From the Embers

by Aly Martinez

Bree and I sat outside in the car for a while. Laughing. Hugging. Kissing. Just generally basking in an unfamiliar feeling of good news. And when we were finally done, we got out and gave Rob and Jessica the biggest fuck-you we had to offer. We walked inside to our family.

Being in love with Eason Maxwell was the easiest thing I’d ever done. I’d spent so many years trying to build the perfect life with the perfect husband, the perfect kids, and the perfect company. But mastering the perception of perfect isn’t the same as finding genuine happiness.

I didn’t know how she did it. I’d been in relationships before. Hell, I’d been married. But it was different with Bree. After a day spent experiencing high after high, living the life I’d dreamed about for the majority of my existence on Earth, coming home to her was still my favorite part.

As I stood there staring at her, I chuckled at the jar of untouched red M&M’s on her nightstand. I only knew they were untouched because she still hadn’t found the engagement ring inside. She’d get there though.

Our bond might have been forged through tragedy, but our love flourished through patience, genuine respect, and understanding.

Two lines typed in black ink. Nothing special yet completely earth-shattering. $5 million to buy her back Followed by a twenty-six-digit number of some sort. That was it. No instructions or explanation. Just one demand and five lives that would never be the same. I’d seen Eason broken and shattered. I’d seen him bleeding and blanketed by fire. I’d seen him hollow and emotionally demolished. But as he fell to his knees, his hands shaking, the unimaginable setting in, the man I loved was obliterated. She was gone.

He slanted his head. “A dead man coming back to life to kidnap a child that is not his own? That makes sense to you?” “Hey,” Eason growled, all patience with the entire day gone. “Watch your fucking tone.”

damn right. you tell him Eason

Do you know anyone by the name S. Barton?” “Doesn’t ring a bell. Why?” “Because less than twenty-four hours before your house exploded, the man who kidnapped your daughter sent him half a million dollars.”

It was purely speculation, since Rob had refused to cooperate with the police. But I thought there was a part of him who just wanted to punish Eason. Seeing him succeed on that Grammy stage, knowing his dreams were coming true while Rob sat alone in hiding, his good name on a tombstone, had to have ignited him into a jealous frenzy.

His deluge of questions switched from those about heaven to ones like if Daddy was going to come back and take him or Madison in the middle of the night. Or if Rob could make our house catch fire from jail.

:(

“I have loved you since before I knew I loved you. I have loved you since before I was supposed to love you. And I will continue to love you every single day for the rest of eternity. I cannot tell you life will always be easy. Let’s be honest, I’m still going to call you Sug sometimes.”

However, the tears in his eyes and the relief on his face as we explained that Rob would no longer legally be his father healed wounds inside me I hadn’t even realized I was still carrying. Knowing Asher had felt that fear, had been worried he’d have to go visit the man who had kidnapped his sister and terrified that he’d somehow come back for him, shattered me in so many different ways.