“Mom!” Owen cried out, his voice cracking into a sob as he broke away from the social worker beside him.
“Owen!” I screamed, my legs finally finding the strength to run. I flew down the driveway, completely ignoring Mark’s pathetic weeping as the deputies threw him into the back of a police cruiser.
I fell to my knees on the grass, and instantly, my son’s arms wrapped tightly around my neck. I buried my face in his hair, feeling the steady, rhythmic warmth of his breathing against my skin. He hadn’t been washed away by the current. He had fought, he had planned, and he had secured our survival from the depths of a monster’s trap.
The husband who had stolen our peace was leaving the neighborhood in a cage, facing a life sentence for kidnapping, fraud, and attempted murder. But on the lawn in the afternoon sun, the Rhodes family was no longer empty. The truth had set us free, and my boy was finally home.
