Page 135 of I Am Salvation

“I am too.” She looks around slowly, her eyes wide. “It just seems so…unreal.”

“I promise you that it’s real, Griffin,” I say. “We’ll figure this all out. We’ll pull your birth certificate, and you and I can have DNA taken to prove we’re brother and sister. That way you’ll know for sure who you are. And we can get you educated, teach you how to drive, get you a license. Get your daughter educated.”

She closes her eyes again, breathes in deeply. “It’s so strange, Dragon.”

“I know.”

“No, I mean… I thought I would hate the baby. Because of who gave it to me.” She opens her eyes. “But I love her, Dragon. I love Bridget so much.”

“Any mother would. That’s what mothers do.”

I’m not sure where those words came from, as my mother certainly found it very easy to turn her back on me, but I’ve learned a lot from Diana. From how she talks about her own parents. How much they love her and her siblings.

“Of course you do,” Diana says. “You’re her mother, Griffin. She’s a part of you. It doesn’t matter who her father is. Besides, we’re going to make sure he stays far away from both of you from now on. When we catch him, he will be going to prison for a long, long time.”

Yeah. If I don’t kill him first.

But the words in my mind are no longer true, even though Mack deserves much worse.

I’ll never take another life.

That’s not who I am anymore.

We make it back to the hotel. Diana gives Griffin some clothes to put on after she takes a shower.

We make sure she eats something, and then we put her to bed.

Diana and I will sleep in the other room, but we leave the adjoining door open in case Griffin needs us.

I fall onto the bed, and Diana curls into my arms. I kiss the top of her head, and only then do I remember…

I missed my first night of work.

And I didn’t call Antonio.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Diana

To my surprise, Griffin sleeps through the night.

I expect her to wake up screaming, not knowing where she is. But then I wonder… When was the last time she actually got a night of uninterrupted sleep?

I have no idea what they did to her in the cult. I don’t see any scarring on her, but maybe they hadn’t gotten to her yet.

We can only hope.

But she’s got enough emotional scarring from her time with Malcolm Osborne.

I wake up, and Dragon is still passed out next to me.

No wonder. Both of them have been through so much. I take a quick shower and then order some breakfast for all of us from room service.

I wake them both when it arrives.

“Dragon,” I say.

His eyes pop open. “What? Everything okay?”

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