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NINETEEN
Elias
The SUV pulledup to the garage, and I looked around.
I hadn’t been here in years, and the last time I had come, I didn’t know the significance this place held.
But as I looked around now, it hit me that my life had changed the moment I’d come here.
I just hadn’t known that at time.
“I’ll be back,” I said to the driver, and then I got out of the car.
My arrival had not gone unnoticed.
Kayla’s father was standing on the stairs of the same trailer that had been there the first time I’d come.
I could see the tension in his posture but noticed he didn’t meet my gaze.
My disgust for the man was palpable.
Even all those years ago when Kayla had been little more than a girl, she had been more courageous than he would ever be in his life.
The man didn’t deserve a daughter like her.
But I wouldn’t deny that I was grateful for his weakness.
After all, it had brought Kayla to me.
“Has something happened to Kayla?” he asked.
“I’m not here to see you,” I said, feeling generous because I had lowered myself to even acknowledge his presence.
“Is she all right?” he asked.
At the frantic tone underlying his voice, I finally looked at him.
“You gave her to me, let her take your place, and you would dare ask if she is all right? What if she wasn’t? What could you do about it? Could you help her? Would you avenge her?”
I waited a moment, another, then shook my head.
“That’s what I thought, Gary,” I said, done with him. “Where’s Todd?”
Gary was an irritant, but Todd…he was something else.
Before Gary could speak, Todd emerged from the office.
He looked so…normal.
Wholesome.
I knew that Kayla had been engaged to him, and as he approached, I could see why.
Everything about him said solid.
He would be a kind husband, a good provider.
A good father and role model for her children.
