Page 72 of Destined for Shadows
Bartol gave her a questioning glance. “A cemetery?”
He must have seen the sign when they turned in.
“Yeah,” she said softly.
She parked the truck without another word and got out. He followed her as she made her way across the graveyard to a large, granite headstone engraved with the name “Faith Elizabeth Landry” on it. Cori crouched in front of it and traced the letters as she always did when she came there, which was usually once a month. She was relieved to see Griff hadn’t done anything to disturb their daughter’s grave. With his crazy obsession about hurting her, she hadn’t been sure what he might be capable of under the circumstances.
“Your daughter?” Bartol asked, hovering a few feet away.
Cori blinked back a sheen of tears. “Yes.”
Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. She kept her fingertips on the headstone, thinking of Faith and how much she missed her baby girl. How could someone so amazing and precious leave this world before she’d truly had a chance to live in it? How could God let that happen? No matter how much time passed, Cori couldn’t make sense of it.
Bartol moved to kneel next to her. “Tell me about Faith.”
It took a moment for her to speak as the memories flooded her. “She hardly cried as a baby. Other women used to tell me I got it easy with her because she was such a happy child.”
“It sounds like she was wonderful.”
Cori wiped a tear from her cheek. “Sometimes I think God took her from me because I didn’t deserve her.”
“I am no fan of God,” Bartol said, working his jaw, “but I do not believeHehad anything to do with her death. That was entirely on your former husband.”
“But I tried to kill Griff for it. How does that make me worthy as a mother?” she asked, despair in her voice.
“I have no answer for that, but I can tell you that until you forgive yourself you won’t be able to move on.” He reached up and grazed her cheek with his knuckle. “You deserve to move on and perhaps have another child someday.”
Cori shook her head. “I don’t think I can go through that again.”
“With the right person, you could.”
Because of the curse on nephilim, Bartol could never be that man.
She looked away. “You’re wrong. There’s no way I can ever trust someone again to make that kind of commitment after what happened with Griff.”
Bartol gave her a reproving look. “Not everyone is like him.”
“I know,” she said, dipping her gaze toward the ground. “But I don’t even trust myself enough to tell the difference. I have a history of picking the wrong guys.”
He slid his arm around her and pulled her close until her head rested on his shoulder. “Do you know you are the only woman who can make me feel better about my own problems?”
Cori choked out a laugh. “My life is usually not this bad.”
“Neither was mine…before.”
They crouched there together, staring at her daughter’s grave for a while in silence. Her life was a wreck but having him at her side made it a little easier. If he could manage to hold her for a few minutes despite his intimacy issues, then maybe there was hope for her as well.
