“I love you.”
“Are you hurt?”
“I don’t know. My wrist is sore.” She lifted her hand. “And a two-hundred-pound man is on top of me.”
“Oh, beautiful, I plan to be on top of you for years to come.”
“Are you okay?”
I nodded as the chaos around us infiltrated our bubble—our globe.
“Lena?” Julia asked.
Getting to my knees, I searched, finding Lena. She was standing, surrounded by men and women in dark suits. Our gazes met. “Are you okay?” I mouthed.
She nodded and pointed.
“Fuck.”
Standing, I offered Julia my hand. Once we were both upright, I pulled her against me, keeping the scene behind me blocked. “I love you.”
“What are you hiding from me? Who’s hurt?” She pulled away, her gaze going to the man on the concrete. “No.”
Gregg McGrath was lying in a pool of blood. He appeared unconscious as police and ambulance sirens filled the air. Ana was at her husband’s side, kneeling in her expensive clothes.
“Gregg. Don’t leave me.”
I scanned the growing crowd.
Across the street, the police had a man on the ground, his hands bound behind his back. I hadn’t spotted him earlier, but now there was no doubt. The man who looked like me was in police custody. I looked for Albert. It was his and Michael’s men who took Phillip down before he could do more damage.
“We found Lip,” Lena said, coming to me as Julia went to her father. “How is her dad?”
Julia was also on her knees as a pool of blood turned dark.
“Fuck, I hope alive.”
I went forward, taking Julia’s hand and helping her stand as the emergency workers screamed for everyone to clear away. “Ana,” I said, offering her a hand.
With a nod, Julia’s mother reached for me, her hand trembling in my grasp. “Thank you.”
“Mom.”
Ana’s body shuddered as Julia held her mother in her arms. “I love him,” Ana repeated over and over.
“He knows that, Mom. I love him too.”
Julia
Chequamegon Bay and Lake Superior glistened like diamonds, the two bodies of water meeting at the shore to our property. Sitting on large rocks, I lifted my face to the sun. Although I’d come to this region in the cold of winter, I’d been promised warmth. It had come in abundance, not only in the flames of roaring fires or the sun above, but from the man at my side.
As my skin warmed, I thought about what Paula had told me the day of our wedding. She’d said Van and I would face clouds and sun. The sun was there for our enjoyment, to bask in the beauty and revel in the satisfaction. The clouds were glue, holding the sunny days together like links in a chain; one could not stay connected without the other.
Clouds descended, their gray fog infiltrating our lives. They threatened to take our joy and suffocate the light. Nothing was as dark as the day in Chicago, standing before the building housing Wade’s corporate offices.
The absence of light defined dark.
Light shone bright that morning during the beginning of February.