today?”
She climbed down a step, followed by another, but stopped when the task of descending the staircase seemed too great. A fierce ache settled deep within her bones, but she clenched her jaw and endured the pain. “What did the priest say? Can he fit it in?”
“For me, he said he’d make the time. I told him we’d stop by at noon. We’d better get moving if we want to make it.”
Alarm flitted across her features as she glanced out the window. The sun hung directly above the house, revealing just how long she’d slept. “You watched the girls all morning?”
The girls wore nice dresses, their hair braided and tied with ribbons. She wasn’t sure what alarmed her more. The fact that Joel must have braided their hair or that he’d shared so much of the workload and allowed her to sleep in.
“After today, they will be my daughters, too. I’m happy to watch them so you can rest.”
Thank you.
