The Seal's Secret Child

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “When I lost my leg, I was devastated.” He looked up at her. “I assumed I couldn’t be a good, strong husband for you. I knew I’d be medically discharged from the SEALs, and I had no idea how I’d earn a living. I didn’t want to rely on VA disability compensation to provide for my family. I felt useless, and I thought you’d be better off without me, so I decided to disappear.”

She sat on the chair opposite him. “You left me a note,” she said in a whisper. “That’s all. If you’d broken off our engagement in person, I could have explained I was pregnant, but you didn’t give me the chance.”

“I’m sorry.” It was all he could say, but it was hopelessly inadequate. “I thought it was for the best at the time.”

She regarded him with steely eyes. “You broke off contact with everybody in your life. Why did you do that?”

Blade hated thinking about this part of his life. It was a dark time. He had no strong family connections, so cutting himself off from distant relatives was easy, but abandoning Josie and his friends shamed him.

“I was grieving,” he said. “I didn’t want to be reminded of my old life, when I was strong and able-bodied. I just shut down.” He held his hands up. “I know it was selfish, but it was the only thing I could do.”

Josie put her head in her hands, letting her hair envelop her fingers. “I tried to stay in touch with your old SEAL buddies so that I would know when you resurfaced, but over the years, I lost contact.”

“I’m guessing you never told any of them you were pregnant,” he said. “Otherwise they would’ve let me know.”

Josie twined her fingers together. “I didn’t want you to hear the news from a third party. I assumed I’d find a way to contact you, but before I knew it, I was all out of leads.” She raised her head and locked eyes with him. “I would never intentionally keep your son from you. I prayed so hard for an answer.”

He smiled weakly at her. It looked like she shared his Christian faith now. It was comforting. “After I left Virginia, I went down to Florida and lived there for four years, working for a motor mechanic business. I was just bumming around with no direction and no hope. I wanted to drop off the radar. But then I met an athlete who competes in the Invictus Games, and he turned my life around. I started training with him, and I learned to be proud of myself again. I got back in touch with my SEAL buddies through the military support unit, and I moved back to my hometown in North Carolina.” He felt himself welling up. “But this is all irrelevant now.” He looked at the doorway that he assumed led into the kitchen. “What I really want to do is meet my son.”

Josie stood up, wiping her moist palms on her skirt. “Archie says he saw you on the news and contacted you through the station. Is that right?”

“That’s right,” Blade replied. “Do you remember my old buddy Tyler?”

She nodded.

“I helped him catch the leader of a meth gang in Missouri recently. He’s a sheriff there. It’s a long story, but a national news station came to interview me about it. When I got back to North Carolina, there was an email waiting for me from Archie. He’d recognized my name and gotten my email address from the news station.” He smiled. “He’s a smart kid.”

“Yes, he is,” Josie said. “But why didn’t you contact me when he sent you the email? Surely that would have been the best option. And then I could’ve been better prepared for this moment.”

“I tried,” Blade replied. “But your number isn’t listed, and Archie wouldn’t tell me what it was. He thought you might try to stop me from coming. He said you were in trouble and needed somebody to protect you. I just had to get here right away, so I hopped in my truck and drove through the night.” Every moment that passed was another moment without his son. “Please, Josie, can I meet Archie now? I’m dying here.”

“Of course,” she said, extending her hand toward him. “Can I help you out of the chair?”

He briefly hung his head and sighed. So his most important question had now been answered. Josie did see him as a weaker man. And he was bitterly disappointed.

“No, thanks,” he said, standing with ease. “I’m good.”

She walked briskly to the doorway and closed her fingers around the handle. “Are you ready?”

Blade’s heart began to hammer. Would he ever be ready for this moment? “Absolutely.”

With that, Josie opened the door. “Archie, your dad is here to see you.”

* * *

Josie’s emotions ran rampant as she watched Blade kneel to the floor and hug his son for the first time. She saw a tear fall down Blade’s stubbly face, and she fought hard to suppress tears of her own. The instant love that her ex-fiancé felt for his son was clear to see, and his embrace was fierce yet gentle. It made her think of a father bear cradling a cub. But at the same time, Blade’s presence here caused her chest to ache with regret and pain. Could she ever forgive this man for abandoning her when she needed him most?

