Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70171 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70171 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
But the oldest child, who looked to be about six or so, was more than aware of what was going on.
He was dressed in his Sunday best. He had on a shirt that said ‘Welcome Home, Daddy’ that looked like he’d made it for his father’s impending arrival.
Only, nobody had ever thought that he’d be wearing it for this reason.
I heard someone’s breath catch, and only then realized that it was mine.
Tears were leaking down my cheek, and my breath caught every few seconds or so, causing Jonah to wrap his hand around the back of my neck and squeeze.
They slowly made their way to where the flag-covered coffin lay, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was holding it together by sheer force of will. Force of will in the form of two small babies that were looking at her for strength.
They made it to the coffin and I saw her waver. Saw her eyes fill with tears. Saw her shoulders droop, her body sag, and her arms shake.
The baby in her arms bobbed, and I saw the moment that she wasn’t going to make it.
I tensed.
The hand at the back of my neck left, and all of a sudden, I heard the seat belt clink as Jonah stood in a rush.
“Let me off the plane.” Jonah rushed to the flight attendant.
“Sir, there are no steps to get off…” the flight attendant said. “And it’s against…”
“That woman is about to lose it,” he said. “That baby is teetering in her arms.”
The woman had been watching right along with us. She knew just as well as I did that the woman wouldn’t hold out for much longer.
“Let him off,” I heard a deep voice say.
The pilot.
I’d seen him welcoming us on board earlier.
He was an older man with graying black hair. His eyes were hard, though.
“But Captain Alto…” the head flight attendant said. “There could be repercussions.”
“I’ll deal with those,” Captain Alto said firmly. “Let him off.”
Then the plane doors were opening.
Something made me look back, and what I saw had my heart dropping down somewhere between my feet.
There was another man standing at the back of the plane. One that had looked like he was about to demand the same thing of the flight attendant.
Only, he looked rough and battered and didn’t look like he could help much.
The man was tall, built…and broken.
His eyes, though. Those would haunt me for the rest of my life.
One look into them and I knew that something terrible had happened to him.
But my eyes once again left the poor man and went to the window.
The limo driver was watching helplessly as the woman’s silent tears had turned into bone-wracking sobs. As she’d gone from holding it together to broken and battered.
Jonah’s tall, strong form made it to the woman in time for the woman to sway on her feet.
Jonah scooped up the baby in her arms, hooked his arm around the woman’s waist, and held her steady as she began to cry.
That was when the rain started to fall.
It was the perfect ending to a rather shitty day.
But my husband didn’t flinch.
And when the small boy in his welcome home outfit curled into Jonah’s side, too, he took his weight as well.
It was beautiful and tragically sad and only proved to me that Jonah wasn’t the man that he portrayed to the world.
If he was…would he have stood there while three strangers cried on him in the pouring rain? No, no he wouldn’t have.
Chapter 10
Why do women wear underwear? Because it’s the law. All manholes must be covered while not in use. Look it up in the city’s by-laws. Number 4 (b)(2).
-Pace to Jonah
Jonah
I pushed open the door to my place and swept my hand out in a ‘come in’ gesture.
She walked past me carefully, being sure not to brush her shoulder along my chest, and took a look around.
I was soaked to the bone, so it was no wonder that she wouldn’t want to touch me.
She hadn’t said a word since we’d made it into the airport after checking to make sure that I was okay.
Her eyes were swollen and red from crying, and apparently while I’d been gone, she’d given the Hacker a piece of her mind when the woman had complained about the long wait to disembark the plane.
Her face moved in all directions, taking everything in.
I wasn’t sure if the last time she’d been in my house if she’d looked around or not, but this time, it felt completely different than the last.
This time she was my wife, and she was looking at her new home.
Last time she’d been a…friend?
“I like the ceilings,” she said softly. “And your cat is on top of that beam right there.”
I looked up and, sure enough, my cat was on the beam that stretched from one side of the room to the other.