Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“You shouldn’t be here,” she told him quietly.
Her gaze darted to the side when she said it like she had to look for someone waiting nearby to hear. Who was she worried the invisible spy might take it back to? Malachi didn’t really have to ask when the answer had been a demon chasing him for most of his adult life.
“There are better ways to reach me, that’s all,” Alora added, openly frowning.
“Sorry,” Malachi replied on autopilot.
All of this still felt surreal. So much so that he didn’t even think to mention how his presence at her workplace had little to nothing to do with her. He should have listened to his gut from the jump, though, because clearly it had been trying to tell him something.
Instincts never lied.
“You look ...” Malachi trailed off, hyper aware of the space between him and the only person he considered his family, and how much he wanted to close it to hug her. What should he say? She looked good? Grown? Alive? None of those things felt right. He let out a shuddering breath, muttering, “I really miss you. For a while, I tried to write to you all the damn time.”
It was all he had. The only thing he could do. Well, at first. He’d stopped with the letters after a couple of years passed with no response to the ones he sent out every month. Silence could be an answer, too, after all. But she had also been young, then.
Alora’s gaze darted away from him again, and back to the room she scanned while her lips moved with hushed words she didn’t intend for anyone else to hear. “I know. I found a few, but Mom and Frankie ...”
She trailed off, too.
At least, he didn’t hear a hint of heat in her tone, and with that came a sense of relief. Malachi thought he could deal with a lot of things—fix anything, really—when it came to Alora, but not anger. That kind of pain came from within; not to mention, personal experience told him the anger could be directed at a lot of people and things before it ever found the real reason why it existed in the first place.
“You don’t call him dad or—”
Alora scoffed, a hardness settling into her pretty features all at once. “To his face, maybe.”
Malachi didn’t hide his grin.
It made hers grow a little, too.
A lot could be said for his stepfather—and Alora’s father by adoption—and the way he seemed to find pleasure and joy in control and breaking the will of those around him, but a fire remained in Malachi’s sister. Had it been getting harder for her to hide it? He didn’t have a single doubt.
“Freedom’s close,” he noted.
Her hand tightened around the shoulder strap of her bag. “Don’t fault me for running for it, okay? The smallest thing could ruin it for me at this point.”
Malachi didn’t bother to ask what that meant—and he certainly didn’t need her fucking apologies. No one should have to apologize for doing what they needed to survive.
“I ended every letter the same, sissy.”
Alora pulled in a noisy breath, but the sharp nod of her head shrouded her gathering tears. “I’ll see you when I can see you.”
“This is not a goodbye,” Malachi finished. “Right. Don’t you forget it, either.”
He’d be here.
Whenever.
That wouldn’t change.
“I gotta go,” Alora muttered suddenly.
Malachi didn’t try to stop his sister from rushing off. In fact, he didn’t even survey the room in case there was a reason for her need to go. He simply stepped toward the machine to grab the coin in the return slot under the row of choice buttons as she darted off to the side.
In the corner of his eye, he noticed she had stopped.
Then, she glanced back.
“I miss you, too, Mally,” Alora mouthed. “I love you.”
If God really existed, then he’d just punched Malachi straight in the heart with no regrets.
He signed the sentiment back with one hand. I love you. Wondering all the while if the two of them might get a moment like this again. He dared to hope for it even though his past liked to linger in the back of his mind as a reason to prove his dreams useless.
The first thing he’d ever taught his baby sister when she was old enough to stare and smile back at him were simple signs from a book his librarian in school had given to him when he explained he needed to learn how to be a good big brother, actually. On her way out the front doors of the lobby, Alora signed back the same.
Gracen found Malachi in the lobby a few minutes later. Without water, and still flipping the toonie between his fingers, she came to stand next to him at the two vending machines.