Breanna dropped down to her knees. “I’ll never lie to you, honey. Ever. Especially about that. OK?”
Teri nodded.
The doors opened. Breanna glanced to her right and saw the guards standing in front of the room where Mark Stoner was being kept under heavy sedation.
She wanted to see him, too. To thank him for not killing Zen.
And to tell him that they would figure out how to help him. How to end his pain, and get him back to what he had been. They owed him that.
“This way, Mom — Room 312.” Teri took her hand and led her in the other direction, down the hall. There was a guard in front of Zen’s room, too. He didn’t smile as they approached, but evidently he’d been briefed to let them through — he stepped to one side, making sure they could get to the door.
Zen was sitting up in bed, laptop open.
Working.
“My two favorite women in the world!” he said as they came in.
Teri ran to him and hugged him. Breanna, a tear slipping from her eye, hung back for just a second, watching her husband and daughter enjoy their embrace, before going ahead and joining them.
About the Author
DALE BROWN, a former U.S. Air Force captain, was born in Buffalo, New York, and now lives in Nevada. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Western European history and received a U.S. Air Force commission in 1978. He was still serving in the Air Force when he wrote his highly acclaimed first novel,
