“Sounds like a great plan.”
Justin’s phone beeped. “Sorry, guys.” Pulling it from his pocket, he withdrew from the tender family moment and went to stand by the window, typing quickly on his phone.
Gil caught my eyes over Olive’s embrace.
A vortex sucked us into the same undeniable depth we’d always shared. Tension appeared from nowhere. The air became heavy. The possibilities of so many futures and fates waiting for us to decide.
Gil broke the unbearable quietness. “I know it isn’t worth much, and for some reason you don’t want to hear it, but I truly am sorry, O. From the depths of my soul. I’m forever in your debt.”
“Enough.”
But he didn’t stop. “I need you to know I will always love you. I will always adore you for what you’ve done for me—both willingly and unwillingly. I don’t expect to ever hear you love me back. I know that’s something I lost and the price I had to pay.”
I dared meet his green gaze; my spine threaded with steel.
He wasn’t supposed to talk of love.
He wasn’t supposed to be so open or genuine.
I wasn’t protected against this new Gilbert Clark. This honest, hurting, hopeful version who no longer believed in silence but in truth.
How could I tell him I’d come for closure? That I’d emptied my hope of ever having more with this man and now only wanted a farewell?
“I had to see you...one last time.”
His body stiffened, fear licked into his eyes. “One last time?”
“I’m very glad you’re okay. That you survived...for Olive’s sake.”
And for mine.
I might not be able to be with him but I didn’t want him dead.
Gil was sweet with a heart full of affection and protection to give. He’d just never really been given the opportunity without monsters tearing that heart to pieces.
In a way, I was failing him at the worst possible time.
But time never did play fair when it came to us.
“He...he didn’t hurt you, did he?” He swallowed hard. “Please tell me I arrived before he—” His voice cut off, unable to verbalize what could’ve happened if he’d been five minutes longer.
I wouldn’t have just had rope-burned wrists to treat but a whole host of other ailments. Rape kits and counselling. Stopping those thoughts, I shook my head. “He didn’t hurt me.”
“He yelled at her,” Olive said, popping into the conversation. “And then he whispered some things that made her go all white and strange-looking, like she’d be sick.”
I winced, studying Olive and what Jeffrey had threatened. How he’d planned on selling both of us. How Gil might never have known the fate his daughter was sold to. “He wasn’t a nice man, was he?”
Olive narrowed her eyes. “Nope. Not one bit.”
I smiled, shaking away that night all over again. “But you’re with your dad now and things will be better.”
Gil flinched, knowing as well as I did that things might be about to get worse.
“Yep. I’m never leaving him again,” Olive vowed. “Ever, ever, ever.”
“I’m glad. He needs you.”
“What aren’t you saying, O?” Gil asked gently, his eyes roving over my face. “Are you truly all right?”
Bracing myself, I prepared to say the hardest thing. “I’m fine. And I came...I came to see you because...” I sighed, forcing myself to finish. “I came to say goodbye.”
The flash of agony glowed and fired in his eyes. He cleared his throat, nodding fast, accepting there was no other choice. “I understand.”
“I’m moving.”
His body twitched on the bed. “Where?”
“I don’t know yet. I-I guess I’ll figure that out when I’m there.”
“You’ll travel?” His voice gruffed and thickened.
“Perhaps. I’m not sure.”
Our awful conversation petered out. There was so much to say, but it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference to the way we’d ended.
Olive reached out to take my hand, her shoulders still wrapped up in Gil’s embrace. By accepting her touch, she united us. An unlikely trio all bound in complicated ways. My skin tingled as I allowed her hold, a similar curse to what her father made me feel.
There was something about this girl that snatched me around the heart just as much as Gil did. Probably because she was half his. Half his blood. Half his soul.
And my soul reacted to both of them.
“You can’t leave.” Her pretty face cast upward to look at me. Her plea reached into my chest and squeezed. “I don’t want you to go.”
“O has a destiny to follow, Olive Oyl. We can’t stop her from being happy.” Gil pulled her closer to him, doing his best to dislodge her hold on me. “She has to go.”
He smiled at me, but his eyes didn’t look happy. They looked sad and lonely and breaking. “Don’t let her guilt trip you, O. She’s mastered the art of that unfortunately.”
I laughed quietly, feeling endlessly sad. “I’ll do my best.”
“But you can’t go.” Pinpricks of colour highlighted Olive’s cheeks. “You’re the owl from the stories. You’re his friend. Friends don’t leave.”
Gil groaned. “God, did she tell you about the owl?” He blushed like his daughter. “I’d run out of bedtime stories and was sick of reading Popeye The Sailor Man. I told her about a dancer who—”
“Turned into an owl at night and danced with feathers in the moonlight.” Olive nodded furiously. “The owl was called Olin—which is a crazy weird name—but was kinda cool too. And you’re called Olin, so you have to stay.”
I struggled with how to reply.
Justin re-joined us, tucking his phone into his pocket. “What did I miss?”
Gil shot his friend a grim look while I tried to untangle my hand from Olive’s. “Not much.”
Olive let her hand fall, her shoulders slouching as if the past year had caught up to her. “Can we go home yet, Dad? I want to sleep in my room.” Her face shadowed, showing signs of the trauma that would take a while to cure. “I miss my room. I didn’t like sleeping in Uncle Jeffrey’s caravan.”
“Yes, we can go home—” Gil froze, halting his lie. His eyes rose to mine, pleading for a way to break the news to her. That he couldn’t go home until he’d healed. And even then...it might not happen.
“Your dad has to stay here another couple of nights.” I reached out and stroked her dark, glossy hair. “The doctors are magic too, and they’re making him better.”
“But...what about me? Where do I sleep then? Will you take me back home and stay with me?”
My heart flipped at the thought of returning to the warehouse where Gil had drugged and painted me.
Gil jumped in. “You’ll have to stay here with me in the hospital, little spinach. Just for a couple of days.” He looked at Justin. “They allow that, right? Single parents are allowed to have their kid stay?”
Justin shrugged. “I can find out.”
Olive stuck out her tongue as if she was gagging. “I don’t want to stay here. It stinks and I don’t like sick people.”