Page 1 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 9-12
Episode 9
Damian
“What kind of son are you?”
“When the good book said man was born in sin, you must have picked a double dose.”
“Tell that boy he better never darken my door again.”
“You didn’t send enough.”
“You good for nothing ****.”
“Don’t you care ’bout your family?”
Facing the nondescript office building, Damian forced himself to breathe. The metal placard by the door read Department of Children and Family Services. The SUV behind him drew away from the curb, making space for Richard’s vehicle. His fingers went to the front of his suit jacket, buttoning it. Jun tugged at his own coat and looked toward him. Damian looked away. Jun stepped closer, their arms touching.
Richard exited his vehicle, Collin following. Holden fell in behind them, tipping his head to Cedric, Damian’s security.
Cedric cleared his throat. “We should move.”
Moving was the last thing Damian wanted to do. Unless he could move back time and make that phone call never happen.
“Mr. Sathers, this is John Welwick with the Department of Children and Family Services. I’m calling about your nieces and nephews, Armada, Betti, Howser, Kimbo, Rue, and Habibi. Your sister was arrested earlier this afternoon. We need to make an emergency placement either with you or someone you can refer us to.”
“Is there anyone else?”
“Your number is the number your sister had for extended family. She didn’t offer any other contacts.”
That was just like Dalia. Using her drama to trap him. She knew he couldn’t go near the kids, not as long as she was living with their father.
“Where’s their grandfather?”
“The children have been removed from his house pending further investigations into both their mother and grandfather. For now, he is not allowed near children, any children.”
A stone sank in Damian’s stomach. Too late. They should have done something before, something seventeen years ago. Before even that. Before Thaddeus Kramer had sent Armada sprawling across the kitchen floor in her high chair, mashed peas gripped in her little fist.
There was no guarantee the law would come down on the side of righteousness now. Damian couldn’t promise the kids on the other side of that door anything, not safety, not love, not hope. A decade previous, he’d dreamed of getting a real job and going back, rescuing his sister and Armada. Time had worn that hope away. As long as his sister was determined to embrace the brokenness of their family, there was nothing he could do short of offering to buy the children from her. And then she’d just have more.
He’d built a life with little room for the drama and misguided choices of his natal heritage. His life was spent traveling and belonging to his chosen family. Émeric’s family in France, when they saw each other, was closer to him than his sister. Ami’s children were all the niece and nephew he needed. He’d seen them grow up and met them. They knew his face and greeted him with hugs and demands for eating out and playing. Yes, his heart had found room for little Dana when she’d shown up, scared and clinging to Alice’s hand, but she wasn’t all his to care for alone. She was The Residency and Linda’s clan to care for together, a united front.
The children on the other side of that door didn’t know his face. They had no reason to trust him. For years, legal orders had kept him from even approaching their home. He knew the kind of stories his sister, father, and community, like Pastor Doyle, would have told about him.
He’d ripped any hope of having a relationship with his natal family out of his imagination, picked at the roots, and discarded them as the years of his legal restraint stretched on and his home with Richard grew deeper. Barriers built on grief and betrayal didn’t just disappear. They’d grown in the heart like empty barnacle shells on rocks along the beach, turning smooth surfaces into empty razor-sharp beds. There was nothing living left, only empty homes marked by jagged open mouths ready to bleed any uncovered skin that might approach.
Walking through that door was an appointment with fate. There had always been a looming threat this day would come. Now that it had, his blood was still running cold, thirty minutes after the call.
Jun slid his fingers into his hand. “DaSu.”
Damian flinched. He’d zoned out.
Jun lifted his chin, eyes dark and strong. “Together, DaSu.”
Damian swallowed. He should send him away. Jun had enough darkness in his life. He didn’t need the filth of the Kramer name to touch him. “You shouldn’t come.”
Anger bled into the lines of Jun’s face. “Don’t you dare, Alpha. My fights are your fights. Your fights are mine.”
Damian stood in the moment. There was only Jun’s burning eyes and Jun’s grip on his hand, crushing his fingers.
