Page 74 of Other Side Of Never
“Where is he?How could you lose him?”Keith sputtered, his face pale and dripping from his dunking in the pond.
Beside him, equally as wet, Alan began to cry.
“Ma’am, is this your son?”
I spun around to find Jakey holding the hand of a young security guard.I dropped to my knees and hugged him tightly, my heart beating in my throat.
“You’ll have to leave the park, ma’am.”
Closing my eyes, I nodded tightly.“No problem.”
Nothing mattered except Jakey being safe, and I couldn’t wait to get home.
I spared a glance at the hellions beside me.Their father would have an unholy fit if we got his car wet.“C’mon, boys.We’ll go to the park just outside the gates until you dry off, then we’re heading home.”
I pulled myself out of the past and wrapped my arms around Kian.“Keith fell off the monkey bars and broke his arm.”
“Fuck, Bridget.The little shits really put you through the wringer.”
“They did.”My cheeks burned shamefully at the memory.“Gary met us at the hospital and sent me home with the other two.When he got home, he ranted for hours.If I couldn’t handle them on a simple outing, I shouldn’t expect to handle them at all.”I swallowed.“More than anything, he was furious it interrupted Keith’s baseball season.Two weeks later, Gary sent Jakey to live with his mother.”
For the longest time, Kian said nothing.
But the fury vibrating in his chest and rolling off him in waves soothed me in a way nothing else ever had.
Finally, he spoke.“That’s it?That’s his big proof?”He scoffed.“Bridget, he gaslighted you.My brothers and I put my parents through far worse than that.”Huffing out a harsh laugh, he continued, “That’s how boys are.Bloody feral.The lot of them.”He shook his head.“And they need to be.They need to test their limits, challenge their strengths, fuck around and find out where their will bumps up against the world.”
I looked at him with hope in my heart.“You think so?”
His handsome face twisted with grief now halved as he cupped my face in his hands.“Aw, baby,” he murmured.“I know so.He never should have taken Jakey away from you.”
I covered his hands with mine and nodded, searching his eyes for the truth.His truth, not Gary’s.
“It was cruel.”He shook his head.“Incredibly abusive.To both of you.”
I began to nod though I wasn’t sure I believed him yet.
His mouth twisted to the side.“Did I ever tell you about the time I lost Isaiah at an airport?”
I shook my head.
“I let go of his hand to put our passports away.I dropped one.By the time I’d bent to pick it up and got them both tucked away, he was gone.”
“Did you call security?”
He smiled wryly though his eyes remained sad.
Sad for me.
I breathed deep.
“Shut down the whole airport and grounded two flights,” he admitted.
I laughed then sobered.
Hazel eyes delved into mine.“You tossed every other lie that prick threw at you back in his face.You can do the same with this one.”
“But Isaiah, at the park, the monkey bars—”
