Page 22 of Fallout

They stood side by side in front of Jamal’s grave.

“He died while you were in Africa. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes.” She had to clear her throat again. “He was my father.”

Richard tensed. She let go of his elbow, feeling the need to stand on her own two feet, and stared at the headstone. The dates.

“No one knows but me.” The wind ruffled her collar against her cheek. “My mother was drunk one night, jealous of my relationship with my little sisters, I guess. I’d put them all to bed. Blake was working at the gas station. He was in college, too, so he’d take his homework with him for when it was quiet overnight. She took great pleasure in telling me I was the result of a conjugal visit not long after he was convicted.”

It hadn’t made her feel any differently about her sisters. Much to her mother’s dismay, the attempt to drive a wedge between Destiny and Grace, Mercy, and Hope hadn’t worked. They were still blood, even if only her half-sisters. The news made Blake her full brother. Something he probably didn’t know even now.

And would he care?

Blake had adopted all of them, and they’d changed their last names to his despite auntie and uncle nay-sayers. He just wanted them to be a family.

“None of us is entirely the sum of where we came from. We’re more than that. Or less, in some cases.” Richard fell silent for a second. “You are who you want to be, Destiny. Who the Good Lord made you to be.”

“I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

The massacre had occurred while she was en route home from Africa.

“I also cost myself the chance to say goodbye.” He cleared his throat.

She could see the name on the marker across the way. So close to her father’s final resting place.

Richard said, “My son died, and I was not there. It is my greatest regret.”

“I’m sorry.” It sounded so lame. “I didn’t know you had lost a child.”

“Jasper’s brother, Caleb.” Richard’s tone thickened. “He had leukemia.”

A tear rolled down her face.

“I know where he is.” Richard looked at the sky. “He’s not here. And the same can be said of your father, can’t it?”

“He believed.” Her father’s faith had been strong. “But he also did a lot of bad things.”

“Forgiveness is the only hope I have. The thing I cling to when I have nothing.” Richard sniffed, and it had nothing to do with the chill in the air. “I pretended to forget. It’s helped, but I realized I’ve lost so much.”

She’d tried to forget what happened to her in Africa. Maybe that was okay for a while, but she shouldn’t push it away forever. Everyone said she had to “work through it,” and this man proved that forgoing that step might not be a good long-term solution.

Richard turned to the headstone. “I heard he turned his life around in prison.”

Hearing that brought a smile to her face.

“What is it?”

“I’m the one who shared with him. I told him what God had done for me.” It seemed so long ago now. So much had changed—she almost felt like a completely different person these days. Jasper practically didn’t recognize her; he’d kept looking at her like she was a stranger.

What should she make of it?

Should she reinvent herself or get back to who she had been? She hadn’t even gone to her townhouse, but instead, she had Vanguard clear out her things and put them in storage so the landlord could rent it out to someone else.

She didn’t fit in her old life. That girl seemed far too naïve now, and if she lived that life, she would be vulnerable, in danger. When those men had driven into the compound and grabbed her…

Destiny hadn’t known what to do. She hadn’t been able to save Isadora.

She wanted to be able to fight back, but was she strong enough to get there? It would be easier to hide in the penthouse, do her job, and never need to be that person. Keep the danger out of her life. But she couldn’t closet herself away forever.

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