I wanted to let her continue at her own pace, but I had so many questions. Maybe this was why she never told me things. She knew I couldn’t sit back and wait for all the information to unfold. I was too impatient for that. “Yeah, you’re right, he made mistakes in his past, but who hasn’t?”
“I don’t think many people made the kinds of mistakes he did, though. And if so, then I’m even more worried about the future of mankind than I used to be.”
“What does that mean, Mom? What kinds of things did he do?” When all she did was shake her head and stare at the ceiling, I said, “You have to admit, though…he changed a lot by the time he came to stay with us.”
She patted my knee and tossed a forced smile my way. “Sweetheart, there are some mistakes—no, I can’t even call them that. Choices. That’s what they were. He made choices, bad ones. Ones that irreversibly damaged people. He’s ruined a lot of lives. So yeah, I’ll say he changed a lot, but no amount of change could ever repair the things he’d done.”
“You can’t say things like that and then not tell me. What did he do?”
With a deep breath, she settled in to explain everything. She told me about his lawyer contacting his family—people she never knew existed. Apparently, my grandfather was not close with his siblings or parents, so they were never involved in my mom’s childhood. To my surprise, there were a lot of relatives still alive whom she’d never met. The attorney was able to get in contact with her grandfather—my grandpa’s dad. While my mom had seen him a few times as a very young child, she admitted to having no recollection of him at all.
“So he came to the hospital?” I asked, referring to my great-grandfather.
“Yeah. I won’t lie, it was awkward, but once the initial nerves wore off, it was nice to get a chance to talk to him. He told me things I never expected to hear, and probably could’ve gone my entire life not knowing, but in the end, I guess I needed to know so I can have an honest opinion of the man I called Dad.”
“I don’t understand.” She needed to stop talking in riddles and just spill the beans.
“For the last several years, I’ve battled with a lot of guilt concerning my father. I was fifteen when we left, so while I had memories of his drunken benders and his unpredictable anger, I was still a kid. And after so many years, a lot of things become questionable. Maybe I didn’t know the whole story, or maybe my own feelings might’ve added to my memories, making them worse than reality. Like you said, he had changed a lot. It was like he was a completely different person. So I struggled trying to separate the old feelings from the new.”
That wasn’t breaking news. It didn’t take a private detective to uncover that tidbit. She wore her guilt like a gaudy necklace. And I didn’t need her to explain why she felt that way, because it was obvious. Again, a genius was not needed to come to these conclusions.
But then she divulged new information.
And I couldn’t believe what I heard.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Emily
Pain-filled whimpers replaced the high-pitched ringing in my ears. For a moment, I was disoriented, unsure of where I was or how I’d gotten there. But as soon as I blinked my eyes open and found my daughter next to me, it all came back.
I reached out and grabbed Rebekah’s hand. She was in labor with my first grandchild, so it was imperative that I got her to the hospital. Due to the severity of the storm, emergency personnel were tied up with numerous car accidents and other severe emergencies, which meant the baby would’ve been born at home if I hadn’t taken her to the hospital myself. But now, as we sat pinned between a tree and what appeared in the rapid flashes of light to be a massive boulder, I immediately regretted that decision. Just as long as Rebekah and the baby were fine, that was all that mattered.
It was too difficult to assess our injuries in the darkened car, but I instinctively knew mine were bad. I had to fight hard to keep from slipping into the abyss disguised as slumber. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been there or how much time it’d take for someone to spot us and call for help. All I knew was that I didn’t think I could hold on much longer.
Luckily, an angel heard my prayers. Red and white flashing lights suddenly filled the interior of the car. Grinding metal, shattering glass, moans and cries of pain filled the night sky, all accompanied by the pounding of rain against the asphalt and thunder hammering its heavy fist into the earth over and over.
Help had come.
By the time my daughter and I were wheeled into the hospital, I was so cold I could feel it deep in my bones. They had many blankets covering me, but I couldn't get warm no matter how many they laid on top of my body. Also, I couldn’t move. The low temperature somehow left me feeling paralyzed.
I could hear Rebekah’s frightened voice next to me, but I couldn’t open my eyes or turn my head to comfort her. Someone applied gel to my skin and then attached me to wires as if I were a marionette. Voices came and went, and every now and then, a glow of light seeped into the darkness.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, I began to warm up. A welcoming heat radiated from the center of my chest, thawing me from the inside out. The pain in my legs also lessened. I assumed they must’ve given me drugs to make me comfortable, because that was how I felt. Comfortable.
Slowly, the chaos around me became softer and softer, as if I had cotton in my ears. However, I didn’t care. I wasn’t bothered by anything. My soul smiled, something I hadn’t felt since Andy. That sense of complete peace. An unwavering belief that everything was as it was meant to be.
Then everything went black.
I came to a few seconds before blinking my eyes open. I seemed to be stuck in the confusion-laden space that comes immediately after waking up—those few moments when nothing makes sense, and you can’t tell the difference between your dream and real life. But as soon as I saw the sun in the sky, I realized the source of the heat that coursed through my body.
I sat up, not understanding why I would’ve taken a nap in the grass. But before I had a chance to contemplate that, I caught movement in the distance. The rush of running water filled my ears, and as I moved closer to the sound, I found what I was looking for.
What I’d been looking for my entire life.
“You made it.” His lips split into the most infectious smile. Something more than absolute happiness consumed me. And when he reached out and twirled my long blond hair around his fingers, just like he always had, I fell against him, wrapping my arms around his trim waist. He nestled my head against his chest, beneath his chin, and hummed contentment.
“You came.” I almost sounded shocked, though that wasn’t how I felt. Grateful and elated would be more like it. “I didn’t think you would.”
He pulled away and placed his finger on the dimple in my chin before directing my attention to his face. “Why wouldn’t I? Trust me, Emily McKinney, death is the only thing that would’ve kept me from getting to you—and even that I’d fight until the bitter end.”
This was the happiest I’d ever been, and nothing could ruin it.
“Are you ready to start the rest of our lives together?”