“Caleb, baby, talk to me,” I said, gathering him in my arms as soon as he exited the doorway. But it was like he wasn’t even hearing… or feeling me.
My eyes fell on Jack Cortano as he left the room in cuffs, sandwiched between two guards. He threw us a smug smile over his shoulder, which had me releasing Caleb and striding after him. But Mav got in my way.
“Don’t!” he bit out when I tried to push past him. “Caleb needs you now,” he said firmly.
I turned to see that Caleb was in Eli’s arms, but he wasn’t reacting to his brother either.
He was just… gone.
“What the fuck happened?” I snapped at the prosecutor as I returned to Caleb’s side.
The man looked stricken. “His father said something to him.”
“What?” I asked. “What did he say?”
“He was smart – waited until the hearing was over and the judge had left,” the man muttered.
“What did he say?” I asked impatiently.
The prosecutor opened his mouth, then seemed to think better of it. He grabbed my arm and pulled me aside so Caleb wouldn’t hear us.
“He said, ‘Caleb, I love you, my sweet boy. We’ll be together again soon.’ The second he said it, Caleb just froze. It was like… like this switch got flipped inside of him,” the man said softly, his gaze going to Caleb.
A chill went through me because I had no doubt that that was exactly what had happened.
Mav was the one to say our goodbyes to the prosecutor because Eli and I were still trying to get any kind of response out of Caleb.
By the time we got Caleb back to the Whidbey Island house, he was barely functional. He hadn’t spoken or cried. Even seeing Willa didn’t have any kind of effect on him. I got him settled in our bedand crawled in with him, hoping like hell I’d get some kind of reaction out of him.
But there was nothing. Just like there was nothing three days later.
He stayed in the same position in bed, no matter how much I begged and pleaded with him to come back to me. He roused from bed only long enough to drink something or go to the bathroom, and nothing more.
It was like I wasn’t even there.
“Caleb,” I whispered as I settled my lips on the back of his neck. We were in the same place we’d been from day one. Lying in the middle of the bed with my arms wrapped around him from behind. Baby had become Caleb’s shadow from the moment we’d gotten back to the house, and I had no doubt the big animal could sense something was very wrong with the young man. He was currently lying along Caleb’s front and while Caleb wasn’t interacting with him, the dog only left his side when Eli took him outside.
I rubbed Caleb’s arm. “I’m here, baby. I’m not going anywhere. So you take as long as you need to, but Iwillbe here when you’re ready to come back to me.” I leaned over him as I spoke and while the sight of the single tear sliding down his cheek hurt like hell, it also brought a certain measure of relief.
Because it wassomething.
And right now, I’d literally take any proof that he could still hear me.
Wherever he was.
Chapter 24
Caleb
You’reDaddy’s sweet boy, aren’t you, Caleb?
Yes, Dad.
Daddy… say it.
Yes, Daddy.
No one will ever love you like I do, you know that, right?
