Page 118 of Road to Absolution

CHAPTER 24

The Fight of a Hero

How can a soul you have never met be more important to you than anything else in the world… in the blink of a mere goddamn eye? I don’t know, but that is all the time it took for one little girl to own me, irrevocably.

Just like her mother. It took only one simple glance for me to know she was now the center of my world.

Was it possible? After life had thrown me punches that landed harder than a thousand fists in a ring, was it possible that this life of mine would be so lucky as to experience such magic, twice?

Through all the blood and mucous on her tiny face, I saw the mere chance to be the happiest man on earth… or the most miserable.

Holding this baby’s head—this precious life—in the palm of my hand, I dared to lift my eyes.

With the expression of pure horror on Lilah’s face, it was evident that ‘a life for a life’ had two meanings.

Giver had saved mine, therefore clearing the debt of him still being alive. I understood that. We all did, and I found peace with it since this is also how my wife viewed it. But the second meaning to ‘a life for a life’ was that my Lilah’s would be snuffed out as well if I didn’t save the child God had placed in my hands…

“One! Two! Three!” yelled the ref.

Whatever I had felt was ailing me, the accident, the gun, the fire, and nightly terrors, none were going to compare to the greatest pain of all. Losing a child.

I had never even seen her breathe once on this earth, yet knew that action was the most detrimental event I needed to witness.

“Four! Five! Six!” roared the ref.

In a mystical second, the whole accident flashed before my eyes: my dad’s porch, Lilah dancing with me… “Fight for me, Maverick…”

The attack in the hospital… “Is she worth it?”

It hadn’t been Lilah’s life she needed me to fight for.

It was for my daughter’s.

“Fight, Boxer Boy!”

I was, at this crucial moment in time, supposed to be right here. Fighting…

My ears opened and began to work with such precision it was haunting… “Someone better talk to me!”

A saying I had repeated many times was all practice… for right fucking now.

My ears shut out every noise and clung to a stranger’s voice as she began to give vital instructions. The call kept breaking up, but I heard enough to get us through and reenacted every demand.

The woman said for Lilah to stop pushing.

I peered up. Delilah was incredibly flushed, dripping with sweat, tears streaming like gut-wrenching waterfalls, yet she was already nodding, willing to do anything possible to help.

“Mav-” the call interrupted, “-ick, is the cor’ around her ‘eck onl’ once?”

“No,” I replied with urgency, praying the call could hold on a little longer.

“Ca’ you pull i’ over the bab-’s head?”

Knowing I was losing this dispatcher, I rushed, testing the hard gristly tube pried tight. “No.”

Just then the call disconnected. “No,” I almost cried.

Men all around me were cursing, holding their phones in the air…