Page 135 of The Moment We Know

When he was done, she took a deep breath and said, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes. You don’t need me to fall apart right now.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “Besides, I have a close, personal relationship with God, so I know everything is going to be … fine.”

David blinked at her. “You have a close, personal relationship with God? Since when, Mom?”

“Oh, since you were barely five and knocked out your two front teeth.”

He groaned, shaking his head at the memory; the worst part had been his replacement teeth not coming in for almost two years.

Her expression turned to one of motherly concern, and she returned to the original topic of conversation. “I imagine Paige was really upset after hearing all this.”

He really didn’t want to talk about Paige right now, but there was no way to avoid it. “Yes.”

Valerie nodded sympathetically. “She probably feels Jacob’s abuse on a level that we can’t, which means she understands it better and will be an invaluable source of support for him. And for you, too, of course.”

David didn’t respond to that, because he was still in such turmoil over the blindness he’d displayed at what had been happening right under his fucking nose … because his focus had been elsewhere. And that deep shame was eating away at all the joy he’d been feeling for the past few months, corrupting it.

“So, what happens next with Ashley and her abusive, asshole boyfriend?” Valerie asked, drawing him out of his bleak thoughts.

David told her what Lauren had said would probably happen with her report and the possibility of a Plan B, and when he was finished, Valerie once again took a deep breath. “Okay.”

Shortly after, he took his leave and drove home to find Casey and Jacob watching the tail end of Monsters, Inc. To David’s surprise, Jacob jumped up off the couch and ran over, and David immediately picked him up and squeezed hard. The details of the meeting with Lauren were still terribly fresh in his mind, and seeing his little boy, now with the knowledge of what he’d been through, almost brought David to his knees.

“I can’t breathe,” Jacob half-laughed, half-wheezed.

“You can’t? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Reluctantly, David released him a little. “Is that better?”

Jacob nodded, before laying his head on David’s shoulder. Then, essentially one-handed, David paid Casey and walked her down to the parking lot to watch until she drove away, all while Jacob clung to him.

Back in the loft, David turned off the TV and most of the lights, then carried Jacob to the bathroom for a quick bath. While the water was running, they fell into their nightly routine, with David grabbing clean underwear and pajamas from Jacob’s room, and Jacob picking out the toys he wanted from the bucket under the sink. When David returned to the bathroom, Jacob was in the process of peeing, which didn’t take long. He quickly flushed the toilet, then began taking his clothes off, and David watched, noting that a great deal of Jacob’s self-consciousness was gone.

Once Jacob was in the tub, David picked up the small pile of clothes, and as he was going through all the pockets and checking to make sure they were empty, his fingers closed around a small object. Pulling it out, he saw that it was a shiny black rock, similar to the one Paige had ‘loaned’ him a few nights ago, and which he still hadn’t returned.

Seeing the rock in David’s hand, Jacob became still and for a brief moment, looked … uncertain.

Pretending like he didn’t know what it was, David asked, “What’s this?”

After a brief pause, Jacob answered, “That’s my crystal.”

“It’s pretty cool.”

Jacob nodded, then with more animation, said, “It came out of a volcano.”

“Really?”

“Uh huh. Lauren let me pick it. She said it has powers.”

“What kind of powers?”

“Powers to protect. It helps you if you’re sad, or scared. It helps you in the future, too.”

“Wow.” David kneeled down next to the tub and set the crystal on the porcelain ledge. “Well, you better make sure you don’t lose it, then. Otherwise you’ll have to climb into a volcano to find another one, right?”

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