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“Why not?”
“So, you’ll help us?”
“Yes, we’ll help you,” I respond.
“Can we talk,” Brooklyn asks me, and I immediately agree, pushing back from the table so we can talk privately. We make our way back to my suite, straight into the nursery, and close the door, shutting out everyone else but us.
“You were married! You got married, had a wife and son, and became a widower, all within nine months. How could you keep that from me, from everyone? All of those years, your brothers couldn’t figure out why you wouldn’t practice medicine. And now it all makes sense.”
“I was so confident in my skills. I wasn’t worried at all because medicine wouldn’t fail me. When I needed it the most, it wasn’t enough. It let me down, and because of that, I lost my wife and son within seconds of each other. I tried to practice afterward and became angrier when it failed and resentful when it worked, so I just stopped. I was a father for less than thirty minutes, and it was the most amazing thirty minutes of my life. And just like you, Brooklyn, I closed myself off to anyone until you came along. And as much as I loved Sophia, it doesn’t hold a candle to how much I love you. If I were to lose you, I would not survive it, Brooklyn, and I am sorry, baby, so sorry for holding back from you.”
Brooklyn
I waited moreyears than I care to remember to hear those words. It was worth the wait. However, I am not sure it matters now. He might be a day late and a dollar short saying those words.
“I don’t expect you just to be okay with us or let there be an us after all this time. And if all we have is our daughter, I will make our parenting as easy for you as possible. But I am over-denying how I feel,” he says.
“What are you going to do about Alondra?”
“I am going to try to help her. I am sure Josh is already making phone calls. I promised Sophia, and even though I couldn’t keep it to her. I will help her sister and son. I will say I feel all kinds of stupid not knowing she had a son or a twin. I was young and dumb and let my hormones do my thinking for me.”
“We have all been there, Aryan,”
“Maybe, but I am just realizing that I’ve stayed there,”
“So fix it, Aryan,”
“I can try, Brooklyn. Will you let me fix it?”
“Um, I need to think about it.”
“Will you stay here tonight? I can sleep in the spare room or the nursery,”
“If I stay, I will sleep in the nursery. I love that you put a bed there. Can you even fit in that bed?” I ask since I have never seen him in any bed smaller than a king, and even then, he barely fits.
“It is specially made to be an extended-length full-size bed,” he says, and I nod my head in understanding because all the Gideon men are huge.
“I should have known,” I start but get cut off by one of the brothers calling for Aryan.
“We are going to put them up in the pool house for the night, and I called the General to see if there is anything he can do to help,” Josh says as soon as we step back into the main room.
“And I called Doone to see if they can get a new identity once we get them clearance to stay in the country,” Atlas says.
“Also, I looked up the boy’s grandfather, and he is bad news. He rose to power while you were stationed there. He took advantage of the state of unrest the country was in to remove anyone in his way. Now, anything illegal that happens within a thousand miles of the mainland has to go through him. He uses the island to hide whatever illegal contraband until it can be moved to its final destination. Your late wife married his son and only child, and he was taken out by the family of one of the victims.
The retribution Nabeck unleashed worked two-fold: it was payback, and it scared off anyone who thought to challenge him. He thought his lineage was going to end with him and began grooming his second in command until he ran into her, and now he is burning a path trying to find her so he can bring his grandson and only heir home,” Jabarri says.
“If he gets to that baby, he will twist him. It looks like Alondra has done a great job raising him. I wonder how long she has been in the U.S.”
“I have been here for almost eighteen months and have been looking for you the entire time. I am not great with computers, and money wouldn’t allow me to hire a .. P.J. Is that what they are called?” she asks, confusing us all.
“I think she means P. I.,” Josh says.
“Well, that makes better sense,” Joseph says.
“It was during one of my appointments for re-registration that I picked up the magazine and saw your brother. I know Gideon is a pretty popular last name, but then I saw the picture of your entire family on the opening night of the restaurant and school and recognized Aryan. You may never have seen me, but I have seen you several times. I grabbed Salove and took our last couple of dollars, bought our bus tickets, and headed straight here.”
“A bus from where?”
