Page 47 of Fractured Destiny

Until a few years ago, I’d never watched two people love each other without somebody leaving or destroying everything in their wake. Diego and Vanessa are the closest thing I’ve ever had to a blueprint. Now that things have shifted between me and Noa, I’m wondering if I can walk the walk.

I glance at the clock. Good. He’ll be at the security office. He answers on the second ring. “Brother.”

“Diego.” Hearing his voice allows me to relax.

“Levi okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Noa okay?”

I scrub a hand over my face before dropping onto the couch. “I don’t know.”

He waits. One of Diego’s many gifts is he never fills silence just to hear himself talk.

“How the hell do you know if you’re good enough for somebody?” I tip my head back on the cushion and stare at the ceiling.

A beat passes. “You don’t.”

I groan. “Come on.”

“Well,” he laughs, “you asked.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.” His chair creaks on the other end of the line. “Nobody wakes up knowing how to build a family, Lake. You show up. You screw up. You own it. You do better next time. One day you look around and realize you’ve built something worth protecting.”

I lean forward, elbows on my knees. “How’d you figure your shit out?”

“I didn’t.” He says it so simply I almost laugh. “Vanessa called me on my bullshit. We took parenting classes. Read books. Asked questions. I sat on the nursery floor plenty of nights trying to figure out why one of the girls was crying. Half the time I guessed wrong.”

“You?” I smile despite myself.

“Oh, I was spectacularly wrong.” He chortles. “But I stayed. Started seeing a counselor every Saturday.”

His confession catches me off guard. “You have?”

“You inspired me.”

I sit back. I’d never have guessed.

He doesn’t let me stay surprised. “So what’s really going on?”

I stare at the dark television across the room.

“There was a moment tonight.” I swallow. “Noa and I kissed and it started to go further.”

He doesn’t interrupt.

“Then she told me everything. A part of her life she was scared for me to know.”

“Heavy?”

I nod before remembering he can’t see me. “It’s a lot, Diego.”

“I figured.”

His acknowledgement surprises me. “You figured? How?”