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ChapterOne
John
Eleven Years Ago
Oh, God. This is it.
This was the day my life crumbled to pieces.
From the rickety back porch of my old house, I watched as frigid rain lashed the small farm in all directions. I didn’t have to think too hard about it to know that this season’s crops that my wife and I had pinned all our hopes on were…gone.
A lightning bolt struck overhead, lacing the sky with light for a moment, then disappeared before rolls of thunder crashed over the rugged landscape.
The rain pounded the ground in sheets of white torrents, digging rivers into the loose soil plowed up for planting and flattening the crops already ready for reaping. Retreating into the house, I skirted around the buckets on the floor, almost overflowing with water from the leaking roof, and went to the bedroom, lit by a lamp, where my heavily pregnant wife was waiting.
“How bad is it?” Emily asked while rubbing her belly.
“I—” I said, sitting at the end of the bed and taking her swollen feet on my lap to rub them. I didn’t want to worry Emily, not at this stage of her pregnancy, and certainly not when everything else was going to hell. Even while I knew it was gone, I could not tell her that. “—couldn’t see much. I’ll get a clearer picture when the rain lightens up.”
The rain battered the roof, and I winced when I heard another shingle shatter. This house was a termite-ridden artifact still resting on rotten bones. I should not have brought anyone to live in this death trap, much less believe I could raise a family on this land. It was a few rounds of crop rotation from being barren.
“Remind me to check the nursery list,” Emily replied. “We need to get more supplies.”
“I know, sweetheart,” I replied, feeling my stomach cramp at knowing we were on the brink of utter despair.
I had to get us out of this place and into somewhere better. I could not leave us toeing this line because we would fall over it one day. If we didn’t change—ifIdidn’t change—we would never get out of this rut.
“Sure,” I replied.
A horrendous crash had me jumping while Emily gasped, and I placed her feet on the bed before running to the window. The backyard shed was now a hunk of shingle, rusted metal, and buried tools.
My gut sunk even further when blue lightning streaked across the sky, and the flash of light illuminated the sky briefly—right before a bolt struck the tractor, and something exploded.
I was not outside to feel the shrapnel hit me, but I knew right there—things had not been the best the last few months, no, this year, but now, there was no coming back from this.
Resting my throbbing temple on the cold glass windowpane, I sucked in a breath, the smell of sodden earth rising from the ground. The idea I had let ruminate in the back of my mind for the past month surged to life again, and I didn’t know if this was a sign that I had to take that chance and push it forward or what, but it was the only way I could see out of this mess.
The worst thing was that it would get worse before it got better. Hopefully, Emily and my child will be there with me when it does.
Returning to the bedroom, I felt like my feet were tied down with buckets of lead, and her anxious look did not make it better. Sitting near her this time, I took her hand. “Emily, there is something I need to tell you, a chance I need to take, and I have to do it, no matter how long of a shot it is or how long it will take.”
She swallowed. “What is it, John?”
“I need to leave this place to find something better and…I know for this part, I won’t be able to take you with me,” I said tenderly. “But this will only be for the best.”
“W-what are you saying?” Emily said, her blue eyes wide with wonder.
I leaned in to rest my forehead on hers and whispered, “Please, trust me…and pray this works because it is the only shot we have.”
* * *
Present Day
The pouring rain—that had grounded my jet for the night—washing down the expansive windows at the Waco Airport reminded me of that fateful night I had decided to change my life.
The freak storm raging outside these four walls could continue until the next day. Since I had not anticipated this, I was waiting in the airport coffee shop for the nearest Hilton Hotel to send me confirmation for my emergency booking.
The room was almost empty except for the barista and this petite woman sitting across from me that I’d been trading glances with. She was an elegant beauty with dark brown, curly hair piled on her head. Sitting profile from me, I could only see the slope of her jaw and sensual pout.
