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Her words echo in my head long after their house has faded from the mirrors.
He will always find us.
A fresh tear rolls down my cheek. “I didn’t run away,” I stammer, “they kicked me out.”
Damien’s quiet, staring straight ahead as he drives through the small town. His jaw ticks for a moment before he finally speaks. "I should have never asked you to come here."
I don’t respond, there's no reason. Instead, I watch him as we drive. The teenager I met years ago is nowhere to be found. Yet, I don't see the drug dealer Daddy did,either. Instead, I see a man. A man who defended me. A man who supports me even when I don't deserve it. A man that could be a father.
Eventually, I turn back toward the window, watching as we wind along the narrow roads. Rather than the sandy beaches of the coast surrounding us, thick trees from the center of the island flank both sides of the road.
Finally, after what feels like forever, Damien reaches over and squeezes my hand. “I have to make a pit stop before we head back home.”
Home.
For the first time, it actually feels like it could be my home. With my free hand, I cradle my stomach as I watch the dense forest pass by. Our home. Our ohana.
I squeeze Damien’s hand tighter, leaning back in my seat. Soon he's parking in front of a large construction zone. He shifts in his seat to face me.
“Um, you can stay here if you want.” There's something different about his tone, more hesitant than normal. “It should only take a minute or so.”
“What is this place?”
All of the trees have been cleared, and the red soil leveled. A massive concrete foundation has been poured, a few long posts reaching up into the sky mark future walls.
He runs his hand through his hair. “It's going to be an orphanage.”
“You're building an orphanage?”
“Yeah, um,” he glances away and swallows, “my mom died when I was young. My dad was in and out of jail. If it wasn't for my Tutu, I would have wound up in the system or on the streets. She was the one who raised me and my brother. We didn't have much, but she was always there . . . When I heard you had a family, I just wanted to bring you back, give you something I never had.” There’s a vulnerability in his tone, something real, not the stiff, controlled tone he usually uses. “I never thought I was fortunate as a kid, but I want to give back . . . For those who have less than I did.”
I smile, blinking back tears. But these are different tears, happy tears. I sit up straighter. “Show me.”
A nervous smile stretches across his lips. “Okay.” He squeezes my hand once before releasing it and hopping out. Coming around to the passenger side, he opens my door and extends his arm. “Follow me.”
For the next hour, he guides me around the construction site, describing what it will eventually look like and talking to the foreman to make sure everything is on schedule. Every detail. The use for every single room, he knows it all.
“You really care about all of this,” I muse, standing on a rocky outcropping beside the future site.
Damien shrugs, stepping up a rock to stand beside me. “A lot of kids don't have anything. I am extremely fortunate for everything I have now. I just want to help give back to our people.”
A slight breeze blows by, rustling through the surrounding trees. It cools the mid-afternoon heat on my bare arms. Beside me, Damien looks out over the island. Even with his sleeves rolled up and top couple buttons of his shirt undone, revealing his tattooed chest, he looks like a business mogul. Not a philanthropist or someone who should care about a bunch of kids he doesn't even know.
But he does.
This building is proof of that.
Something inside my chest shifts, like a boulder rolling off a field of flowers, letting the sun finally saturate their petals. I don't deserve him. Not at all.
But he will make a great father. A voice inside my head screams that it’s all fake, that I can’t have him. But I push it away. He never has to know. I wrap my arms around my stomach. I can have this, just us three.No one has to know how dirty I am. How bad I am.
“Are you cold?” He comes up behind me and rubs my arms.
“Huh?” I turn my head to the side trying to catch a glimpse of his face as he hovers right behind me. “No.” But I sink into his warm embrace.
My heart slows.
Safe.
