Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
The point was that he cared.
Eason came over then and I stood up, shrugging. “Sorry.”
Priscilla was there too, standing next to Eason. “You can talk?”
I let out a breath. “Yeah. I can talk. And so can she.” Then I looked at Eason. “I think… I think we need some help here.”
“Do you know this girl?” Priscilla asked.
And I nodded. Without hesitation. “I do. She… she’s my little sister.”
Of course, Priscilla was confused, because this little girl and I look nothing alike. But then she looked at Maeko, and Paulo, and Budi, and said, “Oh! You’re all adopted! These are your brothers.” Then she pointed at Eason. “He told me they are your brothers.”
“They are,” I said with a very serious face. “And this is my little sister.” I looked at Eason then. “We need to call Nandy. Romero will know what to do.”
Eason nodded, pulling out his phone. Then he walked away, going outside to talk.
He stayed out there for a long time. When he came back in, there was a woman with him and she had papers. Something from a judge. I don’t know how Romero did it, or what he had to promise to make it happen, but he did make it happen.
And by six o’clock that evening, we were walking home and taking Jilly with us.
I didn’t forget about Maart. I just couldn’t think about him yet. But when Eason opens the door and Maart is standing there, right in front of those gorgeous terrace windows, I am surprised.
And then I am handing Jilly over to Eason, and walking across the floor, and then the next thing I know, Maart’s got his arms around me.
We stay like that for hours, I think.
But the sun doesn’t set, and no one moves, and there is no time, I guess. It’s just an eternal moment that ends with sick hearts being made well again.
He pulls away from me before I let go of him. And I guess it has to be this way. So I take a step back and it’s only now, looking up at him, straight in the eye, that I realize I’m not crying. And neither is he.
Because this was always how it was gonna end between us.
Me here. Him there.
And where we are, and who we’re with, has nothing to do with how much we love each other.
I think that whole thing only took a few seconds, actually. Or time caught up, or something. Because then, suddenly, the room is filled with words, and smiles, and long sighs of relief.
Jilly is back in my arms and we all sign to her like she’s the newest kid in camp and no matter what happens next, we’re on her side.
The ghosts came back so I could find her. They took me to her.
And it hits me now that all this self-reflection with Eason was leading up to this day right here. Leading up to it like it was fate.
Eason called my desire to kill people and to make them pay a sick hate. And he was right.
There is only one way to cure the evil and that’s with kindness.
I can’t change the world. I can’t make any of those sick, powerful people pay.
But I can rescue one little girl.
I can rescue one little kid at a time.
So that’s what I’m gonna do.
CHAPTER 34
I should’ve hugged her more.
I should’ve loved her more.
But the truth is, I couldn’t.
Even after we were free, I couldn’t love them like that. Because I could never shake the feeling that each time they walked away from me, it would be the last time I saw them.
The only way I knew how to show them I cared was to train them. And once I forced Irina to stop training, I didn’t have another way to love her.
I just… didn’t know how.
Paulo, Maeko, and Irina are standing out on the terrace looking out at the sea, talking and laughing and smiling. Irina is standing between them. She’s stepped up onto the lowest railing, gripping the top railing tight, to make herself taller so she can try and look them in the eyes.
Beth is holding a sleeping Jilly, rocking back and forth on her feet as she talks to Budi, who has commandeered Eason’s grill and is making us shark steaks for dinner.
And Eason, having been relegated to the sidelines, stands next to me. Just watching Irina with her former fight mates.
“Can you believe,” I say, turning to him, “that the three of them used to be the same size at one time?” The corner of Eason’s mouth lifts up, but that’s all the reaction I get from him. “Paulo will probably never admit it now, but Irina took him out quite a few times. Maeko too. But…” I pause here, waiting for Eason to look at me. Which he does after several seconds of silence. “But she can’t see it, Eason. Look at them. She can’t see that they’re not children anymore.”