“What if you let him in and he loves you both the way you deserve to be loved?” Haizley countered. “What if he protects you and fights for you and shows up every single day?”
I closed my eyes, fresh tears spilling over. “I’m so scared.”
“I know.” Her arm came around my shoulders, pulling me close. “But being scared doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It just means you’re human.”
We sat there in silence for a long moment, the morning sun climbing higher in the sky. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear the rumble of engines, the search party returning.
Derek was bringing my daughter home.
Derek, who’d beaten a man bloody for hurting her. Derek, who’d searched for hours in the cold to find her. Derek, who’d held her when she was scared and promised to keep her safe.
Derek, who terrified me and drew me in and made me feel things I’d sworn I’d never feel again.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said again.
“You don’t have to know right now.” Haizley’s voice was soft. “You just have to be willing to see him clearly. Not through the lens of your past, or his. But as he actually is.”
“And if I don’t like what I see?”
“Then you walk away.” She pulled back to look at me. “But if you do like what you see, if you see the man who’s fighting to be worthy of you and Frankie, then maybe you give him a chance to prove it.”
The engines were getting closer now. My heart started to pound.
“He’s not perfect,” Haizley said. “He’s going to make mistakes. He’s going to struggle. But he’s also going to show up. He’s going to fight. And he’s going to love you both with everything he has.”
I looked at her, this woman who’d seen Derek at his worst and still believed in him. “You really think he’s changed?”
“I know he has.” Her eyes were steady, certain. “The question is whether you’re brave enough to believe it too.”
The truck pulled into the driveway, and I stood on shaking legs. Through the windshield, I could see Frankie in the back seat, her face pressed against the window.
She was safe.
She was home.
And Derek had brought her back to me.
I didn’t know if I was ready to trust him. I didn’t know if I’d ever be ready.
But I knew one thing for certain:
I wanted to be.
My feet moved before my mind caught up. Down the porch steps, across the gravel driveway, my breath catching in my throat with each step.
Derek’s truck door swung open, and he emerged slowly, carefully. The afternoon sun caught the exhaustion etched intohis face, the shadows under his eyes, the tension in his jaw, the dirt and sweat from hours of searching. But when he turned to reach into the back seat, everything about him softened.
His hands were so gentle as he slid them beneath Frankie’s legs and back. So careful. Like she was made of glass. Like she was the most precious thing he’d ever held.
“I’ve got you,” I heard him murmur. “Easy now.”
Frankie’s arms came around his neck, and her face—God, her face when she saw me over his shoulder. Relief crashed across her features so powerfully it nearly brought me to my knees.
“Mom!” Her voice wobbled, and her arms reached out toward me.
I ran.
All the fear, all the paralysis, all the careful distance I’d been maintaining, it shattered. I ran across the driveway, my vision blurring with tears, my only thought to reach my daughter.