Archie, meanwhile, took this profound moment in stride.

“Hi, Dad,” he said, as if it were an everyday occurrence to hug his father. “I knew you would come.”

Blade pulled back. “Thank you for finding me, Archie.”

Archie smiled broadly, his freckled face a picture of innocence. “Which one of your legs was chopped off?” He glanced between the right and left. “They both look the same.”

Blade laughed heartily, throwing back his head the way he always used to. His mop of curly hair was as unruly as ever, just like his son’s, and his rugged face had gotten even more handsome over the years. His strong and chiseled jawline was hidden by beard growth, but his Roman nose was still his most prominent feature, the high bridge settled between his piercing blue eyes.

“I’ll show you if you like,” Blade replied, pulling up the left leg of his jeans. He knocked on the pink plastic beneath, making a hard clunking sound.

“Wow!” Archie said with genuine admiration. “Just like a superhero.”

Blade winked. “I keep my cape in the truck.”

Josie saw her father hanging back nervously. She coughed. “Edward... I mean, Blade, you remember my dad, right?”

“Sure I do,” Blade replied, holding his hand out to shake Tim’s. “It’s good to see you again, Tim.” He glanced around. “So where’s Martha?”

Tim looked at his feet.

“Mom died five years ago,” Josie said, saving her father the difficulty of answering. “Cancer.”

A look of pain swept over Blade’s face. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“You have a lot of catching up to do,” Josie said. “An awful lot.”

“So,” Blade said, pulling a chair from the table and sitting on it. “Let’s start from the beginning.” He put two strong hands in his son’s armpits and pulled the child onto his lap. “I’m all ears.”

But as Josie reached for the coffeepot, a series of shots rang out, seeming to come from her front lawn. She screamed and rushed to take Archie from Blade’s lap.

“It’s the bad man,” Archie said, curling his arms around his mother’s neck as she lifted him up.

Blade’s demeanor changed to one of total control, rushing down the hallway to the front door. “I have a gun in my truck,” he said. “Stay here and keep out of sight. I’ll be back soon.”

“Blade, no,” Josie said, watching him peer through the glass panel in the door as the shots ceased. “It’s too dangerous for you. Let the police take care of it.”

But he didn’t answer. He silently slipped through the door and closed it behind him, leaving Josie and her father staring at each other in silence, neither believing that somebody was firing a gun outside their home.

“Dad can save us now,” Archie said. “He’ll get his cape from his truck.”

“He’s not really a superhero, honey,” Josie said. “He’s just a man.”

She sat on a chair, waiting for the danger to pass, wondering how she could keep her family safe from this escalating level of threat. She must try to shield Archie. But how? The only thing she could do was close her eyes and pray.

* * *

“There’s a shooter across the street,” the officer called to Blade from his protected position behind his cruiser. “He’s reloading. I’ve radioed for backup. Go inside, sir.”

Then the officer began firing at a black sedan parked just a few feet away, giving Blade the perfect cover to run to his truck at the curb.

“My son is in this home,” Blade called back, opening the door to his truck and reaching into the glove compartment for his weapon. “There’s no way I’m staying inside.”

He lifted his head over the hood of the truck to see the barrel of a gun poking through the window of the black car. The officer’s firing was opening up a series of holes along the metal, but Blade couldn’t see a person inside. The attacker must have been well shielded from the bullets because he seemed unharmed as his gun burst into action again, aimed squarely at Josie’s home. Windows shattered, tree bark spit onto the lawn and holes appeared in the yellow front door.

Blade thought of Josie inside, cradling Archie in her arms, and he began to see red. This was the family he never knew he had, and something primal stirred deep within him. He knew he had to protect them at all costs. He had no idea how he would fit into their lives, but he had arrived just in the nick of time. While he suspected that Josie might have doubts about his ability to take care of them, he had none.

