Page 203 of Broken Destiny

I smiled, kneeling beside her and brushing a strand of hair from her face.

“This is Pappy.”

Her eyes widened.

“Like Pappy Jack?”

A smile tugged at my lips.

“Yes, sweetheart. Like Pappy Jack.”

Emma looked back at Randall cautiously before stepping closer.

The second he lifted her into his arms, she melted into them, and his face crumpled completely. He held her against his chest so carefully that my own eyes began to sting.

After settling the children back at the breakfast table, Randall leaned down and kissed each of them gently before turning to me.

“Jiya,” he said, his voice thick. Then he paused, looking down at the floor as if searching for the right words. “There are no words to express how I feel. What I thought of you and what?—”

I reached out and took his hand before he could finish.

He looked up at me.

“Have you had your medicines, Randall?” I asked softly.

A slow, tender smile spread across his face.

“I will now,” he said quietly.

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a gentle embrace, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

“I will now, my child.”

Two weeks later,my cell phone rang.

I glanced at the screen.

An unfamiliar number flashed back at me.

I hesitated before answering.

“Hello?”

A pause followed.

“Hi, this is Eleanor.”

For a second, I didn’t recognize the voice. It was too gentle to belong to the woman who had once spoken to me with cold certainty and quiet judgment.

There was a tremor in her tone, the kind that comes from exhaustion and too many sleepless nights.

“I was wondering whether you would be able to come over so that I could talk to you,” she said quietly. “Or… I could drive down to you.”

A tight knot formed in my stomach immediately.

I did not want her in my home. That space belonged to my children now—to our peace, to our healing, our future. I did not trust her, and I certainly did not want her knowing where we lived.

“I’ll come over to you,” I replied.