Faithless: A Salvation Society Novel

by Megan Green

I look around my desk for the copy of The Windy Weekly that had been left here a few hours before.

  “Oh, um… no, not yet. I have it here somewhere…” I trail off, moving the mess of papers around my desk. “I was going to look it over after work.”

  Izzy steps inside my office, holding out a fresh copy. “I had a feeling you hadn’t seen it yet. Here, take this one. Feel free to extend your lunch so you can read through it.”

  My brow arches as I reach to take it from her hand. “Okay, yeah. Sure.”

  Izzy turns and begins to make her way out of my office, but pauses just before she reaches the threshold. Looking back over her shoulder, she addresses Dawn.

  “Why don’t you come with me, Dawn? We can discuss those articles you submitted last week.”

  My eyes widen and shoot to Dawn, my mouth falling open in shock. Dawn had told me she was considering showing Izzy some of her work, but she’d been too afraid of what she might say. I’m stoked to hear she’s finally taken the next step.

  I throw her a covert thumbs up as she stands and follows Izzy out of my office. She smiles nervously in response, but I know she doesn’t have anything to worry about. I had taken a look at some of her work as a favor, and I hadn’t been exaggerating when I told her it was some of the best investigative journalism I’d read in years.

  Once alone in my office, I pick up my container of noodles, poking my chopsticks around inside for a moment before deciding I’m full. I put them back on my desk, my eyes falling to the copy of the paper Izzy had given me.

  It was strange, the way she’d given it to me. It wasn’t uncommon for Iz to ask our opinions on the latest issues. But it was the first time she’d ever insisted I drop everything I’d been doing and read it.

  I unfold the paper, my eyes scanning the front-page. My mind flashes to the article I’d turned in prior to my departure for Virginia Beach, and a brief pang of regret hits my gut when I realize I missed seeing it printed. Had it really been on the front-page like Izzy had promised?

  I grab a pen and write myself a note to remember to look for it next time I’m in her office. She keeps every issue we’ve printed in the last five years filed neatly away in a cabinet.

  I spend the next ten minutes flipping through the pages filled by my peers. There’s a story on a local high school girls’ soccer team. They’d helped raise over fifty thousand dollars for breast cancer research after their coach was diagnosed. And when her hair had started falling out from her treatment, each and every one of those girls had shaved their head in solidarity. The photo of them all together, coach and team, heads bare but smiles brighter than the sun, is stunning to see. It’s a much-needed reminder that no matter how shitty things in my own life might seem, there’s still plenty of love and beauty in this world.

  The next few pages feature a spot on the latest trade between the Bears and the Packers, and a semi-scandalous piece on the mayor’s chief of staff being caught with his hand quite literally down his pants at a local strip club. It wasn’t as scintillating as catching the mayor himself with his pants around his ankles, but considering the man prided himself on his wholesome family image, having anything tawdry tied to his name was sure to give him heartburn.

  My latest submission to Izzy is nowhere to be found, but I hadn’t been expecting it to be in here. Which only makes me wonder even more why Iz had been so insistent on me reading the issue.

  I flip the paper closed and toss it on my desk. Sliding my rollaway keyboard from under my desk, I wake my computer and click on my email icon, ready to give Izzy an update on my thoughts.

  My eyes flick over to the paper briefly as I wait for the screen to load, and the wording in the center of the page catches my eyes. My brow furrows as I reach for it, confusion flooding through me when I see an article printed on the back page—a space that’s usually reserved for ad spreads and city announcements.

  But it’s not just the fact that there’s an article where there’s normally only pictures and printed flyers. No, it’s the title that has me gasping for air.

  NEVER SECOND BEST

  By Shane Dempsey

  Tears spring to my eyes. If there was any doubt in my mind as to what this was, it’s gone the second I see his name. Blinking back my tears, I move down to the body of the article.

  Once upon a time, there was a boy. A boy who thought he had it all figured out. He had a career he loved, parents and a sister he adored, and the best friends anybody could ever ask for. There was only one thing he could think of that would make him the happiest man in the world.

  A wife. And someday… a family of his own.

  Then one day he met her. The woman he thought he’d never be able to live without. She was perfect for him in every way, and their relationship had been a whirlwind, skipping over all those important milestones a couple should go through before finally making the decision to spend the rest of their lives together. They were married within a year, and the boy thought he’d never be happier.

  Then his first daughter was born, and he realized just how wrong he was. Surely now, now was the happiest time of his life. I mean, what more could he possibly ask for. He had everything he’d ever wanted.

  Then daughter number two came along, and he knew, he knew without a shadow of a doubt, that there was no way his heart could handle anymore. It was full to bursting. These three perfect women had come into his life and made it whole. He couldn’t possibly be any happier.

  But then something changed. The woman he’d vowed to spend his life with started looking more and more like a stranger. They stopped communicating. They stopped spending time together, stopped putting one another first. It didn’t happen all at once, but somewhere along the way, they had fallen out of love.

  It wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was just one of those things—the thing that happens right in front of your face, but you’re too lost in living your own life that you miss it. I hadn’t realized I’d been falling out of love with my wife until it was too late. And by then, the damage had already been done.

