Page 500 of Once Upon a Fable

If only that were true.

If only I could trust in that.

But even after everything that’d happened between us, I wasn’t entirely sure Kas had the faculties to even want this life. A life with people who had once so wronged him.

Fear crushed me, but I held my chin high. “Goodnight, Tony.”

Searching my eyes and finding only resolution, he finally nodded. Shrugging out of his blazer, he placed it over my shoulders. “So you don’t catch a cold.” His unfamiliar smell and body heat settled into me. “Goodnight, Gemma. Stay safe.” He stepped off the curb, glancing toward his SUV in the distance. “You’ll...you’ll call me the moment you find him?”

I nodded.

“Okay then...” Grabbing his keys from his pants pocket, he shrugged. “I’m sorry again.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.” He spread his hands, the keys dangling from his fingers. “See,thisis why I still believe he’d be great on a recovery channel. It’s not just the people who are found that struggle but the people who were left behind. The ones who hope they can heal the victims who come home.” He gave me a watery smile. “I’ve searched online. Ever since Isabella returned, I’ve done everything in my power to be exactly what she needs, but...that’s the thing. I don’tknowwhat she needs. I want to give her space but not feel like she doesn’t have someone to turn to. I want to shower her in affection but not make her relive what happened.”He glanced at the dark forest as if Kas was out there, listening. “I need someone who has lived it. Who put their own life on the line to protect those he loved. I need to learn how to be better, to be more empathetic, to know how to repair my baby girl so she can behappy. God, I only want her to be happy.”

Tears I couldn’t stop rolled down my cheeks, stinging my eyes. “That’s what Kas wants too. His only purpose in life is to save those who’ve been preyed on the most.”

“In that case...when you find him. Tell him I’ll personally back any venture he wants to do. I’ll finance whatever he needs. He could be the hero for many, not just for my daughter.”

I sucked in a shaky breath.

Thanks to Tony, I’d now seen how trafficking affected everyone. I’d seen the very location where such defilement took place. I’d witnessed the healing from a boy who might never be whole, and now I stood before a father who was broken because of something he couldn’t have foreseen or prevented.

Kas was right.

Theydidneed him.

The survivors needed him, their families needed him,I need him.

“Goodnight.” Tony gave me one last wave, climbed into his SUV, and drove away.

Leaving me alone in the dark.

Barefoot on the curb.

Worry all around me, despair deep within me, but absolute patience in my heart.

The fear that Kas would run and never stop running faded.

Iknewhim.

He was stronger than that.

Braver than that.

He would return.

He would find me.

Because that was who he was.

A hero to us all, even at the cost of himself.

I sat back down on the curb and waited.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX