This is all too much for me, but I need to keep it together.
For my son.
For his dad.
They deserve this moment, having been robbed of way too much already.
Silent tears stream down my face as I listen to my husband introduce himself to his son.
A son who is the spitting image of him.
Cerulean eyes, cherry lips, and chestnut hair.
I use the words Ria once used to describe me.
This kid.
My kid.
My son.
He looks exactly like me.
Fuck.
My eyes won’t stop leaking. I’m sweating everywhere. I’m still shaking from the betrayal--from the realization that they stole my wife. My life. And now my son.
My family was taken from me. We were ripped apart by circumstances that were beyond my control. They hid them from me. For what?
Because I was working a case and they targeted her because of me?
I have an inkling there is more to this than Gabe has disclosed, and I intend to find out.
Something about the text he mentioned has been gnawing in the back of my mind.
And someone definitely orchestrated me finding Ria today. I feel it in my gut.
But first, I need to make peace with how much time I lost with my son.
“Hi-hey son…” My voice cuts off as gravel fills my throat and I have to clear it to continue. “It’s me. Your daddy. I’m-ah-I’m sorry I haven’t been by to see you but I’m here now, okay?”
I choke on that last word. My chest heaves with the weight of everything I missed.
Ria still refuses to look at me and I know that even though Gabe pretty much absolved me of all imaginary crimes, Ria still carries that pain with her.
The abandonment, betrayal and heartbreak the bureau’s lies have caused will take forever to erase from her mind and heart.
But Ria is it for me.
She’s my other half—my soulmate.
She’s everything and then some.
My soul only answers to hers and my heart only knows her.
I refuse to give up when it comes to her and to us.
And now, knowing we have Adrian, there is no way I’m going to stop trying to get her to forgive me for not finding her quicker. For letting her go through all of this by herself.