I admired my son’s patience as he waited for her to ramble on and on, both of us pretending that we understood her baby twang. Once she was done and I could get a word in edgewise I rounded them up for bath time.
I’m sure they’d already eaten because I was a little late getting home and it was way past their dinnertime. I also knew that my wife had waited for me to come home before she had her own dinner. I ran the bath for my son before taking my daughter into her own room to set her up as well.
Junior doesn’t had started tending to his own baths in the last couple of month, something I was still not too sure about, so I kept my ears tuned until I heard his mother go in to sit on the chair I’d set up in there for her. She was getting too big to be comfortable sitting for that long in the toilet seat.
I let my daughter douse me with half her bathwater while playing submarines, made sure she was clean and took her out of the tub to which she objected. “You’ll turn into a prune princess. Let’s go read your favorite book.” She clapped her hands and squealed as we headed to her room.
I got her powdered and dressed before tucking her into bed and sitting next to her for story time. Down the hall I could hear her mother going through much the same thing with our son. Poor kid was out within ten minutes and I felt guilty.
I make it a point to be here every evening. The housekeeper slash babysitter leaves every evening at five and I don’t like leaving my family here alone after she’s gone. But today couldn’t be helped. I’d gone back to work after they’d begged me to return, apparently not many people had my expertise. I knew it was because of friends in high places that they’d called me back.
I’d turned them down at first because of all the travelling, but they’d worked around that. They’d let the new kids on the block handle the travel and I could stay home with my family. Today I’d had the meeting from hell, something new was jumping off in the IC world that needed my special attention and I’d wanted to get a head start since it was a viable threat to the country.
I kissed her forehead and felt all the love I had in me for this little person. When she sighed and cuddled into her pillow, I turned on her nightlight and pulled her door halfway closed so I could hear her if she needed me in the night. I walked into my son’s room where he and my wife were having a conversation instead of reading.
That was their thing, ever since he was his sister’s age. He had a vivid imagination and a million questions. I sat on the bed next to him as his mom sat on the chair she’d pulled up next to his bed. “What’s tonight’s topic of conversation?” You never know with these two.
It could be the conflict in Syria or why he couldn’t have cake for breakfast. “The Native Americans.”
“They’re teaching him that already? What is he twelve, fifteen?” The kid scares me. I’d been a bit of a brain in my day, but he had me beat. I had a feeling his sister was going to be even scarier, she was already asking questions that her daddy had no answers for. Like how the baby got in mommy’s tummy. She wasn’t going to know the answer to that until she was thirty if I had anything to say about it.
“No, we went to the library after I picked him up from school and he chose a book on the Cherokee.” My gut knotted at her casual mention of driving to the school but I didn’t let on in front of our son. I listened to their voices drone on as I dealt with my unease.
I hate for her to drive unless I’m there with her, and I especially do not allow her to get behind the wheel when she’s this pregnant. I still have lingering fears of what had happened to my wife and son all those years ago. I knew for a fact that I wouldn’t survive that hell a second time around.
I didn’t realize Junior was fading until she reached for my hand. I kissed my boy goodnight and followed her out of the room with my hand in hers. I waited until we were in the kitchen and I’d had some time to calm down before broaching the subject.
“You drove?” She was in the middle of taking our food from the warmer and turned to look at me.
“No honey, Lea was having one of her tantrums so she and I took the drive with May. Stop worrying, I promised didn’t I?” I breathed easy again and went to set the table.
“Sit baby I got it.” I took the plates from her hands and placed them at our places on the cozy table in the breakfast nook before going to the fridge to get her favorite juice and something for me to drink. No way was I drinking that concoction. The shit was green. Probably kale or some other nasty shit that has no place in a blender.
We held hands as we ate, something I never thought I’d have again. In fact that was something new between her and I. I’d stopped feeling guilty for all the new things I shared with her. Things that I’d taken for granted the first time around I no longer did.
I stayed on top of her and the kids, and because she knew where I was coming from, it didn’t make her crazy. I keep them close, my little family, seeing to their every need. I watch over the three of them like every day might be the last. I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow that, but I’ve learned to live with what she calls my overprotective gene.
“Mom called today.” She squeezed my hand.
“Oh yeah, what did she have to say?” Her mom and I were not the warmest with each other. She’d had a hard time forgiving me for getting her daughter pregnant at eighteen and she didn’t even know the whole story.
“Dad.” That’s all she needed to say. My hackles rose but I kept my cool.
“What about him?”
“She wanted to know why I won’t go see him.” I looked at her to gauge her mindset. There isn’t much I deny her, and if she wanted this…
“Do you want to?” I’d try to understand if she did, but I can’t say I was happy about the prospect. We hadn’t seen or heard from him in six years and I’d like to keep it that way. We’d come up with a plan back then on how to make him pay for what he’d done without giving our secret away.
She was more worried about me than herself even though I’d been more than willing to pay for what I’d done. It would’ve meant being away from her if they sent me up, something I was sure back then would’ve killed me, but I wanted her to be proud of me. I couldn’t ask her dad to own up to his crimes, if I wasn’t willing, to do the same.
She was the one in the end who convinces me that I’d suffered enough and she didn’t need me to play the martyr, her words. In the end she’d called him and told him she was okay. I sat there and listened while she lied to him.
She told him that she’d left on her own accord because she’d learned something about him that had upset her. He believed her when she said that she’d been receiving secret messages, because he too had received the same.
She told him to call off the search and come up with a story unless he wanted her to go to the newspapers and tell them the story. I had no idea that she’d planned to that anyway. I’d still been trying to figure out how to make him pay, when she took it out of my hands.
He’d cleared things up with the cops, telling them that she’d gone off with friends and had no idea that there was a search going on for her. That her phone had been lost and that’s why no one could reach her. At least that part was true, I’d smashed her phone that first night and dropped it down a storm drain.
Once the coast was clear, she’d asked me to trust her to go back alone. it was the hardest thing I’d ever done since losing my family, but I owed her that much. I prayed from the minute she left my sight.
That night she called and told me to turn on the TV. It was all over the news. Not only the fact that he was charged with insider trading but also the fact that he’d killed my wife and son. I sat there in astonishment as they read the report I’d compiled. I didn’t even know she’d taken it.
I watched through tears as she told the reporter why she’d come forward with the story. She kept to the lie that she’d ran off when she learned the truth of what he was and even told them that she was going to marry me. According to her we’d met and struck up a relationship. She wouldn’t tell them anymore than that.
The report was enough to have the authorities looking in the right place and he was going away for a long time if not ever. That night I sat out on the porch as the sun was going down, holding my breath. She could’ve changed her mind anytime between that interview and now, but I was hoping…
I’d fallen all the way in love with her; that was never more obvious than at that moment. I tried to imagine what I would do if she didn’t come back and I couldn’t see it. I’d told myself I would let her go if it’s what she wanted but I couldn’t do it.
I was about ready to go after her when I saw the headlights coming down the little dirt lane that led to the cabin. I was off the porch and running towards her before she came to a stop. I opened her car door and pulled her out and into my arms. “Thank you, you won’t regret this I promise.” And I’d kept that promise ever since.
“Well do you?”
“Do I what?” She took a bite of her roast chicken and hummed with pleasure.