Rising from behind the truck, he took aim and fired back. Opposite Josie’s home were open fields, and his shots echoed across the grasslands, the noise of each bullet magnified tenfold. Blade managed to hit the car’s side mirror, taking it clean off. It obviously spooked the shooter enough to send him scrambling up from his hiding position in the car and into the driver’s seat. He raced away from the house, tires squealing on the frosty asphalt on the cold January morning. Blade gave chase, hoping to stop the car in its tracks, but he saw it round a corner and disappear out of sight before he could get an accurate shot.

He ran back to his truck to pursue, only to be confronted with a deflated front tire peppered with bullet holes. He sighed and holstered his weapon, rubbing his forehead in frustration.

The police officer spoke rapidly into his radio, relaying the information to patrol units, giving a description of the vehicle.

Blade walked back up the path to Josie’s home. When he opened the door, he saw her standing in the hallway, gripping their son tightly, her father to her side with an arm around her shoulder.

“Did he get away?” she asked.

Blade nodded. “I’m sorry.”

Josie’s face crumpled, but she composed herself quickly, taking a deep breath and holding on to her father for reassurance.

She looked Blade up and down. “Are you okay? You shouldn’t have rushed out like that. You lost one leg already. Don’t risk injuring the other.” Her voice was kind, but her words cut him to the quick. “I was worried about you.”

He suppressed his irritation, reading between the lines: You’re not strong enough to handle this.

“I’m absolutely fine,” he replied. “But this situation is a lot worse than I imagined. I think I should stay here for a while to help protect you.”

Archie lifted his head from his mother’s shoulder and smiled. “See, Mom, I told you he was a superhero.”

“I already told you, Archie,” Josie said gently. “He’s only a man.”

Blade knew it would be a challenge to insert himself into their lives under these circumstances. Josie would need time to accept his presence, and the existence of danger would make it doubly hard.

But Josie was wrong. He wasn’t only a man. He was a father, and a fiercely protective streak had torn itself through his body. He sensed her difficulty in forgiving him for vanishing from her life all those years ago, but whatever differences they might have, they would need to work together to ensure that their son’s safety came first. It would require all of his patience to work closely with Josie. Her throwaway comments had already confirmed his worst fears: she didn’t see him as an equal to an able-bodied man. He had briefly wondered whether their reunion would reignite a spark, but he was wrong. He could never get close to a woman who treated him with pity or who tried to shield him from danger because of his disability. No way.

He was a complete man. And he intended to prove it. This time, he would go the distance.

TWO

Josie sat in her kitchen, opposite Blade, jiggling her foot anxiously. She kept stealing glances at her old flame, still struggling to come to terms with the fact that he was actually there in her home. Even though she had wished him back in her life for the sake of her son, now that this scenario had become reality, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

She was getting along just fine as a single mom, and was used to being the sole decision-maker in matters relating to Archie’s well-being. Now all of a sudden, her son’s father had a right to demand an equal say. The shooting incident had terrified her and she wanted to get Archie as far away from Sedgwick as possible until the danger had been neutralized. But would she and Blade disagree on the best way forward?

Two detectives from Wichita were also seated in her kitchen. They had been summoned by the public defender’s office to oversee protection for Josie and her family. Detectives Dave Pullman and Carly Sykes had completed a thorough crime scene examination and interviewed Blade, Tim and Archie before asking to discuss a plan of action with Josie. Meanwhile, uniformed officers began to sweep the glass and board up the broken windows. Blade insisted on remaining with Josie while Tim and Archie packed some bags in preparation for leaving. Staying in their home now was impossible.

“You two are Archie’s parents, right?” Detective Sykes began. “This must be a pretty scary time for you folks, but your son seems to be taking it all in stride.” She smiled at Blade. “He places a lot of faith in his father to come to the rescue. He’s a really sweet kid.”

Blade smiled. “Yes, he is. I’m proud of him.”

Josie bristled. Blade had only just met Archie, yet he was taking the credit for how he’d turned out. It wasn’t fair.

“Can we get to the point?” she asked. “I’d like to make plans as quickly as possible.”

