I gave him a lift of my chin in greeting but didn’t say anything. I didn’t have pleasantries in me at the moment. I peeled off from Cain, who headed for Kennedy where she played with two little girls. I moved towards Anna’s office and rapped twice on the door.
“Come in,” she called.
I pushed it open.
Anna looked up from her computer, expression brightening. “Hey. What are you doing here?” That brightness dimmed as she took in my face. “What happened?”
I moved to her, leaning on the desk and bending to kiss her. As if I could somehow pour all of my reassurance into her with that one action. “Your dad took fifty grand out of his retirement account two days after he found out you’d filed for custody.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s good, isn’t it? We have proof they may have bribed someone.”
“The information was uncovered through less-than-legal means.”
“Shit,” she whispered, her gaze drifting out the window to a group of kids playing on the playground. Justin and Lyla ran among them. “I know my dad is cruel. I’ve known for as long as I can remember. I just wish I knew why he hated me so much.”
“He doesn’t hate you.”
Anna’s head swiveled in my direction. “No? I’m pretty sure he does.”
“No. He hates that he can’t control you. That you won’t bend to his will. So, he does everything in his power to break you. But you never give in, you’re too damn strong.” I wished my mother had contained an ounce of Anna’s strength. The ability to stand up to my father. To get us out of there. But she hadn’t. And we’d all paid the price for it.
“I’m not that strong,” she whispered. “I’m terrified all the time.”
“Strength doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. It means you do what you have to, regardless of your fear.”
“I still haven’t taken that next step with you.”
I framed her face with my hands. God, I wanted her to take that next step. So badly, I could practically taste it. But I would never rush her. “When you’re ready, you will.”
She searched my face. “You’re so sure.”
“I am.” Because I had some bone-deep knowledge that Anna was made to be mine, and I was made to be hers.
28
Anna
“Stop fidgeting.”
My hands stilled, and I looked over at Kennedy in the chair next to me. “I’m not fidgeting.”
She snorted. “You haven’t been able to sit still since the moment you got here.”
Lyla let out a shriek as she jumped off the giant trampoline in the middle of Cain and Kennedy’s lake, Justin on her heels.
“I’m sitting.”
Kennedy raised an eyebrow. “You know, it’s good to take an afternoon off now and again.”
I felt as if all I’d been doing was taking time off. Only it wasn’t for rest and relaxation. It was for meetings with social workers and lawyers. “I feel like I haven’t been pulling my weight lately.”
Kennedy sat up in her chair and turned to face me fully. “You aren’t a robot. If some other employees and volunteers need to take on a little more responsibility at Hope House right now, so be it. You know you’ve done the same for them when they’ve had things going on in their lives.”
I toyed with a thread on my shorts. I knew I’d pitched in on things when staff had lost a loved one, had a child, or were overwhelmed, but somehow having them do the same for me made me feel vulnerable and exposed.
Kennedy reached over and squeezed my hand. “It’s okay to need help sometimes. It doesn’t make you weak.”
“I know that. In theory.”
