My eyelids drifted closed, and I took a deep inhale. I needed to control my anger. The last thing I wanted was for Cole to mistake my rage at the foster families in his past for being upset with him.
“Cole,” I stated, crouching low again, “your parents love you. They aren’t now or ever going to get rid of you.”
“They could. Sean told me his parents got rid of his adopted brother because he had too many mental problems. They sent him to live with another family. And I get angry sometimes. Last week Victoria and I got into a fight because I got mad at her for touching my stuff. Mom sent us both to our rooms.”
“That’s normal kid stuff. Your mom would never kick you out over an argument with your sister. Have you ever asked your dad how many fights he got into with his brothers growing up?”
He speared me with his gaze. “Dad fought with my uncles?”
Grinning, I nodded. “I didn’t know them when they were kids, but I bet they got into some knock down drag out fights. And your grandparents never kicked them out, did they?”
“Probably not.”
“There’s no probably about it,” I responded. I opened my mouth to tell him how worried his parents were when my phone rang. “I bet that’s them,” I said, pulling out my phone.
Sure enough, it was Joshua coming through with a video call. When I answered, the screen lit up, showing both an anxious-looking Kayla and Joshua.
“Did you find him?”
“We haven’t heard from you.”
They both spoke at once.
“He’s right here.” I looked at Cole. “Your parents want to talk to you.”
I handed him the phone.
“Baby.”
“Son.”
Again, Joshua and Kayla spoke in unison.
“Where are you? We were scared to death when we saw you weren’t in your room,” Kayla told him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I …” He trailed off.
“It’s okay, Cole,” I encouraged, patting his leg.
“I didn’t think you wanted me anymore, so I came back to the home.” He looked over into the distance in the direction of the home, which couldn’t be seen from the park. “But I couldn’t go in,” he confessed. “I don’t want to go back there.”
He finally let the first tear slip out. He broke down crying, confessing that he didn’t want to leave them, but he thought they’d eventually take him back anyway.
I swallowed the lump in my throat for any child that had felt so unwanted and unloved. It pissed me off to know there were adults in this world who treated children like this. I listened while Kayla and Joshua continually told Cole how much they loved him, how much of a part of their family he was, and that there wasn’t anything he could do to make them abandon him.
“I’ll take you home,” I said, holding out my hand for him to take, even as he remained on the call with his parents.
They stayed on the phone with him the entire drive, constantly reassuring him. I squeezed and loosened my grip on the steering wheel as I listened to Cole tell them how sorry he was for his tantrums.
Truthfully, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Especially for a child with the history Cole had. But somewhere along the line, this little boy had been taught that his normal, human emotions were unacceptable. And therefore, he was unsuitable.
A raw memory, one I thought I’d long suppressed, shot through my mind. It was so damn vivid that it stole my breath. For a half a second I became that scared eight-year-old boy I once was.
The only thing that brought me back to the present was hearing Kayla promise to make Cole whatever he wanted for breakfast. That was followed up by Joshua telling Cole that just because he got a special breakfast, didn’t mean he wouldn’t be grounded for the next three weeks.
When I glanced over, instead of a frown, I saw that Cole wore a semi-smile. Being grounded sucked for most kids, but for a boy who’d been thrown away, ignored, and mistreated, being grounded demonstrated that his parents cared about him.
This was all the more evident when as soon as I pulled into Josh and Kayla’s driveway, their front door flew open. Kayla ran down the walkway, immediately scooping Cole up into her arms. Josh followed, hugging both of them to him.
