The O'Connells Box Set

Chapter 32

She stared at the concrete wall, lying on the thin mattress, when she heard a key in the door and sat up to see a different guard, Patty, with light hair and at least fifty pounds on her. Patty terrified her more than any of them. She wondered how many days had passed. She’d had no word on how long she’d be there.

“Come on,” was all Patty said in that way of hers, never letting Reine know what she was walking into.

She stood up, expecting to be shackled again, but the woman only reached for her arm and pulled her out of the cell. She wondered for a minute whether she was going back into the general populace, whether the warden had figured she’d punished her enough.

“Where am I going? Do I finally get to use a phone? I’d like to call my dad.”

“Keep walking,” Patty said.

Phone privileges could take a while to earn, she knew. There were more doors, more buzzing. The noise was something she’d never gotten used to.

Suddenly, she was taken into a room she’d been in before, and one of the other guards handed back her clothes.

“You’re getting out,” Patty said. Was someone messing with her? Patty gestured toward her. “Unless you love it here so much that you want to stay.”

“How? I don’t understand?” she said. Patty had walked back to the door, so she took in the other guard as she kicked off her prison shoes and set her fingers on the zipper of the jumpsuit.

“Was told the governor gave you a pardon,” the guard said before turning around. “Lucky, I guess. Can’t say I’ve seen that happen before.”

Reine just stared for a moment, realizing the other guard had turned to give her some privacy. She pulled the zipper down and changed out of the prison jumpsuit, then pulled on her old worn clothes and slid her bare feet into her shoes, still with a hole in the toe. She flicked her hand over her short dark hair, lifting it, and glanced back to the jumpsuit, praying she’d never have to wear it again.

“Pardon, how?” she said as she was escorted out into the hall once more, hearing the buzzing of the locks.

Another door opened, and then she was outside. For a moment, she blinked in the sunlight.

Karen. It had to have been Karen. She really had come through for her. She started walking, seeing the dirt and gravel of the parking lot, where a car was waiting. One foot in front of the other.

Then she saw her.

“Mommy!” Eva cried. She was standing near Marcus by the car, then running right for her, wearing blue jeans and a yellow and blue T-shirt, her hair in a ponytail. She was in her arms, and Reine went down on her knees. She didn’t know who was crying, her or Eva or both, as she held her daughter and kissed her cheeks, her head, feeling the gravel dig into her knees as her daughter leaned down. She’d never felt anything so good.

She looked up and saw Marcus standing over them, wearing blue jeans and a faded T-shirt. Reine slowly got up, but she kept an arm around Eva, and he flicked his gaze down to Eva and then over to her.

“You okay?” he said in a low voice.

She glanced down to her daughter, who had her arms around her and was looking up at her with a smile. She nodded and said, “How? The guard said I was pardoned. I don’t understand.” She couldn’t not touch her daughter. She was rubbing Eva’s arm, not understanding how she and Marcus were there.

“Full pardon from the governor, so no parole. The slate is clean,” he said, gesturing toward her.

She felt her brow knit. “So I’m free?”

“You’re out, Mommy,” Eva said, “and Marcus said you’ll never have to go back, and you can come live with us.”

She stared at her daughter, then lifted her gaze to Marcus. She wasn’t sure she could get her tongue to move. Maybe it was the confusion on her face that had Marcus reaching over to run his hand over Eva’s head. He looked at Reine.

“We had a family meeting,” he said. “We want you to come and stay with us, with Charlotte and Eva and me. Charlotte and Eva have been working all morning, getting the place ready for you.”

“Eva, can you go to the car?” Reine said. “I’ll be right there. I just want to talk to Marcus for a minute.”

When her daughter looked up at her, she didn’t miss the hint of worry. Even as long as they’d been apart, she knew when she was scared, worried, or happy.

“Hey there, sweet pea, I told you it’s going to be okay,” Marcus said. “Let your mom and me talk, and then we’re going home.”

She only nodded before walking to the car, looking back once. Reine had to pull her arms over her chest, aching from everything she’d lost.

“So what the hell is this?” she said, unable to keep the nastiness from her voice. The way Marcus looked down at her and nodded, she didn’t know what was coming, but her hands fisted, and the only reason she kept them by her sides and said nothing else was because Eva would be watching.

“This is me trying to make things right, Reine. Look, you’re Eva’s mother, but we adopted her, and I love that little girl as much as I love my son. We weren’t just looking after her; she’s our family. I know you blame me, not as much as I blame myself, but I don’t want to be fighting with you over Eva, because it will tear her apart, and I can’t have that.”

She pulled in one breath, then another.

“We want you to move in with us,” he said. “We have a room in the house for you.”

It was absolutely absurd, and she wondered for a second whether there was a but coming. But he said nothing.

“So the pardon from the governor, Karen’s husband, that was because of you?” she said.

He had the same vivid eyes as his sister. She remembered his siblings, all of them, and the way they’d stood together.

“You were owed it,” he said.

For a moment, she felt so damn uncomfortable. She said, “I don’t know if I can forgive you.”

He nodded and gestured to his car, where her daughter was waiting.

“Eva really loves you,” she said.

He looked down at her. “And we love her. So is that a yes?”

She made herself breathe. “For how long?”

He said nothing for a second. “You’re Eva’s mother, so that makes you part of our family, Reine.” He gestured to her and said, “As long as you want.”

Reine made herself nod, then started walking with Marcus to the car, thinking of her daughter and all the promises she’d made to her as she held her as a baby. “I’m still angry at you.”

He kept walking with her, side by side. “I know, but that’s the thing about family, Reine. Sometimes we do something that seems unforgivable, but in the end, we’re family. That little girl over there, she deserves this. But just a heads up and a word of warning, my family, all of them, are waiting for us back at home.”

She glanced up at Marcus, unsure what to make of the way he winced. “Oh, and should I be worried?” she asked as she strode to the passenger side. Eva fell in beside her and hugged her again.

“Only because they’re nosy, and they’ll intrude, but they care a lot,” he said.

She glanced down at her daughter, who looked happier than she ever had. “Well, I guess I’m coming home with you.”

Eva squealed and hugged her again, and when she looked over to Marcus O’Connell, she didn’t miss the mist in his eyes or the smile he didn’t try to hide. He opened his door, and Eva climbed into the back seat, and Reine sat in the passenger side.

As Marcus started the car, she pulled on her seatbelt, and there was a moment where she realized she couldn’t stay angry with him.

She was with her daughter.

She was out of jail.

And, for the first time, she wasn’t scared of what was in front of her.