Levi spoke first, his voice low. “Little miss, first of all, neither Ro nor I are perfect. Far from it in fact. And secondly, we don’t want you to be perfect. We just want you to be you.”
And somehow, that simple truth nearly undid her.
“I’m scared,” she whispered. “Scared you’ll hear this and change your minds. That I won’t be what you want anymore.”
Her hand shook so badly the crayon slipped, leaving a jagged line across the tiny dog’s side. Her breath hitched at the sight of it. Stupid. It was just a crayon line. But somehow it felt like a sign. A mark she couldn’t erase.
Roland’s voice, warm as a summer breeze, filled the quiet. “Sydney, my sweet little bird… nothing you say could change how we see you. Wepromiseyou that.”
But fear didn’t listen to promises. It pressed in tighter, made her feel small.
“I don’t know how to start,” she admitted. “It’s all tangled up in my head. And part of me feels like maybe I shouldn’t even be making such a thing out of it. But it’s a thing to me. It has been for such a long time now, it almost feels like it’s taken over my whole life.”
She glanced at them, finally brave enough to look. Their faces held no judgment. Just patience. And care.
The tears welled, but she blinked them back. Not yet. She needed to get this out first.
“I want you to know it all,” she said softly. “Before I can say yes to staying. Before I can even believe I deserve to stay.”
She looked down at the page again, drew slow, careful strokes of color, and took a breath. Ready—or as ready as she’d ever be—to begin.
“When I was a baby, my mom kidnapped me from my dad and ran to South Africa with me.”
Chapter Twenty
Levi
Levi had thought he was prepared. He’d told himself, whatever it is, they can handle it. They could help her through it. But the second the words left Sydney’s mouth, his heart stopped.
“When I was a baby, my mom kidnapped me from my dad and ran to South Africa with me.”
He couldn’t even blink, couldn’t breathe for a beat. It wasn’t what he’d expected. Not at all. His gut clenched, and instinct warred inside him. Part of him was desperate to reach for her, to pull her into his arms, to shield her from every ounce of pain. But he could see the tight set of her shoulders, the way she kept her gaze down on the coloring page like it was a lifeline. Sydney wasn’t ready for that kind of touch. Not yet. She needed to get her story out, and as hard as it might be for him to do it, he would have to let her.
So he did the next best thing. Without looking away from her, he reached for Roland’s hand. Clasped it tight enough that Roland turned his palm up and squeezed back. As always, his partner was his silent anchor, grounding him so he could stay still, stay quiet, and give their girl what she needed. For them to justlisten.
And Sydney talked. Her voice soft, trembling, but steadying with each word.
“My mom was from South Africa. She came here on a work visa, met my dad.” Her voice was so small, so broken, it nearly tore Levi in half. “She fell in love, I guess. Or maybe it was just that she got pregnant and was too scared to go back home with a baby, so they got married. In the end though, regardless if she fell in love or if it was for convenience, my dad wasn’t who she thought he was. He was… he was cruel. Manipulative. Mean in ways that don’t only leave bruises you can see. And when I was still just a baby, she’d had enough and ran. Took me and went back to her home country.”
Levi’s jaw ached from how tightly he clenched it. He hated the thought of anyone hurting her. Even back then, when she was just a baby. He felt Roland’s thumb rub soothingly over the back of his hand, reminding him to breathe.
She kept her attention on the picture in front of her, and he sent a silent thanks to Roland for thinking of that small mercy. A tiny distraction for her while she bared her soul to us.
“He tried to find us, my dad did. For years. South Africa isn’t super big, but it’s big enough for us to have moved around enough to make it hard on him. But it wasn’t enough. When I was in my late teens… he finally found us.”
At this, she turned her gaze to us, her large eyes shimmering with unshed tears and the devastation Levi saw there nearly undid him. Then she looked back down, clutching the crayon in her hand so tightly that he was surprised it didn’t break in half.
Then... the whispered words destroyed Levi. “He killed my mom. For running. For taking me. I—” Her voice cracked, and she sniffed hard. “I got away. Barely. But she… she didn’t.”
Levi swallowed hard, his throat tight. The urge to hold her, todosomething, was nearly unbearable. But he stayed where hewas, for her, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to control the urge.
“They caught him. He’s still in prison back home. I don’t even know if he thinks about me. I don’t care. But the worst part?” She gave a shaky laugh, bitter and small. “The entire country knew what happened. The story was everywhere. I hated it. I hated being that girl. The one with the monster for a father. After that, I bounced around foster homes until I finished school, and then I ran too. Hid. Tried to be normal.”
She finally looked up then, eyes glassy with unshed tears, searching their faces for something. Maybe disgust. Maybe pity. Levi hoped to God she didn’t find it.
“Well, that’s it,” she whispered and shrugged. “That’s what you need to know. I’m dirty. Contaminated. I have a dad who not only abused his wife, but hunted her down like an animal and killed her. That’s the blood I have running through my veins.”
That was it. Enough. Levi felt his temper snap. Not at her, but at those words. Thoseliesshe’d been telling herself for too long.
