The Returned

Cade

All the way back to the house my mind was working overtime. I’d already passed judgment and knew how I wanted this to end, but I had to be real fucking careful going forward.

I needed my wife, needed to be inside her to wipe away the bad taste that had been left by me visiting that place. I need to find a way to erase that shit from her memory and mine.

She was looking more with it by the time we got back to the house and I saw dad had talked her into picking at her food. My baby is strong as fuck. That was my first thought when I saw her sitting there with my kids on her lap.

“You doing okay?” I sat next to her on the couch, still with a firm grip on the kids.

“Yeah, it’s finally hitting me. We have our babies back. I think I wasn’t really breathing this whole time until now.” I pulled her in and kissed her cheek. “I know what you mean. Gimme one!”

I damn near had to wrestle my daughter out of her hand. I heard my heart beat in my ear, as I looked down at her little face. Everything hit me at once like a brick to the chest.

This little being was part of me and my woman. She was a whole person with her mother’s beauty and my lips. Her hair was already a beautiful shade of red and she had a lot of it.

I glanced over at her brother and got a jolt. There was no difference. These two shared everything down to the birthmarks behind their ears. I smell trouble in the years ahead, but I’ll take that shit.

“They look just like you.”

“They have your mouth.” Those few words made me feel ten feet tall. Fuck yeah they had my mouth, and my birthmark. They were all mine for all that they looked like their mother. I drew my daughter in and smelled her hair.

The love welled up inside me like a tsunami and I almost lost my air. I put my arm around Zandi’s shoulders as she held my son. Fuck, this is my whole life right here. And someone I trusted had almost taken them away from me.

I wasn’t ready to think about that shit yet, that’s going to take a lot of time and effort, something I’m not ready to do just yet. I prefer to spend this time focused on my family and getting them settled. Then I can turn my attention to Mindy and this fucked up shit.

“Did you see the cabin?” Her voice was low but I heard the pain nonetheless. I nodded my head, too choked up to answer. When I finally found my voice I told her how proud I was of her for making her escape. If she hadn’t I’d never have known about our kids. Never have been able to save them.

Mike was in and out all evening while I stayed with her and the kids, and mom and dad were never too far away. But once dark came around everyone started to clear out.

Mike must’ve done something because the phone had stopped ringing off the hook a while ago, and there were no strange cars trying to pull into my driveway.

Mike had wanted to stay or at least leave some of his men here with us, but I nixed the idea. Mindy was behind bars until the bail hearing the next day and since she was the only danger to my family I saw no need. “Trust me, no one is getting by me to get to them.”

When it was about time to put the kids down for the night I said goodbye to my parents and brother, and helped her take the kids upstairs.

We bathed them while they slept, the poor little things too beat to even keep their heads up or their eyes open because their mother refused to leave them alone all day. “Do you want them to sleep with us?”

She gave it some thought before shaking her head as she lifted her son from the water and wrapped him in a towel. I followed suit and did the same for our daughter, taking the time to look her over to make sure she was truly okay.

I was still having these little moments of doubt and disbelief that things had turned out the way they had. I know things could’ve ended a whole lot different and for the rest of my life I’ll always be grateful to my wife for saving herself and in so doing, saving our kids as well.

She kissed our son’s head and covered his chest with powder. “I think I need you tonight. We’ll keep the monitors with us. Is that bad?” I was a bit surprised by her answer but didn’t argue as I followed her lead. “No, that’s not bad. I need you too.”