Suddenly, old fears of orphanages and foster homes flooded back into his mind. If they were there to take his parents away again, then they’d have a whole other fight on their hands.
He’d just about decided to storm back into the room when the conference room door opened up, and the sour-faced lady left, with Paul Boersky in tow.
Travis stood and moved quickly to block their path down the hallway, his arms outstretched to either side. The adults had little choice but to stop. “Why don’t you people leave us alone?” he demanded.
Paul forced a chuckle, even as he looked embarrassed. “Hey, kiddo,” he said. “You need to relax. Everything’s going to be just fine.”
Travis ignored him, never breaking his gaze from its lock on Emma Sanders’s piercing green eyes. As he stared, he saw them soften. “Are you arresting us again?”
The attorney general smiled; not one of the condescending smirks he’d seen so often these past weeks, but a genuine, grandmotherly smile. She shook her head. “No, Travis, we’re not here to arrest anyone.”
It wasn’t what he expected, and the answer left him momentarily speechless. “Oh,” he said. He lowered his arms and let them pass on either side. Then he turned to face them again. “You know, they never did anything wrong.”
Ms. Sanders stopped and turned. She reached out to touch the boy’s face, but when he flinched, she withdrew her hand. For just a few seconds, she looked as if she might argue, but in the end, she just let the smile return. “You’re right,” she said. “Now, why don’t you go on back inside? I think your folks are waiting for you.”
Irene and the old senator were just leaving as Travis reentered the room, and then they were alone again, just the three of them. “Is it over?”
Jake looked first to Carolyn and then to his son. When he smiled, his eyes still looked sad. “Yes, Trav, it’s finally over. We’re free to go home.”
Travis scowled. “Do we have one?”
Yes, they did. And it would be wherever the three of them could stand in one place together.
The signifigance of it all hit Jake first, and it hit him hard. The faces of old friends flooded his mind-all of them long dead; killed in an act of cruelty that by all rights should have taken his own life. The weight of all the lies and all the blood and all the fear suddenly blossomed to huge proportions, and in that moment, he knew he couldn’t bear it anymore.
Family first, at all costs. He’d said the words so many times they’d come to lose their meaning. And here before him stood the reasons for all the pain and all the risk-taking. Gone, though, was the danger, and with it disappeared his reason to be strong.
The tears came from nowhere, propelled from his soul by an unspeakable grief. Pain he’d inflicted. Pain he’d endured. Childhood stolen from the heart of his only son.
“I need a hug,” he tried to say. The sound was lost in the flood of his emotion.
But no one needed to hear his words. They came to him easily, willingly. Even the tough kid who rejected all gestures of tenderness was there. And they all cried, openly, and free of shame, cleansing the agony of all they’d endured.
Jake prayed that one day God might forgive the sins he’d committed to protect his family, but that could wait. For the time being, he was blessed with all the forgiveness a man could possibly ask for.
They were a family again. The Donovan family. And all that lay ahead of them was the future.
