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CHAPTER22
Colton
I had spent the past week in Tabiq. At first, I felt like a tourist. But Reesa helped me break the ice by showing me around town. But it was when we stopped at an orphanage, small, yet still one, that I really felt connected. Unlike back in the states, Tabiq didn’t have a formal adoption process. Orphans were cared for, but they remained orphans unless a family volunteered to take them in. If it hadn’t been for my loving adoptive parents, that easily could’ve been me.
It took several more dinners, and a couple of official meetings with the President, but I finally gained her approval to develop a plan of action to make adoptions formalized in Tabiq. With such little time, there was no way I could finalize anything then. At least I can continue to work on it more now that I’m back in the states. I obviously don’t have the training to handle all the aspects on my own. It would take more than just personal experience but being able to speak to potential adoptive families on what it was like for me, that is still valuable, But Bennett and Reesa are right. Nothing in Tabiq is quick. Even the introduction to a new concept like adoption would need to be handled delicately or they will put up walls and totally reject anything being said.
There was so much more I had learned while in Tabiq as well. Reesa loved her country, and Tabiq was her priority, even over her own happiness. And Finn’s, was to ensure Reesa was happy. They were perfect for each other. And surprisingly, I learned that many Tabiqians approved of their marriage, even though he was from Ireland. That said a lot about who they both are.
But my biggest take home from there came after Reesa had broken the ice for me with some of the locals during one of our dinners out at a restaurant. I had gone back each day after that, and they began to open up. Several of them were of the same age of my biological mother and two had remembered her. It had been wonderful to hear stories of her as a youth. I was going to have to share them with Rhonda some day because she sounded like a normal girl, happy and playful back then. At least until the day she turned eighteen. No one would speak of that time. I knew what it meant. That’s when my father took her, abused her, and stole her life away.
I didn’t think I could possibly hate James Henderson more. But because of all his sick, perverted doings, I also got more family than I could count. For now, I had to focus on the family I’d had all along.
When I called Dad and told him I was on my way over, he didn’t sound like himself. Maybe it was because he’d just lost Mom and I took off when he needed me the most. I just hoped that’s all it was, because I couldn’t handle losing him too.
I didn’t even bother knocking, and just opened the front door and walked in. “Dad, you here?”
He called out from upstairs where the bedrooms were.
Fuck. I hope he’s not sick.
I flew up the stairs and stopped dead in my tracks. “Jeez, Dad, what are you doing up there?”
He was up on a stepladder with a paintbrush in one hand and a gallon of paint in the other.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” he said.
Trying to break a hip.
“You should’ve waited for me to get back and I’d have done this for you,” I said, holding the ladder and reaching for the paint can. “Why don’t you come down so we can talk?”
“I just want to finish up this part and then we can chat,” he said.
Stubborn. Now I know where I get it.
I knew better than to try to talk him out of finishing. It would only cause an argument, and I wouldn’t win. The only person Dad ever listened to was Mom. When he completed the area he was working on, he handed me his brush and climbed down.
“Let’s talk and then maybe you can finish the rest of the ceiling. What do you think?” he asked.
“It’s a deal.”
I had no idea what he wanted to talk about, but at least I was getting my way and saving him from a project, too. “Want to go sit on the porch and have some coffee?”
“I was thinking a beer,” he said.
Dad didn’t drink much, so that was a flag that this conversation wasn’t going to be easy. We went downstairs and I grabbed two beers from the refrigerator before following him onto the porch. I sat on the railing, opposite the swing.
“You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind,” I said.
“Funny. I was going to say the same thing about you. How was Boston?” he asked.
This was where I had to decide if I would continue the lie or tell him the truth. We’ve always had a good relationship, so it didn’t take much debating to know what I needed to do.
“I wasn’t in Boston all this time. I traveled out of the country.” He didn’t need to know it was to Tabiq.
“Did you…enjoy your time away?”
I shrugged. “I like being back more.” It wasn’t the same, nothing was going to be. I’d learned a lot, and it had changed me. But the greatest thing that happened was realizing how much Annabella meant to me. I just had to make things right with her father.After I figure out what is up with my own.
