Redemption (The Protectors 8)

And it was the one thing that still haunted him.

The attack on Seth and his parents.

In the days after T’s abduction of Henry, I’d mourned the loss of Levi. Him telling me he didn’t trust me had hurt more than if he’d told me he didn’t love me. The pain had been enough to have me curling in on myself. I’d managed to find enough strength to put things into motion after Seth had come to me to tell me about his plans to help Levi get custody of Henry, but three days after I’d said my goodbyes to Levi, I’d gotten the call I’d been waiting to get for more than a year.

Amani is awake.

Even now, the doctor’s words caused my whole body to shudder in excitement. I’d forgotten everything else as I’d raced to the rehab center. When I’d run into Amani’s room, she’d turned her head from where she’d been looking out the window and she’d smiled at me.

Just smiled.

Because she hadn’t been able to talk then. The doctors had reassured me that she’d likely regain her speech, but that she would need time and lots of therapy. Her motor skills were compromised too. I’d held my daughter’s hand as the doctors had explained it would take months, if not years, for Amani to learn to do things like talk, walk and eat again. But I hadn’t cared because as I’d sat there, she’d held my hand. Not briefly as part of a reflexive movement. But really held it.

I’d been a mess for days after that.

Crying almost constantly every time Amani woke up from a nap and looked at me. I’d been terrified that she’d close her eyes and when she’d open them again, she’d be back in the vegetative state, so every time she’d looked at me and seen me, it had been like I was reliving that first moment all over again.

Seth, Tristan and the rest of the family had come to visit me in the days that followed, but they hadn’t been who I’d needed.

That role had been reserved for one man and one man only. And he’d walked in and given me my second miracle a mere four days after I got my child back.

We hadn’t talked that night about what had happened between us, but I’d known it was coming. When Tristan and Seth had come by the next day to sit with Amani so I could go home and get cleaned up, Levi had come with me. But when I’d brought it up as soon as we’d walked in the door, he’d kissed me and said that it didn’t matter what had happened in the past. We were moving forward and that was it.

I’d thought for sure he’d harbor some anger towards me in the weeks that had followed, but he hadn’t. When he hadn’t been working, he’d been at my side with Amani.

Talking to her.

Reading to her.

Watching TV with her.

Seth had been the one to tell me that Levi had gotten Henry back, but that they’d had no place to stay, so I’d asked Levi to come stay with me, though I wasn’t spending much time at the house. I’d even offered up my guest room in case Levi wasn’t ready to go back to an intimate relationship, but he’d merely kissed me, told me that he loved me, and accepted my offer.

He never left.

Amani’s therapy in the past few months hadn’t been easy, but she’d started to regain the ability to speak. Her cognitive functions were better than her motor and physiological skills so we spent time playing games and reading books when she wasn’t working with her team of therapists. A few weeks after she’d woken up, she’d gotten to go outside in a wheelchair and Levi and Henry and I had treated her to a picnic, though the food choices had been limited to the bland foods Amani was able to tolerate.

I’d finally stopped sleeping at the rehab center about a month earlier, but I still spent every day there. Levi and I hoped to go back to volunteering at the soup kitchen at some point, but between Henry and Amani, we knew it wouldn’t be as often as we would have liked. I’d donated some money to the church instead, and while I knew it helped, I still missed not being able to contribute in a more meaningful way.

Levi and Henry had settled into my home with no issue whatsoever and the one time Levi had mentioned finding his own place, I’d unashamedly begged him and his son not to move out…to stay with me and my daughter and make us a family.

He’d never brought up leaving again.

While I’d initially been worried that I’d done too much damage to our relationship to repair, Levi hadn’t seen it the same way. The first full night I’d slept at home, he and I had made love. It had been just as amazing as the first time. The next night, Levi had fucked me for the first time and I’d loved every second of it. I’d never had a more passionate or giving lover than Levi, though he had a bit of dirty streak in him. After the first time he’d fucked me, we’d fallen asleep. I’d woken up to him pressed against my back, his dick notched between the globes of my ass. He’d fucked me in that exact position, but he’d told me if I didn’t come, he’d reward me handsomely.