THIS CAN’T BE happening.
I couldn’t let it happen.
Galloway was mine.
I was his.
I’d delivered his daughter.
We loved one another.
“You can’t be serious?” My voice resembled a shrill violin. “What do you intend to do?”
The immigration officer (who’d become my nemesis) cleared his throat. “He will be held in the detention centre for his flight tomorrow and deported to the United Kingdom.”
I couldn’t stop shaking.
No, no, no...
Coco jumped off her chair, rushing on her tiny legs to grip my thigh. “Ma-ma. Home?”
Automatically, I scooped her up, not tearing my eyes from the asshole trying to rip apart my family.
He’d already stolen Pippa.
He wouldn’t steal my husband, too. “It’s okay, Coco. Don’t worry.” In the same breath, I snarled, “Where he goes, I go. You want to put him in a cage...fine. But you’ll put me in there, too.”
I watched my angry spectacle almost as an outsider. I saw Galloway stiffen and his rage at my conviction. I knew he would argue and encourage me to return home (not my home anymore) and let him sort it out when he arrived in England.
But I wouldn’t let that happen.
We’d been together every day for almost four years. I thought I’d lost him. I’d watched him die. There was no way in hell I would let them shove him on a plane and pay for a crime he’d already paid for.
The fact I could stare at these people and stand by my husband knowing he’d killed but know nothing of the facts could be seen as blind na?vety.
But I knew Galloway.
He’d served his penance.
Even if he hadn’t been in jail the past few years, his conscience and soul had paid. Time and time again.
He was purged and forgiven.
“Stel, wait.” G grabbed me. “Think of Coco. They can lock me up, but I won’t let them imprison my daughter.” He held my cheeks with shaking hands. “Please...do it for me. We’ll be together again soon.”
Whatever remaining shards of my heart splintered to dust. “You don’t know what you’re asking me.”
“Yes, yes I do.” His eyes blazed with blue horror. “Do you think I want to be incarcerated again? It fucking terrifies me, but I’m willing to do what is needed to keep you safe. And if being deported is the key...then so be it.”
“No, I’ll fly to England with you. I revoke Australia. If they can do something this cruel, I don’t want to live here anymore.”
“Stel, we have to be reasonable. We don’t know what will happen. I haven’t been able to get hold of my father, even though the captain assured me he was alive when I gave him the details. I don’t know if he’s in a home or sick or where we’d end up.”
Self-hatred and despicable confession trickled over his features. “I’m penniless, Estelle. I have nothing to my name. I’m broke. I won’t subject you and Coco to an unknown country with no home to go to. Think of how terrified the poor kid would be. It’s cold there. No beach. No sun.”
He shuddered as he gathered me against him. “This is the only way. Here, she’ll be confused, but at least, she’ll be around things she remembers. We’ll find a way back to each other, you’ll see.”
“You’re an idiot, Galloway. Do you think she cares about the ocean when she’s about to lose her father?” I punched him in the chest. “No! I won’t let you do this.”
The male officer came closer, hugging his clipboard as if it would save him from my furious glare. “Mr. Oak, I’m afraid the bus is here to take you to the compound. If you can say your goodbyes, I’ll make sure Ms. Evermore and her child are taken to the apartment.”
Galloway whirled on the man, fists clenched and murder in his gaze. A sheen of sweat hinted he didn’t feel as strong as he looked. I wanted to kill everyone for stealing what progress he’d made. “Don’t fucking talk to me about goodbyes. Got it? You’ll give us the time we need. It’s the least you can damn well do.”
The man froze, before backing off slowly. “Fine...yes, of course.”
Galloway turned, leading me away. “Get to the apartment and call my father.”
“Your father?”
I remembered our conversations. Late at night, beneath the stars, still craving electric light and ice cubes, Galloway revealed a little about his family. His father who suffered viral infection after viral infection after his wife died of breast cancer because his grief stripped his immune system.
He made his father sound sickly and sad, but there was a rod of strength there, too. To remain living when your soul-mate died? I’d lived that horror for a few hours, and I’d almost broken.
I couldn’t imagine enduring such hardship for the rest of my life.