Page 110 of Wyatt
Coco frowned at her.
“Do you have a reason you love your son?”
“No. I just—”
“Love him. Because he’s yours, right? And you’d do anything for him, wouldn’t you? You felt his pain during the procedure—I saw it on your face. You’d be fierce for him if you had to. And gentle and sacrificing if he needed that too.”
Coco nodded.
“You delight in him.” Gerri pressed her hand on Mikka’s cheek. “You would even if he hurt you. Lied to you—and I promise, he will at some point in his life. And you’ll still love him. And why not? He’s absolutely a treasure.”
Gerri smiled at her. “That is how God feels about you too, Coco. And He wants to fight for you. Because you are His treasure.”
Of course Gerri would bring this back around to God. But oddly, Coco almost thirsted for it, Gerri’s prayer and now her words nourishing on the wasteland of her heart.
“Listen. Wyatt loves you enough to do something crazy like go to Russia to find you. I haveno doubtthat he will come back, his heart in his hands. But you need a deeper truth. I know God brought you into our family because we needed you. But you also needed to know that you were safe. That you weren’t alone. And that you had a home.”
She squeezed her hand. “You still have that home, honey.”
Coco’s chest might implode.
“You don’t have to do any of this alone. We are with you. God is with you. Commit yourself to the Lord. Let Him deliver you. Let Him rescue you, because He delights in you.”
The verse sank into the soil of her heart.
“You don’t have to fix this, Coco. You don’t have to run anymore. You don’t have to figure out how to keep yourself and Mikka safe. You don’t have to doanythingbut let Jesus care for you. Jesus loves you, this I know. Because the Bible tells me so. When you are weak, He is strong. Because to Him, you belong.”
Coco looked at Mikka, then back to Gerri. “Can I come home?”
“It’s about time, honey.” Gerri got up and pulled her into her arms. “It’s about time.”
Coco leaned against her, closed her eyes, and wept.
11
“RJ! Stop!”
RJ had gotten all the way outside the hospital building before she slowed. York had hounded her down the hallway, into the stairwell, down all four flights, and through an emergency door at the bottom of the stairs.
She hadn’t wanted to take the elevator in fear of him catching up—
“RJ!”
Shoot. The warmth from the August day rushed over her and she braced her hands on the brick wall of the building as York followed her outside.Breathe.
“What’s going on?”
She didn’t even know where to start. Except with the obvious. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She rounded and he stopped, his hands up, as if she’d fired a shot at him.
Maybe she had.
“Tell youwhat?”
Hello, she wasn’t stupid. She knew York and Coco had a friendship—that was clear when he’d brought her to Coco’s place in Moscow, hoping to enlist Coco’s help to get RJ out of the country. “Oh, please, you know what.”
She’d been so shocked to see her foster sister she’d let Coco’s insistence that there was nothing between them bounce off of her. Believed without a pause they were, indeed,just friends.