Page 91 of Make Me Whole

I wanted to ask him what he was mad about and if it had anything to do with me, but before I had a chance, voices flooded the kitchen. Max stole a quick peek at something behind me. When his face returned to look at me, he had a worried line between his brows and a tired smile on his lips.

“Fucking shit, Max,” a deep voice echoed from the other side of the island only a second later. “Did you have punch the bastard within an inch of his life when you knew we were coming? Now I’ll have to arrest you for breaking and entering and assault.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Fuck that, Jones! When I got here the door was open and Eli was choking a pregnant woman—my woman, pregnant with my child—to within an inch of her life.”

The man leaned over the counter and looked at me. I must have really looked terrible because his eyes widened. “Were those bruises caused by Mr. Walsh, Ma’am?”

“No, Jones. It was the fucking tooth fairy who hurt her,” Max grumbled through a locked jaw.

Jones rolled his eyes while I simply ignored Max and replied, “Yes, and Max saved my life.”

The man stared at me in silence for a moment. Then, he tilted his head and asked, “And was it you who opened the door for him?”

I considered lying to protect Max, but I didn’t have to. Ella’s scared voice echoed from the staircase behind me. “It was me. After I called Dad to come save us, I opened the front door for him and then locked myself in the office like he told me to do.”

I turned my gaze from the policeman to my daughter. Her face was stained with tears and a little puffy as she clung to my father’s hand, but her little shoulders were squared, her head held high, and her eyes were determined.

The joy and pride I felt at that moment was indescribable. Every mother dreams of raising a self-reliant, strong young woman, but most have to wait a couple of decades to see that dream realized. I saw it in only seven short years.

“That’ll do it,” Jones said cheerfully, but I didn’t look at him. Ella and the pain in her eyes entirely consumed my focus. “We’ll need to collect statements from all of you before you leave.”

“Can’t it be tomorrow?” Max protested. “They’re scared and tired and hurt.”

“Max,” I said, putting my hand on his. “It’s okay. If it means you’ll be out of jail and we’ll be free of Eli for good, then Ella and I want to do it. Right, sweetheart?”

Ella ran toward us, wrapped Max into a tight hug, and said a vehement, “Yes!”

The police chief left our little family alone to talk and went over to the other side of the kitchen where the paramedics tended to Eli. As Max helped me to my feet, I looked toward my soon-to-be ex-husband.

As Jones had mentioned, he was badly beaten up but alive. And handcuffed to a gurney. “Why are they arresting Eli? Because of me?”

Max shook his head. “Corruption, buying the police, abuse of power, and some other stuff. Assault can be added if you want to press charges, but even without it, he’ll be locked up for a long time.”

Happy tears sprang to my eyes, and an overwhelming feeling of freedom overtook me. Not caring that my dad and a bunch of strangers were around, I wrapped my arms around Max and did the one thing I had been dreaming about for the past three weeks.

I kissed him long and hard on the lips.

Max, of course, reciprocated my longing and affection. His tongue danced with mine with that familiar mix of friendship, desire, and commitment that was sous.Funny how moments can change everything. Ten minutes before, I was an inmate in Eli’s hell prison. Now, I was sore but happy, free, and wrapped up in the man I loved.

When I finally pulled away, the reactions to our PDA varied. Ella clapped her hands and cheered, the first responders continued their work as if nothing was happening, and my poor dad just stared at us as if the world had ended.

Still, when my eyes connected to his, something changed.

The irises that were so similar to mine softened, his head tilted just slightly in the way it did whenever he finally understood a joke, and then, the grim line of his lips curled upward just a little. Another monumental shift happened in a moment.

When a female police officer came over to take my statement, my dad touched Max’s shoulder and whispered something to him. Their interaction was strange, stiff, and didn’t have the brotherly ease they usually had. As I told the woman everything that had happened since the day Max, the kids, and I returned from holiday, the two of them disappeared through the stairwell Dad and Ella had come from.

My anxiety to know what was going on between them and what they were talking about was almost as painful as my throat after speaking for such a long time. When they finally returned, however, I breathed a sigh of relief at their laughing and playful banter.

I got checked out by a paramedic who gave me something for the pain and recommended I see my doctor as soon as possible while Max, my dad, and Ella talked to the police. After what felt like forever, Max came over to me with Ella in his arms and a tired smile on his lips.

“Ready to go home, sweetheart?” he asked.

Home.The word made me feel better than the painkillers. “Yeah, I’m more than ready.”

* * *

Night had fallenwhen we finally arrived home. From the curb I saw Aiden sitting with Molly on the front porch, and my heart skipped a beat. The last time we had seen each other, we agreed he could call me Mom, and apparently, my brain took the agreement seriously because the longing I felt for him over the past three weeks was the level of unbearable only mothers understand.

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