Mayor Walker’s amplified voice sliced through the commotion, calling for everyone’s attention. The crowd, loosely organized into clots of friends and families, began drifting toward the main stage. Niko steered Tiana toward the edge of the platform, where they had a perfect view of the action on stage and his ex directly across from them.
Once the crowd gathered, the mayor introduced Bartlett, who walked out alone, looked a little confused, but he quickly recovered.
Niko leaned down and whispered in Tiana’s ear, “Watch G when Brock gives out the donation.” She shivered, but he suspected it was less about the cold and more about his breath on her skin.
Onstage, Bartlett launched into a canned spiel, “With everyone’s generous donations, we were able to raise three point one million dollars…”
Tiana craned her neck to look for his ex in the crowd. “Gianna?”
Niko nodded.
“What did you?—”
“…and tonight I am honored to present…’
Niko nudged her. “Watch.”
She turned around just as Bartlett introduced, “Dr. Wesley Campbell of Healers Beyond Horizons, a donation of one million dollars.”
Bartlett held up an oversized novelty check and grinned, gesturing grandly to the side of the stage.
G’s face went from looking totally blank, almost like a robot, to her entire countenance lighting up like the Christmas tree in Times Square.
“Wait…who…what?” Tiana stuttered, clearly taken aback by G’s reaction. “What? What? What?”
Wes walked over and accepted the check.
“Who is he?” Tiana asked.
“Just wait,” Niko said into her ear.
Yaya, who had observed the whole scene with the knowing smirk of someone who’d seen every permutation of love, announced loudly, “He is nice-looking boy. Good face, good hands. Maybe get haircut, but is okay.”
He had Yaya’s stamp of approval. G would be happy. She’d always loved Yaya.
Wesley Campbell’s handshake with Brock Bartlett played out with the formal crispness of a contract, but Niko caught the glimmer in Wes’s eyes, a kind of universal alpha conviction that made him want to high-five the guy and also, weirdly, hug him. Wes had that rare quality of genuine charisma and steadfastness that wasn’t boring, the kind that unfolded in layers, nothing like Brock’s frat-boy, all-American schtick. Niko could tell, just from the two conversations he’d had with the man, that Wes was the kind of person who remembered birthdays and paid for coffee in the line behind him and called his mom twice a week. He was the kind of person who could break someone’s heart trying to do the right thing and spend the next thirteen years trying to put it back together with handwritten notes and calls from faraway time zones.
Wes took the microphone, and the atmosphere shifted. The crowd wasn’t rowdy anymore. Instead, a hush fell over Main Street, the kind reserved for funerals and championship games. The wind held its breath.
“On behalf of everyone at Healers Beyond Horizons, I want to say thank you,” Wes began, voice strong enough to fill the square but soft enough to feel like a private confession. “The good that this will do is immeasurable. It will ripple out into families and futures we can’t even begin to imagine.”
Tiana, who had up until this moment been content to lean into Niko’s chest and soak up the festivities, gripped his forearms with both hands, her body tense in anticipation. Niko, meanwhile, watched G at the edge of the crowd, her chin set, her jaw flexing in that stubborn way that meant she was trying not to cry.
Wes’s speech veered from the expected script, and Niko could almost see the Mayor’s curiosity peaking.
“I have worked tirelessly,” Wes continued, “to bring medical care to places that have none. We’ve set up clinics in Haiti, in rural Vietnam, and in the mountain villages of Guatemala. We’ve treated bullet wounds, infectious diseases, malnutrition, delivered babies, introduced sanitation, provided vaccines, and sat with families who don’t know if their child will make it through the week.” His gaze scanned the crowd, but it kept coming back to G.
Tiana, ever the bloodhound for drama, as long as it wasn’t hers, started thumping an excited rhythm against Niko’s biceps. “He’s looking at her,” she stage-whispered.
Wes’s voice dropped an octave, the way it sometimes does when the words are so heavy you need muscle just to lift them out. “I gave up a lot, sacrificed a lot, to follow my mission. But the biggest cost was the distance it created from the people I love, the people who believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.” He looked straight at G, and this time everyone noticed. It was like one of those moments in a sports movie, where the whole crowd knows exactly where the quarterback is throwing the ball, and nobody tries to intercept it because they all want it to land.
Wes took a breath, steadying himself. “With this money, we’re going to open up the first Healers Beyond Horizons clinic in the States. Here. We’re going to focus on the mental health crisis and opioid crisis that’s tearing through our communities.And…” He hesitated, just long enough for every heart in Hope Falls to skip a beat. “And, on a personal note, I’m hoping that I can reconnect with the people who matter most. The people I never stopped loving.” He let the words hang in the air, no apology, no backpedal. Just the truth, big and bare as a Christmas tree stripped of its lights.
A thunder of applause erupted, and the crowds began to disperse. Niko’s family splintered off, and as the applause continued, Brock and Wes walked back the way they came. The mob around the stage loosened, G seemed to be pulled forward by an invisible string. She stood at the foot of the steps, waiting, arms folded protectively across her ribcage, the way she did when she was steeling herself for a punch.
Tiana exhaled in a rush. “How did you know…?”
“She always talked about him. They were best friends from kindergarten to sixth grade. Then he asked her to be his girlfriend. They stayed together all through high school until he left for college. He broke up with her because he thought it wouldn’t be fair to her. She wanted to see the world, he wanted to save it. He didn’t want her to wait for him. But she always did. She never stopped.”
