“He has never had this,” he says as he removes one of his hands and places it over my heart. “He has never owned your heart, Erin, and I do. You have handed me the most sacred part of your body and he has never had it. And he never will. Every part of you is mine.”
“You’re right,” I say as I tilt my head and lean into his soft touch. “I didn’t know what love was until I fell in love with you. I am in so deep and drowning in your love. If anything were to happen to you, I don’t think I could survive.”
The thought of losing Adam makes me shake inside.
“You will never lose me, Erin. Never.”
He takes his hand away from my heart and gently traces my bottom lip with his thumb.
“You know what the saddest part about this whole thing is?”
I shake my head.
“It’s simple, really. He doesn’t even realize what he’s lost. He has lost the strongest and the bravest woman I know. My girl is a survivor. And she did it all on her own. I love you, Erin and once this is over I am going to show you and our little girl more love and happiness than the two of you could ever imagine.”
Among all of those beautiful words, there’s only one part I disagree with.
“I didn’t do it all on my own, Adam. You rescued me. You showed me what love is and my heart will always be yours.”
His gaze searches my face and with a slight tremble to his lips he tilts my head and kisses me. Here we are in the middle of the police station parking lot baring our souls to one another and sealing it with a promise that we will survive.
“Busted by the cops,” Adam laughs as Luke and two police officers knock on the window.
“I hate to interrupt that porn show in there, man, but these officers are the ones who will be following you two home and keeping an eye on the house.”
I know my face is every color of red right now as I crawl back over into my seat.
“You’ll be in an unmarked car just like we were told, right?”
“Yes sir, we will. You won’t even know we’re there.”
“Appreciate that. We have a little girl who knows nothing about this and I would like to keep it that way.”
“We understand, sir.”
Adam nods his understanding as well. We say our goodbyes to Luke and pull out and head for what I hope is a very short time of being cooped up in our home.
************
“They’d better find that asshole like, now, because this is no way for any of us to live. If I had a gun I would shoot that prick myself.” Shelby yells when we tell her everything that is going on.
“Trust me, I would too,” I reply.
“What did they say about Sierra going to school?”
“She is still going to go to school and we have to act like nothing is wrong around her, Shelby. She has no idea who Joel even is. She knows she has a real father out there somewhere because of her grandparents, but they never talk about him and she has never brought him up. I sure as hell don’t want her to find out about him this way.”
Slumping back in the couch, I think long and hard about this horrendous situation Joel has put us all in, but the one who could get hurt by this the most is my daughter. Doesn’t he care about her at all? She’s his flesh and blood; his child. When the day comes that she does ask about her biological father, what the hell do I say?
“Hey, what has you in such deep thought over there?” asks Shelby, her anger softened a little.
“This is going to kill her when she gets older and asks about him, you know that, right?”
“No. I don’t know that. What I do know is, you are one hell of a good mother and Adam is one hell of a good man, and when and if that time comes you will figure out together the best way to tell her about him.”
My eyes start to form tears as my baby sister pulls me into her arms and holds me.
“This is so damn scary, Shelby. No matter what Joel has done to me in the past, my heart hurts for the man he has become.”
“I know, sis. I know.”
“So where are Adam and Sierra, anyway?” Shelby asks as are putting together one of the many salads we have made for tonight. Since my lunch plans with Jen were ruined and we are stuck in the house until further notice per orders of Luke and the police, we decided to have everyone over to our house in hopes of getting everyone’s mind off of what’s going on.
“He’s teaching her how to play pool in the basement,” I answer as I flutter around the kitchen.
“I’m happy for you both, Erin. And you know Grandpa and Grandma would be, too.”
A feeling of warmth spreads through my body at the mention of our grandparents. I do know the one thing they both wanted desperately was for both Shelby and me to be happy.