“Sure,” Detective Sykes replied briskly. “I understand that a brick was thrown through your window this morning. And there was a note wrapped around that brick.”

Blade looked sharply at Josie, his face full of concern.

“Yes,” she said. “The police officer stationed outside my home said it was thrown from the same vehicle that returned later with a shooter inside. It matches the description of a car that tried to run me off the road a couple of weeks back.”

The detective checked an entry in her notepad. “Unfortunately, this car was stolen from Wichita last month, so it doesn’t lead us to the perp, but we’ve put out a description to all our patrols.”

Blade leaned toward Josie. “What did it say?” he whispered.

She was confused. “What did what say?”

“The note around the brick.”

“Oh, that.” She closed her eyes, not caring to remember the hastily scrawled capital letters. “It said, ‘Drop the case or pay the price.’”

“We’ve been told that you’ve also been receiving abusive phone calls and letters,” Detective Pullman said. “They’re all related to a current case you’re working on at the public defender’s office, right?”

Josie nodded.

“I think it’s awesome that you’re a public defender,” Blade said admiringly. “No matter what’s happening right now, you should be proud of yourself.”

She ignored the praise. “I worked hard to establish myself as a good attorney,” she said, silently adding in her head, while you were busy finding yourself in Florida. “It was difficult, but my parents helped out a lot with babysitting Archie.”

“I need to know the background to this case,” Blade said. “Can you explain the details to me?”

“I don’t think there’s any point. The police have got it under control.”

He furrowed his brow. “It doesn’t look that way to me. Please, Josie, just give me a little more information. I might be able to help. Don’t forget about my background.”

How could she forget his history in the military? It was the SEALs who cost him his leg. It was the SEALs who destroyed their relationship.

“That was a long time ago,” she said. “You’re a different man now.”

She saw a look of irritation fall across his face. “I’m not so different that I can’t step up and help protect you. It won’t hurt to give me a little background information, will it?”

Detective Sykes seemed to sense the atmosphere grow a little cooler and gave a light cough as if to cover her embarrassment.

“It would be useful if you went over the details with us as well,” she said. “We’ve only just been assigned this case, and although we have the incident reports to read, it would help us to hear the full story in your own words.”

“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath to run through the events yet again. “I’m currently defending a client named Norman Francis, who’s been accused of kidnapping a three-year-old girl, Lisa Brown, from outside her home almost two years ago. Lisa and her parents lived across the street from him. A neighbor of Norman’s telephoned the police one evening and claimed that she saw Norman drag the little girl from the sidewalk and into his home. The police responded immediately, entered Norman’s house and found Lisa in the kitchen, unharmed and helping herself to cookies from a jar. Norman said he had been in his living room for the previous two hours, carving figurines that he sells at craft fairs. He claimed to have no idea that the girl was in his kitchen and asserted that she must have walked in through his unlocked back door of her own accord. But the witness testimony from the neighbor helped to build a strong case against him, and he was subsequently arrested and charged with child abduction. But I believe his story. I don’t think he did it.”

“What did the child say?” Detective Pullman asked.

“Lisa was interviewed by specially trained officers, but due to her age, it was very difficult to get a consistent account of what happened. She started off saying that she went into the house by herself but subsequently changed her story to claim that Norman led her inside with a promise of candy. Then, a little later, she said that Cinderella took her inside.” Josie rubbed her index fingers on her temples. “She’s simply not a credible witness, so the prosecution decided not to include her testimony. But she was examined and found to have no injuries, so there’s no forensic evidence to label Norman as an abuser.” She shrugged. “That doesn’t stop people from gossiping, though.”

“I guess a small place like Sedgwick is full of rumors and amateur detectives,” Blade said. “So this Norman guy has already been judged guilty.”

“Correct,” confirmed Josie. “He’s kinda odd. Before all this happened, he hardly ever went out, but when he did, he always wore a huge padded coat and kept his head bent low like he didn’t want to be noticed. It was only after I agreed to represent him that I found out he suffers from cerebral palsy, which limits the movement of his right arm and leg. He wears the big coat to hide his arm, and he walks in a shuffling sort of way to compensate for his leg. He was bullied a lot as a youngster, so he’s a very secretive person and doesn’t want people to notice his disability.”