  That’s right, boys and girls. This isn’t a made-up fairytale. This is my life.

  She asked me for a divorce, told me she’d found somebody else. But before we could even initiate the process, she died. A freak car accident had taken my wife from me just as I’d been about to lose her anyway. I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t know if it was some sort of punishment. I went through bouts of anger and then fell into a pit of despair, guilt flooding through me every time I thought of my late wife.

  But then she came along. And in seemingly no time at all, she unveiled feelings deep within my heart that I hadn’t realized existed. For the first time, I knew what it meant to truly love another.

  Only there was one major complication.

  She was my wife’s sister.

  I told myself she was off-limits. I tried to deny my feelings for her, because I knew that to the public eye, we’d never make sense. I knew that to her family, our being together would not be okay.

  But it didn’t matter how many times I tried to convince myself otherwise, I couldn’t help the way my heart picked up speed whenever she was near. Couldn’t control the way my fingers ached to touch her, to pull her to me and bury my face in the sweet scent of her hair.

  So all the while I told myself to stay away from her, my heart was falling deeper and deeper in love with her. And like before, by the time I realized it, it was too late. The damage had been done.

  I hadn’t realized that the whole time I’d been worried about how her family would react, I should have been worrying about her. Because though I know she loved me, too, she had convinced herself we couldn’t be together. That I only loved her because she reminded me of what I lost. That I wanted her to fill the role left behind by my wife.

  But she couldn’t be more wrong.

  Kate—

  I’ve never loved anybody like I love you. I don’t look at you and see Felicity. I look at you and see the missing piece of my heart. I thou
ght after my girls were born, I couldn’t possibly be any happier. But then you walked into my life, and I realized that as full as my heart was already, there was still an empty space. A space that couldn’t be filled by the love of a child or a parent or a sibling. It was the space in my heart that was reserved only for the woman I love—my soul mate. A space that had never been filled. Until I met you.

  I don’t know how many other ways I can say it. But I’ll keep finding them. I’ll tell you a dozen times… a thousand… a million. I’ll never stop, not until you realize exactly what you mean to me.

  So I figured I’d start here. In front of all of Chicago and the paper I know you love. I love you, Kate Mitchell. And I don’t care what the world thinks. I don’t care if your parents cut me out of their lives and never see their grandchildren again. Because we’ll have you. And you are all we’ll ever need.

  I set the paper down on my desk, bringing the back of my hand to my nose to wipe away the tears collecting at the tip.

  That was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read. And it was all for me.

  “It’s all true you know,” a voice says from the doorway of my office, and my eyes dart up to find Shane. He’s dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, but even in this simple getup, he looks heaven-sent.

  I leap from my chair and rush to him, nearly tackling him to the floor with the force of my hug. He laughs as he catches me, his arms circling my waist and pulling me tight against him.

  I breathe him in, the scent of his cologne, shampoo, and natural musk flooding my nose and filling me with a sense of peace I haven’t felt since I stepped foot inside that cab.

  Finally, after what feels like forever and only seconds all at the same time, I pull back, my eyes scanning his face.

  “How… why… how…”

  He chuckles softly. “I got Izzy’s email from your website. After a desperate plea and a lot of bribery, she hooked a guy up.”

  So that’s why Izzy had been so adamant about me reading the paper. She knew exactly what I’d find because she helped set it up.

  “I’m so sorry, Shane. I’m so sorry I hurt you. I should have never left the way I did.”

  He lifts his hands to wipe the tears from my cheeks. “It’s okay. I understand why you did. Just promise me you’ll never do it again.”

  I chuckle as I press my face back into his neck. “I can’t promise my insecurities won’t rear their ugly heads from time to time. But I do promise I’ll stay and talk to you about it, instead of running away.”

  He presses a kiss to my temple. “That’s all I ask. And anytime those nasty bitches show up, you just tell me. I’ll make sure they go back where they belong.”

  I lift my face and gaze up at him. “I love you, Shane Dempsey. Now and forever.”

  His lips meet mine in a gentle kiss. “I love you, too, Kate. Now, let’s go get Gracie and Ellie. They’re probably terrorizing poor Izzy.”

  “They’re here?” I squeal. If there’s one thing that can get me out of this man’s arms right now, it’s the idea of seeing my two favorite little girls. I hadn’t realized until this moment just how much I missed them.

  He nods his head toward the door. “They’re in Izzy’s office. I tried to get them to stay with my parents, but once Gracie heard where I was going, she wouldn’t stop until I relented. She must get that from her reporter aunt. She sure knows how to badger someone into giving her exactly what she wants,” he says with a wink.

  I chuckle and start the trek down to Izzy’s office. “God help the boy she falls in love with.”

  Shane grunts out his disapproval as he follows. “Not on my watch. That girl isn’t allowed to date until she’s fifty.”

  I push open Izzy’s office door, and my heart lifts so much it feels as if my feet just might leave the ground.

  “Auntie Kate!” Gracie squeals, climbing to her feet and rushing toward me. Ellie’s little feet beat along right behind her, and soon I’m enveloped by the sweetest hugs the world has ever known.

