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“I just won’t be bringing anything in for a while and I really wanted to be like the other girls and contribute.”
“Shan, I make enough money from the club to take care of us both, I earn even more when I fight.”
“You’re still gonna fight?” she asks, her huge doe eyes suddenly turning fierce.
I’ll get into that with her another time.
“Don’t be worrying about money, Shan. Do what you want to do. Take the library job, it sounds perfect.”
“You mean it?”
“Of course I mean it. If it makes you happy, I’m happy.”
“And while we’re on the subject of agreeing,” she gives me an adorably awkward smile.
“I promised my uncle that we’d eat once a week down at the reservation.”
“I told you before. I don’t want to change who you are or where you came from. Shan, we can eat at the reservation whenever you want. In fact…” I drop her back on her feet and take her hand because rather than explain, I’m gonna show her.
She giggles behind me as I drag her through the yard, toward the border between us and the reservation. “Where are we going?” she asks when I veer right and weave us through the trees. I come to a clearing and stop.
“Here,” I turn her round to face the empty space in front of her.
“What am I looking at?” she stares at the ground.
“This is gonna be our home. Half on the reservation and half on the compound. I spoke to Prez and your uncle about it last night. I’m gonna build us a cabin right here so you’ll always be at home.” Shan turns to look at me, and happy tears fill her eyes right to the top.
“I would always choose with you. I’ve known that since the day I first saw you at the river. I knew you were special then. Special enough for me to give everything up for you.”
I swipe a running tear from her cheek with my thumb.
“And this is me telling you that you’ll never have to. We start building work tomorrow.” I smile, knowing that this will be the distraction I need from combing the country trying to track down Hawker.
“And I’m enlisting that big brother of yours helping.” I spin her around and pull her back against my chest, resting my chin on her shoulder so we can look at the space where I’ll make her a home.
“Do you think she can see how happy I am?” she asks “My mom I mean. I read the letters from him, he loved her so much, Troj. She wanted me to have that, and I really hope that she can see us now to know that we’ve got it.”
“I think she sees us, Shan,” I tell her, placing a kiss on her cheek.
“I just really hope she don’t see what I’m gonna do to her daughter when I take her down to the river where all this started.” I pull back and smirk.
Shaniya turns herself around in my arms, her eyes and mouth wide with shock.
“Troj!” she slaps me in the chest. “That’s only if you can catch me,” she bursts into laughter before she takes off, running through the trees in the direction of the river.
I give her a few seconds head start, taking the time to wonder how I got so lucky.
Our story could so easily have ended at the river three years ago. We could have been forbidden souls forever, destined to suffer a life apart.
But my girl fought through hell, and thanks to her we made it. We suffered apart, but now we’re together, we’ll suffer no more.
Because something as perfect as us may have been forbidden, but we’ve proven that it can’t be defeated.
“All I’m asking is that you keep him occupied for a few extra hours. He’s starting to drive me crazy.” My daughter looks at me hopefully. Giving me those eyes that she’s learned in a very short time can have me bending to almost anything.
“Me and Nyx are solid on this one, sweetheart.” I shake my head at her. “I get that he’s being a little overbearing at the moment but he just wants this to be right. He damn near gives himself an aneurysm worrying about you and that little boy.” My eyes fall down to where my grandson is pushing a toy Harley round on the floor and blowing raspberries to reciprocate the noise of an engine.
“Dad, there has to be something you can give him to keep him off my back. He won’t even let me go grocery shopping anymore.”
