“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.
“Call my old number. The captain left a message on the machine when he couldn’t get through. I told my father I’d ring him when we docked. He’ll be expecting a call if he got the recording.”
He took a deep breath. “I haven’t told you my full story, Stel, but my father will. He has everything he needs to clear my name. I don’t know why it happened. I don’t even really understand how. But there’s a reason why I was freed after being sentenced to life. If the English courts can overthrow a conviction like that, then that same information will convince these assholes that I’m not going to murder downtown Sydney. That I had a reason. That my sentence was revoked. That my record should’ve been expunged. My father will help us be together.”
“I—I—” The thought of talking to the man who’d raised Galloway into such an incredible person intimidated me. Who was I? I was just the woman who’d crashed with him. The woman who’d done such a bad job of setting his broken ankle he moved with a permanent limp.
I wasn’t worthy.
But I’m also the woman who claimed his heart.
The woman who carried his child.
The woman who loved him more than anything else on earth.
If that didn’t make me worthy...what did?
G’s lips touched mine, kissing me hard. “Promise me, you’ll call him.”
I’d made so many promises in the past few days, I could no longer keep track. I’d promised to leave him while he was dying. I’d promised to love him, obey him, fight for him.
I’d also cried more tears than I’d ever cried in my life, yet I still had more to shed.
“I promise, G. I’ll call him. I’ll get this awful mess sorted out.”
His kiss turned vicious. “Thank you. Thank you for trusting me and being on my side.”
“Always. I’m forever on your side.”
“I love you.”
“I know.”
I couldn’t stop my tears as Galloway kissed me one last time, kissed his daughter, hugged us tight, then disappeared with his jailers to be deported.
Chapter Seventy-One
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G A L L O W A Y
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TERROR.
That was the only word I could use to describe the feeling of walking into the holding cell. Not that it was a cell compared to the last one I’d inhabited. This was more like a basic hotel room. A proper toilet with walls (not a metal pan with no privacy), a bed with sheets (not a cot with scratchy blankets), and meals served on crockery rather than slopped into plastic moulded troughs in a buffet line.
But nothing could change the fact that for a few incredible years I’d been free.
I’d been happy.
I’d been the best man I could ever be.
And now...they’d stripped me of everything.
Stolen my wife.
Kidnapped my daughter.
Robbed me of my family.
All over again.
Chapter Seventy-Two
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