Josie glanced at Blade. He appeared to be listening carefully to her every word. Maybe Norman’s experience resonated with him. Perhaps he also suffered the same negative response from society because of his missing limb. Thankfully, she was sensitive to the needs of those with disabilities and always made sure she phrased her words carefully to avoid giving offense. But others were not so tactful.

“It takes a really long time to prepare for a trial,” she continued. “So for the last eighteen months, I’ve been building Norman’s defense case and overseeing all the trial preliminaries. I know a lot of people in Sedgwick think that Norman’s guilty, and I sometimes get yelled at on the street, but things really started to escalate about three weeks ago. That’s when I received the first anonymous letter. Then the phone calls started. It’s always a muffled man’s voice saying I’ll suffer for defending a monster like Norman. I used to ask who he was, but now I just hang up.”

“And how is Norman doing?” Detective Pullman asked. “I understand that he’s out on bail.”

“Norman’s required to wear an electronic tag as part of his bail conditions,” Josie replied. “So he’s housebound. He used his home as collateral to raise the bond, and I had to fight hard to get bail granted. Norman has precise physical needs, and his home is specially adapted to suit him, so the judge agreed to bail Norman on the condition that he never leaves his home. Norman was so distressed about news of his disability leaking out to the community that the judge allowed the hearing to be a closed one, and the media didn’t get to hear the details. It’s unusual for a judge to agree to something like this, but I successfully argued that revealing Norman’s medical history to an open court would have caused him psychological damage. Of course, now everybody assumes he has something sinister to hide.”

“What about the little girl?” Detective Sykes asked. “Surely her family doesn’t want to be living in proximity to their child’s alleged kidnapper.”

“The Brown family moved from the street within a few weeks of the incident, so there’s no chance of Norman running into them.” She shrugged. “But Norman never goes outside, anyway. He’s too terrified. The community doesn’t want him back in their neighborhood, and he knows it.”

“But how does he manage being housebound?” Blade asked. “He has to eat.”

“I take groceries to him once a week and make sure he’s okay.”

Detective Pullman raised an eyebrow. “It sounds like you’re dedicating a lot of your schedule to this client. How do you find the time to work on anything else?”

“Norman is my only client until the trial is over,” Josie said. “Since I became the target of threats, the public defender’s office decided to allocate my other cases to alternate attorneys. I simply can’t offer anybody else quality service while this situation continues, so Norman gets me all to himself. And it’s probably a good thing, as he has nobody else to take care of him right now.”

“But he’s not in danger, is he?” Blade asked. “He’s not getting bricks through his window or nasty phone calls?”

“No,” she replied. “That’s the odd thing. The letters and phone calls have been directed at me.” She stopped to steady her voice. “And now it’s gone way beyond that. Now somebody doesn’t just want to frighten me. They want to kill me.”

Detective Sykes closed her notepad. “This situation does appear to have intensified in these last few hours, and it’s now too serious for the Sedgwick Police Department to monitor. I recommend that you and your family move to a safe house for the duration of the trial. The public defender’s office has informed us that they will spare no expense in ensuring your protection.”

“Neither will I,” Blade said. He turned to Josie. “I’ll make some calls and put a temporary manager in charge of my business so I can stay here in Sedgwick for however long it takes.”

Josie found her mouth dropping in disbelief. “You want to come to a safe house with us.”

“Of course,” he replied as if the question was ridiculous. “I promised Archie that I’d take care of you, and I meant it.”

She began to panic, imagining being forced to spend each day with the man she had once loved but no longer knew. “But...but...my dad and I are perfectly capable of looking after my son by ourselves.”

“Our son,” Blade corrected her. “Archie is mine, too.”

“I know,” she said. “But I’ve been taking care of him by myself for such a long time. It would be difficult for him to adjust to his father’s sudden presence in his life every day.” She knew this was a lame excuse, designed to suit her delicate emotions rather than Archie’s. “We should wait until this is all over before making visitation arrangements.”