  After nodding my gratitude to Izzy, I take both girls by the hand and turn to face Shane.

  With a giant smile on my face, I say the words I’ve been dying to say since I first saw him standing in the doorway to my office.

  “Let’s go home.”

  Epilogue

  Shane

  One Year Later

  “I can’t believe my little Deej is all grown up,” Mark says, sniffling back a fake tear.

  I roll my eyes and turn to face him. “Remind me again why I agreed to this.”

  “Because I’m the only ordained minister you know. Besides, your fiancée loves me. She’d never deprive me of the privilege of being the one to seal you in holy matrimony.”

  I give him another roll of my eyes, this time exaggerating the movement so not only he can see it, but the entire room.

  The little church is packed full, all of our friends and family here to witness the moment we pledge our never-ending love—with two noted exceptions.

  Kurt and Debbie had been unable to get past their misguided notions of their daughter. They’d been unwilling to accept the two of us together, and as such, they haven’t been a part of our lives. That includes my girls. It breaks my heart to have to keep them from their grandparents, but I know it’s for the best. Anybody who could hate someone so completely, with no reason whatsoever, is not someone I want around my daughters.

  I wish I could say I missed them, but it would be a lie. My in-laws had been nothing but a pain in my side since the day we first met. And the trade-off—getting to spend the rest of my life with Kate—is well worth the sacrifice.

  Aara pops her head out from behind the closed door at the other end of the aisle and signals that we’re ready to begin. I square my shoulders, my breath hitching a bit at standing up here by myself.

  Well—other than the fuckwit we’d allowed to have marry us. Whoever allowed Mark to be ordained needed to have their head examined. Though, I suppose it’s only fitting he be the one to do it.

  Once upon a time, he’d stood before my parents, dressed in the very same robe, and pronounced them man and wife. And over thirty years later, they were still madly in love.

  What better way to start the rest of my life than with that sort of good omen?

  The music begins and the doors swing wide. A smile instantly springs to my face as I’m greeted by the sight of my daughters.

  Gracie and Ellie are dressed all in white, crowns of red and white flowers woven around their heads. Someone counts to three, and the two of them set off down the aisle arm in arm, a single basket of flower petals held between them. They use their free hands to scatter them as they move toward me.

  I can’t help but smile at how much they’ve grown in the past year. Not just physically, but emotionally as well. Losing Felicity had been hard on them both, but with the help of Kate and myself, they are thriving. Gracie is seven now and hasn’t had one of her meltdowns in nearly six months. And my sweet Ellie has stopped crying nearly as often as she used to. All in all, they’re both happy, beautiful little girls.

  If I do say so myself.

  Aara comes down the aisle next, a sideways smile on her face as she looks up at me. When Kate and I were planning our wedding, we’d decided not to do the whole bridal party thing. After all, she didn’t have any close friends or family to ask to stand beside her. And I hadn’t wanted to make her feel uncomfortable.

  Aara had taken one look at me when I told her and said that was fine. But there was no way in hell she wasn’t going to be a part of our wedding. She credited herself for us even getting together in the first place—and I suppose she’s not wrong—and she refused to take no for an answer.

  So even though it’s a little unorthodox… my thirty-four-year-old sister is our ring bearer.

  She pinches my arm gently when she reaches me, taking her place off to the side near the girls until it’s time to present the rings. I’d tried to talk her into carrying the traditional pillow, mo
stly because I thought it would be hilarious to see my grown-ass sister waltzing down the aisle with a tiny satin pillow in her hands, but Kate had nixed the idea. Instead, the rings rested in a hand-carved wooden box clutched safely to Aara’s chest.

  The music changes, and my breath hitches, my eyes moving from my sister and daughters back to the end of the aisle. Where the woman who’s soon to be my wife stands, my father by her side.

  Kate was insistent that she was fine walking down the aisle on her own. She didn’t need anybody there to give her away.

  But my father had interjected the second he heard her speak.

  “You won’t have to make that journey alone. I’ll walk you down the aisle,” he’d announced.

  Her brow had furrowed. “I appreciate the gesture, Liam, but you can’t exactly give me away to your own family.”

  My dad had shrugged. “So I won’t give you away. Instead of a father giving away his daughter, how about we celebrate a father-in-law guiding his new daughter into her new life?”

  Kate had burst into tears at that, and I’m not going to lie, it had brought a tear or two to my own eyes. I don’t know what I’d done in a past life to deserve such wonderful parents, but I thank my lucky stars every day that they’re mine.

  I watch as Kate and my father make their way toward me, and it takes everything in me not to go to them. To take Kate in my arms and carry her to the altar myself, unable to stand not being hers for a moment longer. Now that we’re here, in front of God and all our friends and family… well, I’m ready to get this show on the road. Ready to make Kate my wife.

  Somehow I manage to hold back though, and when they finally reach me, I nod to my father before taking Kate’s hand in mine. I lean forward and press a kiss to her cheek.

  “You’re beautiful.”

  She beams up at me as I pull back, her eyes glittering in the overhead light. I want nothing more than to pull her to me, to devour those perfect lips, to taste her sweet tongue, but I know if I try, Mark will never let me hear the end of it.