Page 73 of In All My Dreams

I stand there debating the best course of action.

Do I wait for the cops? Or do I risk angering my mother by showing myself to her? I’m still debating which choice is the better of the two when I hear Georgia laugh. It’s not her normal laugh; it’s darker, almost sinister.

“If you kill my daughter, then you’re killing his daughter, too,” Georgia tells my mother.

My heart ceases to beat inside of my chest when Georgia’s words fully process.

I feel as though I’ve been shot. Pierced with an arrow straight through the heart. Every emotion known to man flits through my body. Anger, confusion, elation, until I’m left with nothing but this overwhelming, nearly crippling fear.

Auden is my daughter, and her grandmother is trying to kill her.

“He can make another,” I hear my mother say, her voice cold and completely unrecognizable.

“NO!” Georgia’s scream of terror rips through the air, followed by the loud, distinct sound of something heavy falling into the water.

I fight my way out of the willow tree, its fronds whipping me in the face from all directions as I try to escape them.

Georgia is kneeling at the edge of the dock, staring into the dark water.

“Georgia!” I yell, running toward her as fast as I can.

“She jumped into the lake. She jumped into the lake with our baby girl, Ian! I can’t see anything! I can’t find them!” Georgia screams at me, her voice cracking with both fear and frustration as tears stream down her face.

“I won’t let my mother take her from us,” I spit out as I rush to Georgia’s side.

I stop short when someone thrashes in the water closer to me than the dock. Turning on my heels, I rush into the lake, beggingmy body to go faster as I fight against the fire burning in my lungs.

I couldn’t save Irene, but I’ll be damned if I lose Auden in this lake, too.

The thrashing stops, and the water goes still.

“Ian! There!” I spin in the water and turn toward Georgia, who is now in the lake herself. Between us, a flash of something glowing emerges.

Auden bursts through the water, gasping for breath. “Mommy!” she screams before she falls into a coughing spell so hard I worry her ribs might break.

I kick my legs and swim toward her, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her close to me. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” I tell her as I hold her small, shivering body against mine. “Hold on, baby girl. Hold on.”

She wraps her arms around my neck and holds on tight as I swim us both to shore. Georgia appears before us as I finally hit the point where I can fully stand in the cold, dark water of the lake.

“You saved her.” Georgia sobs before throwing her arms around both Auden and I. She kisses Auden over and over again before turning her attention to me. “You saved my girl.”

I pull her close, wrapping one arm around Georgia while Auden clings tightly to me in my other.

“No,” I say, clutching both my girls in my arms. “We savedourgirl.”

Georgia cries harder. “I’m so sorry, Ian. I’m so sorry I kept her from you. This isn’t the way I wanted you to find out. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

I pull her closer, kissing her hard instead of responding with words.

I can’t say it’s okay, because it’s not. We will have this discussion another day.

But at this moment, I don’t care about the lies and secrets we’ve let fester between us. All I care about is that they are both safe, here in my arms. The rest we can figure out later.

“Ian?” Auden asks as the three of us stand chest-deep in the dark waters of the lake.

“Yes?” I answer. I’m not sure how much Auden caught of this new revelation.

“Did the bad one go away?” she asks, her voice full of fear, which slices right through my heart.

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