kept this from them?”
He shrugged, seemingly entirely unashamed of his actions and yet I saw the guilt and regret in his dark eyes I’d always related to. Such sad, sad eyes.
I couldn’t fathom his reasoning. Not when he had family who loved him and he had so much help and support at his side.
“The initial diagnosis wasn’t severe and so we watched it for a while before taking any action. I thought, I thought I could get through it and no one would have to worry.”
“David.” Tears burned my eyes as I spoke his name.
“No one knows yet.”
“More secrets, then?” I arched a brow, unable to contain my irritation. “Why?” And what a stupid thought. Love made him do it, his desire to protect everyone. With my own heart squeezing painfully tight inside my chest it was difficult to rasp out a breath.
“I fear I’ve jumped many chapters ahead in the story, but if I start at the beginning, I don’t know if it will make as much sense.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I kind of need to start at the end and work my way back to the beginning if that’s okay.”
Even as the cage around my chest tightened in painful measures, I must have nodded or given some acknowledgement because he started anyway.
“Hudson, he’ll want to save me from it. And I’m worried. I worried for both of my children over the years.” He strummed his fingers on the tabletop, rattling his coffee spoon to the same beat everything inside of me felt rattled. “They had a lifetime of saying goodbye to people they loved without the experience of being able to truly live and love first. Melissa gave that love and cried her tears when we had to say goodbye to kids we welcomed into our home, but Hudson, with many he grew close to, he also closed himself off over the years, slowly, piece by piece when it was time to let them go.”
I shook my head. This was torture. Listening to this from David’s perspective was so drastically different than hearing it from Hudson’s. He always made it sound like his life was incredibly fun, I’d never considered how hard it would be.
“I’m assuming you know my wife, Jackie, died seven years ago?”
I nodded. At least I think I did. He flip-flopped through explanations quickly, and I was still hearing the word cancer echoing in my brain. “Yes. Hudson told me.”
“She was killed by a drunk driver on April tenth.”
A punch to the gut couldn’t have hit me with more force than those words. “What?” I gasped, hand going to my stomach to try to staunch the sudden urge to vomit. The timing… it couldn’t be.
“No,” I rasped, barely able to form sounds much less words.
“The same night of your accident, six and a half hours away, my wife was also killed by a drunk driver here. In their case, neither survived.” He rolled his lips together and beat back the emotion I could see threatening to spill from him. “When Melissa met you, she felt drawn to you for a reason she couldn’t have predicted, couldn’t have known, and definitely didn’t understand.”
He reached across the table then and held out his hand, palm up, waiting for me to place mine into his. I did without hesitation. He squeezed my hand firmly, the warmth from him so comforting, so much like Hudson’s, tears fell down my cheeks and I swiped them away with my free hand.
“When you told Melissa your story, she came home in tears, begging us to help you. She begged us so much Hudson lost his mind.”
“Jenna said...” I stopped and cleared my own throat, choked down tears and pain. “Jenna said she was dying. When she came to the prison?”
His lips pushed to one side before nodding. “She went to the doctor for her annual physical and was diagnosed within weeks. It was so late by then… she lived eight more months after.”
“I’m so sorry.” I squeezed his hand to offer him comfort but inside, my chest was rattling. Everything was too tight, like my bones were outgrowing my skin and a chillness swept over me so powerfully I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel warm again.
“She made us promise to help you. Teased Hudson one night it was her dying wish and he had to give that to her. He refused. I believe, even if he believed Melissa when she talked about you, his mom’s death was a