It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,37

long before she started in on it, too. They ‘want off the plane now.’”

I ground my teeth at their rudeness.

“Shitheads,” I muttered, once again looking out the window to get a good look at what was going on.

What I saw made my heart hurt even more.

The coffin was now resting on a cart of some sort, which was next to a hearse that was parked at an angle next to the plane. The baggage handlers were backed away, giving the coffin a wide berth. And the attendant with the hearse was also standing a ways back.

That was because a woman with three young children was making her way to the coffin.

The woman was having a hard time keeping up with the two youngest kids that looked to be twins. They were up and down, touching this and that, laughing and skipping and ultimately having a grand ol’ time.

The two baggage handlers were watching on from their positions next to the plane, looking sad.

I felt my heart skip a beat at the innocence.

Those two little babies had no clue that their life had changed. That everything they thought they knew was no more.

But the oldest child, who looked to be about six or so, was more than aware of what was going on.

He was dressed in his Sunday best. He had on a shirt that said ‘Welcome Home, Daddy’ that looked like he’d made it for his father’s impending arrival.

Only, nobody had ever thought that he’d be wearing it for this reason.

I heard someone’s breath catch, and only then realized that it was mine.

Tears were leaking down my cheek, and my breath caught every few seconds or so, causing Jonah to wrap his hand around the back of my neck and squeeze.

They slowly made their way to where the flag-covered coffin lay, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was holding it together by sheer force of will. Force of will in the form of two small babies that were looking at her for strength.

They made it to the coffin and I saw her waver. Saw her eyes fill with tears. Saw her shoulders droop, her body sag, and her arms shake.

The baby in her arms bobbed, and I saw the moment that she wasn’t going to make it.

I tensed.

The hand at the back of my neck left, and all of a sudden, I heard the seat belt clink as Jonah stood in a rush.

“Let me off the plane.” Jonah rushed to the flight attendant.

“Sir, there are no steps to get off…” the flight attendant said. “And it’s against…”

“That woman is about to lose it,” he said. “That baby is teetering in her arms.”

The woman had been watching right along with us. She knew just as well as I did that the woman wouldn’t hold out for much longer.

“Let him off,” I heard a deep voice say.

The pilot.

I’d seen him welcoming us on board earlier.

He was an older man with graying black hair. His eyes were hard, though.

“But Captain Alto…” the head flight attendant said. “There could be repercussions.”

“I’ll deal with those,” Captain Alto said firmly. “Let him off.”

Then the plane doors were opening.

Something made me look back, and what I saw had my heart dropping down somewhere between my feet.

There was another man standing at the back of the plane. One that had looked like he was about to demand the same thing of the flight attendant.

Only, he looked rough and battered and didn’t look like he could help much.

The man was tall, built…and broken.

His eyes, though. Those would haunt me for the rest of my life.

One look into them and I knew that something terrible had happened to him.

But my eyes once again left the poor man and went to the window.

The limo driver was watching helplessly as the woman’s silent tears had turned into bone-wracking sobs. As she’d gone from holding it together to broken and battered.

Jonah’s tall, strong form made it to the woman in time for the woman to sway on her feet.

Jonah scooped up the baby in her arms, hooked his arm around the woman’s waist, and held her steady as she began to cry.

That was when the rain started to fall.

It was the perfect ending to a rather shitty day.

But my husband didn’t flinch.

And when the small boy in his welcome home outfit curled into Jonah’s side, too, he took his weight as well.

It was beautiful and tragically sad and only proved to me that Jonah wasn’t the man that