Chapter 11 - The Reunion in the Federal Apartment
Seeing Rebecca again did not feel cinematic.
There was no running across an airport or collapsing violin score in the background. There was just a secure federal apartment on the north side of Columbus, a plain sofa, two agents standing politely near the kitchen, and my ex-wife rising to her feet so fast she nearly knocked over a paper cup of coffee.
She looked terrible.
Beautiful in the way surviving people sometimes do, but terrible.
Bruising had yellowed along her jaw. A bandage covered two stitches near her hairline. Her eyes landed on Emily and broke instantly.
Emily froze for half a breath.
Then she ran.
Rebecca dropped to her knees and caught her so hard they both nearly fell sideways. Emily sobbed in a way I had not yet heard since finding her—deep, uncontrolled, furious crying from a child who had finally reached the person she had been surviving for.
“I thought you left me,” she gasped.
Rebecca made a sound I never want to hear again.
“No. No, baby. Never. I thought your dad had you. I thought he got there.”
Emily pulled back just enough to look at her.
“He didn’t.”
Rebecca looked at me.
Whatever blame either of us might once have held toward the other vanished under the weight of that fact. There would be time for anger later. That moment belonged to something simpler and much more painful.
We had both misjudged danger.
Emily had paid for it.
Rebecca drew Emily back against her chest. “I’m so sorry.”
I sat across from them and let them have several minutes before Rebecca finally looked up at me.
“I should have told you sooner how bad it was.”
“Yes,” I said.
“I know.”
“I should have listened sooner when Emily changed.”
She closed her eyes briefly.
“Yes.”
That honesty mattered more than comfort would have.
Bell entered a few minutes later with the operational update.
Grant had been arrested without a public standoff at a service property outside Delaware, Ohio. The deputy who leaked information was arrested too. So were two dealership finance managers tied to title fraud and fraudulent insurance claims. Search warrants were still being executed at multiple Mercer-affiliated lots.
Rebecca stayed in protective housing another forty-eight hours.
Then she and Emily moved into a court-approved temporary residence unknown to Grant’s associates.
For the first time since Friday, our daughter slept in a bed with both parents within shouting distance.
It wasn’t a healed family.
May you like
But it was a protected one.
That was enough for the week.
