The Boss's New Plaything

by Layla Valentine

  “When will I get to know where we’re going?” Alice asked.

  I patted her head.

  “You’ll know it when you see it.”

  And she did. When we pulled up to the hulking, columned building, she let out an astounded little “oh!”

  Taking her hand, I led her up the steps, past the throngs of camera-bearing tourists, and through the tall black doors. And then, there in front of us they were. The dinosaur bones. The first time we’d met and not even known it.

  When I glanced over, Alice’s eyes were filled with tears. Maybe she was seeing what I was—the little boy and the little pigtailed girl, the first sign of hope in a dark world.

  Holding her hand, I whispered, “Thank you, Alice, for everything. You have saved me more than you can know.”

  Staring up into my eyes, her own an impossible shade of blue, she murmured, “Thank you, Jake. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  And then I kissed her, my wife, my love, the woman of my dreams, the girl who saved me. Alice.

  As I held her, all I could think was that I had never been happier.

  The End

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