Page 70 of Caleb's Salvation
There was one colossal difference in this story.
Vivienne and Sam aren’t dead.
This time I was the one to sob. I fell to my knees as I was wracked by an emotion I couldn’t control. Grateful I was fucking alone so that no one could see how destroyed I was.
I closed my eyes and it was like I could feel it. Vivienne’s hand somewhere on my back, rubbing circles. Telling me it was going to be okay, making me believe it.
She’d said once I was her salvation when the opposite was true.
This whole time she’d been mine and I just wouldn’t let myself see it.
I got up off the dirt, rubbed my eyes with my sleeve and got in the fucking tin-can car again.
Now, I thought. Now, I know where I’m fucking going.
* * *
Vivienne
I watched as Doogie brought the plane down. Smooth and effortless as it touched down on the runway. I glanced over my shoulder and could see through the windshield of the truck that Sam was still asleep in his car seat.
Eli had gotten a call a few days ago and he’d come to the cabin to share the news. And a message for me.
Meet me on the runway on Tuesday around 3:00. Bring Sam.
Caleb.
My heart leaped in my throat as I watched the door to the plane open. I thought about how I’d felt so many months ago, sitting inside that plane, wondering what waited for me outside of it.
I’d been trembling like a leaf until I saw two men standing on the edge of the runway, waiting for me. Knowing one of those men was Caleb. Knowing that I’d finally found the person who was going to save me.
Only he hadn’t done that. He’d given me the least he could, which was just a hand up. And all that I needed.
Standing here now, I was proud as punch that I’d only needed that hand before I was talking care of myself and Sam on my own.
I didn’t need him, as I watched him hitch his duffel bag over his shoulder and make the walk toward me.
I could go anywhere, I thought. I could take Sam, and if we needed to, we could start again someplace else. I would find us a place with the savings I now had tucked away. Would manage to find a job, while I put him in daycare. Make sure I made an effort to find friends along the way. For me, for him. Because they were important when you were trying to raise a child on your own.
Not because you were a charity case, either. Simply because friends were there for each other. They could help you when you were down, encourage you when you needed it and, in turn, you could be there for them, too.
Knowing I could do that, that my life was under my control in a way I’d never known before, that was power.
Wanting to stay here in Hope’s Point because I liked it here and not just because I didn’t have any other options, that was power, too.
It’s why I could stand still at the edge of the runway, my arms crossed over my chest not moving, as he got closer. Doogie was already getting in the plane, ready to make another trip to Nome. Picking up Kate who, I knew, was spending the upcoming week with Jackson. We all had another girls’ poker night planned for this Thursday.
Yes, I stood and watched as Caleb made his way back to me.
All of that was power. And I felt drunk on it.
He stopped a foot away and dropped his bag at his feet.
“Sam?” he asked, his voice gruff.
I nodded over my shoulder and I saw him look around me to see Sam sleeping in the truck.
“Why are you back, Caleb?”
