Page 84 of Make Me Whole

Either option was unfathomable to me.

A hand lightly touched my shoulder. For a second I thought it was Molly, but it was Ella. Her eyes were sad as she looked at me, and something about her expression made her seem twenty-seven instead of just seven.

Holding my gaze, she asked, “Is Dad in jail because of Eli?”

My heart squeezed as I nodded.

She sighed with her whole body, then shook her bowed head. “Why?”

“He wants us back.”

“Why won't he leave us alone?” she asked through gritted teeth. “He doesn’t even love us.”

Grief was clear in her voice, and it pierced my heart like a knife. I clutched her to my chest like I used to do when she was crying with colic.

“It has nothing to do with you, love. He’s angry at me for leaving him and falling in love with Max.”

Ella wrenched her face away from my shoulder and offered a shy smile that looked alien paired with her watery eyes. “You’re inlovewith him?”

I chuckled and kissed her temple. “Yes.”

“I knew it would happen. I prayed for it, for the two of you to love each other so that Aid could be my brother and Max my new dad, and God always answers my prayers.”

I smiled at her. I didn’t know what other prayers He answered, but I loved that despite her hard life, she still had faith. I truly hoped that the news I had to give wouldn’t shatter that faith.

“I’m happy you still pray, but Max and I can’t be together.”

Her eyes grew even sadder. “Why not?”

I debated how honest I should be with her about our situation and decided that if I was going to take her back to hell, I had to at least let her know exactly why she was going back. She deserved that much, and with everything she had already endured in her short life, I'd much rather her be angry with her father—or even me—than with God.

“Because we need to go back to your father. If we don’t, then Max will stay in jail, Aiden will lose his dad, and your father will use my feelings for Max to take you away from me.”

Her eyes filled with tears as she looked from me to the sky to the house behind me. Finally, she asked, “Are you sure? Maybe if I talk to him.”

“Ella . . .” I said, begging. Her little shoulders sagged, making me feel like day-old crap.

A tear rolled down her cheek. “When?”

I pulled in a deep breath as a chill ran down my spine. “Tomorrow morning.”

Her little arms wrapped around my neck, and we both sobbed together, mourning the life we almost had and grieving the hell to which we were doomed to return.

35

MAX

Isat on the edge of the cot with my elbows pressed against my knees and my hands clasped together in front of me as I had since arriving in my cell.

My cell, the words kept echoing in my mind. It was bizarre to think that I was in jail. That I had spent the entirenight and most of the morning injail. I hadn’t even had a parking ticket in over fifteen years, and still, there I was. Incarcerated for kidnapping the woman I planned to make mine and a little girl who called me Dad. It was like the worst episode ofThe Twilight Zonecome to life.

The rattling of the door which connected the jail to the main area of the police station announced the approach of someone. I turned my head to see who was coming, fully expecting to see an officer bringing in another perp or the balding head of my fancy lawyer, Nick Stevens.

I had seen my Seattle hotshot three times since being locked up fifteen hours ago. The first was in the interrogation room about an hour after my arrest. The second was an hour after that in a small conference room where he asked me to tell him everything he needed to know for my defense. That’s when I learned the charges brought against me by Eli, and also when I told Nick about my relationship with Sky.

It was sad that he was the first person I told. I wanted it to be Al or Aiden, but it was this hired man who showed no interest or emotion toward the most life-changing news I had since finding out my wife had died. When I explained about my unique situation in relation to Al, he assured me he wouldn’t share the information but also warned me to come clean before a possible trial as that would be the basis of our defense. I didn't need the warning, though. I had always intended to tell Al about Sky and me the moment I saw him, and this new development hadn’t changed my mind.

The third, and final, time I saw Nick was about three hours ago. He came over to my cell to tell me that bail had been set and Al was going to get the money as soon as he finished dealing with a personal matter. Obviously afraid that something had happened to Sky or Ella, I pressed to know what the personal matter was, but Nick didn’t know.

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