Page 11 of From the Embers
It wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right. But don’t worry—I hated myself for surviving too.
Be nice, I heard Rob say in my head as I made my way down the stairs.
“I’m always nice,” I replied, fully aware it was as much a lie as it was unnecessary. There was no one left for me to convince.
Taking my time to mask my emotions, I slowly walked to the door. I assumed Evelyn had already let him in when I heard his deep, raspy voice in the entryway.
“Hey, baby,” he cooed. “God, Daddy missed you.” His voice broke at the end, and as much as I didn’t want it to, it cracked in my heart too.
Eason clung to his daughter, shoulders shaking, his bandaged hand cupping the back of her head. But as soon as my feet hit the bottom stair, his sunken, red-rimmed eyes jumped to mine.
I froze, unable to so much as breathe under the weight of his gaze. I’d never witnessed such raw desolation before. Not even when I looked in the mirror.
Dark circles hung under his eyes, which were barely supported by his hollow cheeks. I hadn’t been eating, either, but Eason looked like he’d lost significant weight. Had I not known it was him, I would have had to do a double take. His sandy blond hair, which was usually messy on the top, had been shaved, and a long line of stitches started above his eyebrow, disappearing somewhere at the top of his skull. The sleeve of colorful tattoos on his left arm was covered in bandages, but scabs and burns were prominent on his neck and face.
Eason had always been larger than life. But as he stood in my foyer, holding his daughter, his whole body sagged as if it were too much for his skeleton to support.
“Hey,” he rasped.
The knot in my stomach twisted painfully. “Hey.”
We stared at each other for a long second, a million words hanging in the air between us, but we both knew that none of them would change our reality.
My nose stung as I watched him shift Luna to his hip.
He’d lost his wife.
His house.
His closest friend.
All of his possessions.
That little girl in his arms was everything he had left.
I was as far as one could get from the sainthood my husband had teased me about, but grief, bitterness, and devastation aside, I was still a human looking at another human who was lost in the pits of despair. I didn’t have much to offer him in the way of emotional support, but I had resources Eason didn’t.
“What are you planning to do?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as though the chill were in the room and not inside me.
He looked down at the tile floor. “Ah, that’s a good question. A guy I used to gig with is going to let us crash in his guest room for a few nights. I need to get in touch with the insurance company and see what my options are for housing, but I haven’t made it that far yet. Luckily, Jessica overpacked for Luna to stay here and my buddy brought me a bag of clothes he’d collected.”
He paused and drew in a shaky breath. “It’s like this domino effect, ya know? I don’t have my wallet. Which means I don’t have my debit card. But I gotta have an ID to get money from the bank. Not that cash really does you any good these days. Without a credit card, I can’t get a new phone, which is what I need for the insurance company to call me back. Meanwhile, I have no car, no way to get a car, and somehow during all of this, I have to figure out how to bury my wife.”
He let out a guttural groan filled with more agony than any cry he could have produced. His chest heaved as he lifted his head, those desolate brown eyes once again meeting mine. “Jesus fuck, Bree. How is any of this real?”
I couldn’t answer that. Part of me still hoped it was just a nightmare I would eventually wake up from.
“Evelyn,” I called, coming unstuck.
She quickly came around the corner as though she hadn’t been far—wisely so. Searching his face for permission, I took Luna from his arms and then passed her off to Evelyn. “Can you do me a favor and take the kids outside for a little bit?”
“Of course,” she replied.
“That’s not necessary,” he said, reaching for his daughter. “I just need to get her stuff so we can get out of here. I have a lot to do today.” His tone became increasingly agitated. “I don’t have time to—”
I stepped between him and Evelyn. “Eason, stop.”
“I can’t stop. I can’t stop any of this,” he snapped. “Look, I’ve got a buddy waiting in the car, I just need to get her stuff.”
