Page 54 of Broke Down Single Mom

But I can tell that Avery still doesn’t believe it. From the way she keeps looking around, it’s as if she’s expecting to see Daniel come out of the cabin alive. Her soul is wounded worse than her face. She will have nightmares, PTSD. All of them will need some sort of therapy down the line, I’m sure. We’ve got good relationships with a couple of prominent children’s psychologists that they will be able to work with.

“You’re not running off on us ever again,” Kellan tells Avery. “Never.”

“I didn’t want to,” Avery says. “I felt like he didn’t give me a choice. ”

“Hey!” Fallon snaps, startling the girls. “You’re okay, alright? We’re all okay. We’re gonna be fine. And we’re gonna go home after all this is over. We’re gonna eat a nice, hot meal, and maybe some apple pie, ya’ hear me?”

“Apple pie!” Miley exclaims with a shy smile. “I like apple pie.”

“Do you like cinnamon in your apple pie?” Fallon asks. Both girls nod enthusiastically. “Well I don’t, but we’ll get two apple pies. One for me, and one for you. Guess which one’s gonna have all the cinnamon you want in it?”

“Mine!” Miley shoots back.

Avery can’t help but smile. Annie seems calmer; exhausted, but safe and comforted in her mother’s arms. Miley still clings to Kellan for dear life.

The deputies finally arrive with flashing lights and screeching sirens. Guilt cuts me deep. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to kill a man.

I repeat the same mantra to myself over and over until it sticks.

It was worth it.It was justified. It was worth it. It was justified.

I know I had to do what I did.

I look at Avery and her daughters knowing I’d do it again in a heartbeat to protect them.

28

Avery

Everything happened so fast after we left the cabin, I barely noticed when evening began to set over the sky again. I’m in Kellan’s office, gazing out the window of the sheriff’s department. Helen thankfully has my girls back at the house. They were both hungry and exhausted, they needed a hot bath, a warm bed, and someone to keep them close while I completed the statements and procedures following the incident.

I am beyond grateful for Helen.

I can’t wait to be home with them again though, to hold them in my arms, kiss them and assure them that they are safe.

I’m wrapped in a blanket, sitting quietly as I wait for Kellan to get back. He’s taken all the statements he needed—from me, from Luke and Fallon, and from every agent involved in the rescue. He even had the school principal come down to complete his file on Daniel before sending the whole thing over to the District Attorney. He’s making sure every single aspect of the entire incident is covered so nobody takes the fall for what happened. Especially Luke.

Looking back, I try to walk myself through the decision-making process that led to them storming the cabin the way they did. It was a calculated risk, and Luke’s intervention was unavoidable. We all know it and I’m learning to live with it. Daniel had to die. He was not going to let me leave that cabin alive, likely a murder-suicide.

“I found the mole,” Kellan says as he, Fallon, and Luke come back into the office. “I found out who gave Daniel the intel he needed to find you.”

“Who was it?” I ask.

“Some shitbag in the State Troopers’ department,” he replies. “Daniel had some kind of dirt on him. We’ll find out more once he’s in custody. But we’re covered, we’re definitely covered.”

“So, it’s really over,” I exhale sharply.

“Yes, and you need to keep the ice pack on,” he says, nodding at the rapidly defrosting ice pack in my hand. I completely forgot about it. I’m so numb from everything that happened that I can barely feel the pain of Daniel’s blows. My left eye feels better, though, and the swelling has definitely gone down. It’ll be bruised for a while, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed with the right amount of concealer. “We should get you to the hospital,” Kellan adds. “Run a few tests on you, make sure you’re okay.”

I get up and put on a warm, thankful smile. “I’m okay, I promise. I just want to get out of here.”

“Yeah, about that,” Kellan says, exchanging brief glances with Fallon and Luke before he shuts the door to his office. “We wanted to talk to you about something, Avery.”

“Oh?”

Fallon is the first to come closer, his gaze dark yet soft. “What do you want to do?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

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