Redemption by Michelle Heard

Author:Michelle Heard [Heard, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MA Heard
Published: 2017-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

After I get back from the emergency room, Mom and Dad come over to check on me.

“Are you okay?” Mom asks as she hugs me gently.

“Yeah, three of the stitches came loose, but they fixed it. There’s nothing to worry about.”

She looks up at me. “I’ll always worry about you and Ethan.” She kisses my cheek, and says, “I’m going to go check on Quinn.”

Dad waits for Mom to leave the living room before he sits down on the couch with me. He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. For a long time, he just stares down at his hands before he looks at me.

“Remember, when I first taught you how to shoot a gun?”

“Yeah,” I say, leaning back into the cushion.

“You told me you were scared,” he says. “Do you remember what I said to you on that day?’

I nod. I remember every moment I’ve spent with Dad. “You said everybody has one fear.”

“I told you my fear was that I wouldn’t be able to protect you,” he reminds me. I place a hand on his shoulder, now knowing where he’s going with this. “When he shot you, fuck, Eli, I can’t describe to you what I felt. Facing your biggest fear is no easy task. I’ve been in some pretty tough situations before, but I’ve never felt so powerless in my life like I did while I had to watch you bleed out.”

“But I’m okay now,” I try to comfort him.

He shakes his head and looks down at his hands again. “Twice in my life, I’ve had the people I love bleed out under my hands.”

“Twice?” I ask.

“Your mother got shot.” The words shudder through me, and I sit back up. I try to catch his eyes, but for the first time in my life, he won’t look up.

A tear escapes his eye, and he roughly wipes it away.

“Before you and Ethan came along, your mother and I had our own demons to fight. We never told you any of this because we were hoping you’d never be in such a bad place that you would need to know.”

“Know what, Dad?”

“I wasn’t a handyman all my life. There was a time where people used to come to me when they were all out of options. I was the person who went into the middle of a shit storm to rescue their loved ones. Your mother was kidnapped, and I was contacted to go get her.”

My mouth drops open with shock. “Mom was kidnapped? Who? Why?”

“Because people fucked up and she had to pay. It’s been almost thirty years, and I still remember what she looked like when I found her. The smell. The blood.” He looks at me, and I see the rage burning in his eyes. “I still feel the anger.”

“Blood?” I whisper. I’m not sure I want to know all of it.

“They beat her so badly.” His voice cracks over the words, and this time when a tear rolls down his cheek, he doesn’t stop it.

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