Finding Eden (A Sign of Love Novel)(128)

Eden laughed. "It's true," she said. "I did."
Eden put Maya down and we all strolled together, Maya toddling in a zigzag as we followed behind her and Jack checked out the things that were interesting to a six-year-old boy.
I took my wife's hand and squeezed it. "How do you feel?" I asked, taking in a big breath of the dry desert air.
Eden tilted her head, considering my question. "Sad, and kind of scared." She looked at our kids and then back at me. "But thankful. So thankful."
I nodded. That about summed it up for me, too.
We walked into the Temple. It was run-down, with glass on the floor and lots of leaves and debris littering the center aisle, but other than that, it still looked the same. Eden picked Maya up so she wouldn't walk over the glass.
"What happened in here?" Jack asked, looking around.
I squatted down in front of him and looked him right in the eye. "In here," I said, "a man told a lot of lies to people who were very vulnerable, people who were looking to belong, people who were desperate to belong."
He seemed to think about that. "Why didn't they already belong somewhere?"
"Well, because life had been really hard on them. Life had taken everything they had, and the man, he promised to return it all, and even more. And to those people, his lies sounded like the truth."
He frowned at me, concentrating hard, seeming to consider his next question. I smiled—the look on his face was all Eden. "Dad? If life is hard on me, how will I know if someone is lying?"
I smiled, and tapped on his chest. "You listen to your heart, Jack. And you listen to the voice that comes to you when you close your eyes. You'll know it because it will be something between a feeling and a whisper. And that voice? Jack, if your heart is good like yours is, that voice never, ever lies." I glanced over at Eden who was listening to us as she swayed Maya in her arms. Her smile was somehow happy and sad at the same time.
Jack glanced at his mother and then back to me. "The voice, Dad, will it always tell me the easiest thing to do?" he asked.
I smiled. "No. But it will always tell you the right thing to do."
He nodded, chewing on his lip.
"You know what else happened in this building?" Eden asked, coming closer to us.
Jack shook his head.
"I first saw your dad in this place," she said, and her voice sounded like it did when she said prayers with our children at night. The locket at her chest glinted in the light coming through the open door—the piece of jewelry that had brought her to Felix, and to her mother, and ultimately back to me. Inside was a photo of our children.
We walked back out into the bright sunlight and we all shielded our eyes. "Where did you live, Dad?" Jack asked.
"Come on, I'll show you."
We walked a little ways and got to the first worker cabin. Somehow they were even smaller than I remembered. "You lived in all these?" Jack asked.
I laughed. "No, just one. This way." Jack frowned.
"How could anyone live in just one of these? They aren't even as big as my room."
We got to the doorway of my cabin and I paused, taking a deep breath. Grief gripped my chest as I pushed the door open. Jack raced inside and through the two little rooms. "You lived here?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said quietly, my voice scratchy. I cleared my throat. Eden and Maya came in and Eden put her arms around me from behind and hugged me tightly while the kids explored. There wasn't much to look at, though.
I took Eden's hands in mine from the front and squeezed them. And as I looked around the cabin where I'd spent most of my life, what came swift and fierce into my gut was that I forgave them. The ache would last forever, but the bitterness wouldn't. They had made their choices and I was making mine. I let out a breath, and in that breath . . . it was gone.