Page 107 of The Moment Promised

He watches me with pride in his murderous eyes, letting me go like I’m his trusted disciple.

I walk casually down the street, but once I make the turn so Jason can no longer see me, I run. I don’t have a plan yet. I can’t go to the Walkers house and go back to normal. But I have to do something to protect the people I love, even if it means breaking Finn’s heart to protect him.

My legs burn and my body is weak, but I don’t stop. I can’t mess this up, I peek over my shoulder, and when I face forward again I instantly halt.

“Adeline!” Finn rushes to close the gap between our bodies, he cups my small face in his ginormous hands. I watch as his expression slowly breaks down and shatters. “Thank God. Are you okay?”

I push him away. “Fuck you!” I shout.

I don’t know who’s around and who’s watching. I look over my shoulder, hoping Finn can somehow read between the lines. “Just leave me alone, okay?” I set my eyes on the stop sign because I can’t look at his face any longer, if I do, I’ll break and take it all back.

I’m saving your life, Finn.

“I can’t believe I could’ve ever loved someone likeyou,” I say with hatred, picturing I’m speaking to Jason, and not the man I am so hopelessly in love with. I walk past him, falling to pieces.

“No one is going to kill me,” he says from behind me.

I spin around with wide eyes.

“The men Jason ‘hired’, weren’t hitmen.” He laughs, like having to say that sentence out loud is insane. “They were undercover FBI agents that advertise themselves on some sketchy forum to catch people like Jason.” He slowly walks over to me.

Sirens sound in a distance, and before I know it, red and blue lights are speeding past me, headed straight toward my home.

Toward Jason.

“Finn—” I burst into a million and one pieces, but Finn rushes to me, picking me up before I split one last time.

“I’msosorry, Adeline.” He holds me as if he would never let me go. “I should’ve realized you were gone. I mean, Ididrealize, but it was too late.” He pulls away to assess me, gently running a finger along the dried blood that dripped down my face. He looks like he’s been punched in the gut, and then I see him cry for the first time. I let him pull my body against his.

“You were there with me.” I smile past my tears, remembering what he said to me all those years ago while I was asleep. I peel myself off Finn so I can finally watch the justice I deserve. That my mother deserves. She should be here?—

“Fuck you!” Someone shouts over the dozens of sirens. My mom.

I run back to my street, into view of my house, with Finn on my heels. I watch in complete shock at the scene unfolding before me.

“You are under arrest, mother fucker!” my mom shouts, while police officers lock hand cuffs around Jason’s wrists.

I can see one of the officers is talking, most likely stating the reasons for his arrest and reading him his rights, but all I can focus on is my mother.

I can finally see it now.

Fiery hair blows around her like oxygenated flames, her strength hitting me harder than a semi-truck.

She isn’t this broken person I always made her out to be.

My mother is the strongest, bravest woman I have ever met, and here I stand, watching that very essence of her come alive.

Often times you don’t know a moment is big until after the fact, but I can feel the weight of everything as it plays out.

Jason sitting in the back of a cop car.

The tons of weight dissipating off my shoulders.

Finn’s touch on the small of my back, like he’s subtly telling me he’s here, feeling it too.

I let my mom have her moment. I spin around and kiss the man of my dreams like I never have before.

“Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee he’ll go to prison for a lengthy period of time,” a short, friendly, man wearing a police uniform tells my mother and I off to the side while the rest of the officers start leaving.

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