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I glance at Lillith, the worried look aimed at our son, and reply, "That's not your home. Where we are going is your home."
"My name is Niro. What's your name?"
Niro. I like it. "My name is Killian Cross."
I’m not sure what a father does or what he says when he has lost a chunk of his son's life, and you meet him for the first time.
What do I say? Hey kid, I'm your father, and your mother kept you from me because she was afraid I'd kill her, but here I am, uprooting you from everything you have ever known because I showed up.
"Why do you wear a mask? Are you afraid people will think you're ugly?"
I almost choke on my spit and cough.
"Niro! That is not nice. Y–"
I hold up my hand, silencing Lillith. "I had an accident, so I wear a mask."
"How come?"
I grin. "Because I look different, and where I come from, people don't like people who look different."
"That's mean."
I glance at Lillith, but she averts her gaze when I answer, "I can promise you, Niro, I have seen worse."
* * *
"So she's alive,"Agnes says, wringing her hands together.
"Obviously."
I pull up the security access system of the house, making sure Lillith and Niro have access but, more importantly, cannot escape without me noticing.
"She's…different."
Agnes noticed the same thing I did when I found out. Lillith is not the same woman I married. She has conformed to the way of life on the mainland. Gone is the privileged woman I married, and in her place is a survivor.
"I guess it’s a good thing that you never announced her passing. You felt it. Didn't you?"
I felt my soul evaporate.
"Felt what?"
But I know what she means, even if I refused to admit it. I kept Lillith alive inside my heart. To me, Lillith never died. There was no use in telling everyone a part of me died that day. That she jumped into the depths of the ocean because she couldn't stomach another moment with me. I was inside my head and stupid for thinking I could until I figured out how I felt about her. About us.
In those dark moments, I wondered where her body was. Nothing and no one mattered to me but finding her that day. Hours and days scouring the ocean, hoping for a clue, a body, something that would lead me to her because I refused for us to end that way.
It is a shame she felt that it was the only way out, but I didn’t give her enough reason to think otherwise. I know that. And now I know the truth. She was alive and living a life without me–– with someone else.
Like some cruel joke.
A big kept secret.
"You knew that she was alive because you two are connected."
I snort. "Yeah, she was connected to my best friend and his cock."
Agnes straightens a pin in her graying hair. "You think she left you for him?"
