Read Online Seeking Love in Salvation by Dixie Lynn Dwyer - Free Book Online

counseling. He needed to be in school and have a normal life. Her anxieties and fears were weighing on him, and on Valentina. Lois knew it, but she had no control over the fear and the need to keep them both close to her. Tears filled her eyes.
    “Look at all the cool toys, and those big puzzles. Can you maybe show Miss Maggie how good you are at puzzles?” Valentina asked Kenny, and he nodded his head. The therapist smiled and reached out her hand. “Come on and show me while Mommy and your aunt watch.”
    He walked with the therapist into the room. At first he was hesitant and kept looking back at the glass widow. Val held Lois’s hand and squeezed it as they took a seat by the widow and kept an eye on things.
    “She’s very nice and has a calm demeanor. When I spoke to a few of the therapists, I liked her the best and felt that Kenny would respond to her well. What do you think, Lois?” Val asked her.
    “She seems nice.” She wiped her eyes before the tears fell.
    “He’s going to be fine. You’re doing the right thing, and he needs this. He needs to feel like a normal kid and move on from the tragedy, just like you need to.”
    “I don’t know if I’m ready. I mean the therapist I met is nice, she isn’t pushy, but Kenny is my first priority.”
    “You can’t help Kenny if you don’t help yourself first. It’s going to take time, but that’s why we moved out here. It’s a beautiful, peaceful town, and everyone is friendly and nice.”
    “They are,” Lois said and then bit her lower lip. She saw the therapist’s expression and then Kenny’s eyes well up with tears. He immediately looked at the window and sniffled. Lois and Val stood up and he went running to the door. The therapist opened it for him and he ran to Lois and hugged her.
    Miss Maggie gave Val and Lois a sympathetic smile.
    “It will take some time, but I think you’ve made the right decision. Let’s work out a schedule of sessions.”
    “What do you think about the kindergarten program, or homeschooling him, or using that place near our house?” Val asked her.
    “I think you can hold off on that kindergarten program until September. Let’s see how these sessions go.” She caressed Kenny’s hair and whispered to Val and Lois. “He’s hurting and scared. Too many changes right now could make matters worse.”
    They both nodded and looked at one another. Lois could see the upset in her sister’s eyes. She’d ruined Val’s life, and she ruined her son’s life by allowing Caden back into her life and into her heart.
    What would Val do if she found out I wasn’t home the day of the attack because I was doing a delivery for Caden and screwed it up? That it was my fault him and Don came to the house? That I pushed to leave New York because I knew that Don’s brother, Ganor, might seek revenge? I took the money and the drugs and stashed them to get back at Caden. If Ganor figured that out and realized his brother hadn’t stashed it away before Val killed him, would he come looking for me?
    The tears hit her eyes. She couldn’t fix that. Not now, not when they were trying to gain back their lives. Eventually she would have to make things right with Don’s brother and cut the ties from their criminal family once and for all.
     
    * * * *
     
    Valentina ran through the woods in an attempt to get the sounds out of her head. Since leaving the therapist’s office and listening to Kenny crying, she couldn’t stop the flashbacks. She wished she could have seen the break-in coming, that she had been wearing her gun instead of keeping it locked up in the safe. If she was stronger, she could have broken down that door sooner. It didn’t matter that her cop friends were shocked that she broke down the door with the curtain rod. She pounded away over and over again to get to them. She couldn’t stand the way Kenny was crying and moaning, or Lois’s screams of fear.
    She wiped her eyes as the tears fell. She ran harder, faster over