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“Mommy, look at it.”
“Yeah, Allie.” I might have a heart attack if she doesn’t. Good thing I’m in the damn hospital. I swallow a lump in my throat. “Have a look.”
Her eyes snap to mine with her own suspicions until something like realization hits. When the realization sinks in, Allie glances down at the box and opens it again.
“This is yours, Lucas?”
“It’s yours, actually. It’s kind of small for me. Only if you want it, though, and, well, if you want me. It’s kind of a forever thing, I hope.”
Dammit, I had a much better speech ready the other night. And a way smoother way of asking her. Now my voice is just as shaky as my hands.
I am unprepared.
Allie sets the box down and looks back up at me and the weight of her gaze is almost crushing. “You were going to ask the other night. That was why you got angry? Because he took it?”
She seems to find her answer written on my face. I can’t answer because I need to know her answer first.
“Allie?”
I pull my arm from around her and link our fingers together. I will get Jadon whatever the hell he wants for his birthday just for finding it. If my son asks for a freaking pony, he’s getting one.
She watches me with a new sort of curiosity in her eyes, laced with anticipation. Honestly, I don’t know which one of us is more unsure of ourselves right now.
It’s simple, really, and doesn’t matter how big or small the gesture is. It’s four words, and they’re stuck in my throat. I know she wants this and I do, too, but she could easily say no or that she doesn’t want to right now.
What if she’s not sure about us?
“Will you marry me?”
Her lips crash into mine, and she speaks “yes” into my mouth, easing away all my worries.
With my hand around Jadon, I cover his eyes after his excited shrieks and “gross” giggles.
She said yes, right?
She did. Allie said yes.
Chapter58
Lucas
Ted is a vision—an absolute vision—in that navy blue jumpsuit. Especially sitting beside his lawyers, Duncan and Hynd. Their cheesy commercials and easily memorized phone number are probably the one thing that saved him after Mark dropped Ted off his attorney family plan. Ted is taking a plea bargain and is being sentenced, so he will forever have the criminal conviction on his record. In his case, he’s given the prosecution enough information to keep Mark and Vivian in cells for a long time.
Ted has nothing to gain from Mark anymore, so he’s willingly given up everything he has on the family. He’s doing a good deed by spilling what beans he has, but it’s only to help himself. It’s not to do the right thing. He threatened Allie and Jadon at gunpoint with every intent to take them off to wherever. Kidnapping—that’s what it is. One wrong move with his finger on that trigger, and he could have killed them—whether or not he meant to. Same with Vivian.
That’s in addition to his association with the VandenburgsafterVivian’s first failed murder attempt on Allie and Jadon. Oh, and the fact he nearly ran me down with his car with them inside. My part doesn’t matter, it’s the fact that he would subject them to it.
All of this business with Mark’s family has turned this town into a zoo. There are news vans and reporters everywhere outside the courthouse. The headlines range in this story from all the angles in it. They refer to Mark as the political hopeful, a wealthy man attempting to force his daughter and grandchild out of the country, and so much more. They’re not entirely off, but they make it sound like Mark was this great rich villain in some epic movie. He’s just a prick that needed to be put in his place.
This part of his downfall isn’t on Allie or me, apart from our testimonies. It’s for the lawyers to tear apart. We’ll speak to what we know, Ted will do his job, Tom will offer what he knows, and the rest is legal shit that sounds boring as hell. In other words, we’ll be here when they need us, but now we can start on this family journey together and Tom gets to keep smiling to himself every time he sees Mark and Vivian’s mug shots on the television.
He really is a simple man to please.
The courtroom is full, and Mark isn’t even here today. Joel doesn’t think his trial will start for months. We’re seated in the back, and Allie is beside me, fidgeting.
“Allie,” I whisper while the lawyers address the judge. She wasn’t sure about coming, but we’re doing this. She’s facing him and seeing what happens to people like Ted who do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. It’s called justice, and she’s going to see that not everybody gets away with everything just because they have access to money.
She’s having a hard time coping with the idea of it all, but every day that passes, Allie moves forward one step at a time. Ted was there when Vivian hit her the first time and tried to kill her and then pretended to care about Allie and Jadon. Ted was protecting Vivian and Mark all along for the sake of money. I keep thinking about him holding a weapon against her, and I want to leave more bruises on his face. Maybe dent his nose just a little more than it already is.
