Love Will Prevail

by Emma Easter

  Audrey opened her eyes to look at Esther again and her heart flooded with an unexplained aching affection for the girl. Suddenly, Audrey’s heart began to tug at her as she looked at Esther. And then she knew without a doubt that she felt the same way the girl did. As impossible and strange as it was, since they had only met for the first time and she had not been planning to do anything like adopt a child, she too wanted to be Esther’s mother. It was a feeling so strong she felt it in her soul. She felt love for the little girl overwhelming her. She hugged Esther again and promised once more that she would be back the next day.

  She entered the car, shut the door, and then waved at the beautiful little girl.

  Esther waved back eagerly.

  Audrey kept waving to Esther until the girl disappeared from sight. She turned to Sienna as they drove down the road and said, “Wow! That was really strange!”

  Sienna kept her eyes on the road and said, “What is it?”

  Audrey pressed her lips together for a few seconds, trying to process what she had just felt. Was it the Lord that had put such a strong affection for Esther in her heart? She said softly, “As crazy as it sounds, I think I want to adopt Esther.”

  Sienna turned briefly to her and frowned, and then turned back to the road again. She chuckled. “You’re joking, right? Is it because Esther said she wants you to be her mommy? From what I saw just now, I know Esther particularly likes you, but come on, Audrey…” Sienna did not finish her sentence and Audrey wondered what she wasn’t saying. After a long moment, Sienna said again, “Are you really serious about what you just said, Audrey?”

  Audrey looked out of the window and said, “I am extremely serious.”

  “But you were just talking about having a baby yesterday. Now you want to adopt a seven-year-old. I doubt Ken would agree to that. He’s not open to having a baby with you. He would be even less open to adopting a seven-year-old girl. I want Esther to have a mom and dad, and you, I know, will be a great mother. But Ken will probably flip out if you tell him about this. And besides, are you sure it’s what you want?”

  Audrey sighed loudly. “Why does everyone doubt I can handle motherhood?”

  “I have no doubt that you can handle it. I just said now that I know you will be a great mother. It’s just that adoption is not a small matter. You have been thinking of having your own baby. How come you’ve changed your mind all of a sudden?”

  Audrey looked at Sienna and said, “I haven’t changed my mind about having a baby. And it’s not so much about adopting a child as it is about adopting Esther. I don’t know why, but I have simply fallen in love with that little girl.”

  Once again, Sienna said nothing for a long time. Audrey turned to look out the window again, her heart beating. Sienna was right. Ken wasn’t open to having a baby with her; he would probably shut down any talk of adopting a child. But that would not stop her from bringing it up with him. Maybe when he came to the orphanage tomorrow and met Esther, he would feel the same way about her that she did. And if he didn’t, she would not give up until he began to.

  Sienna finally said, “You know what, Audrey? I think you should go ahead and follow your heart. I actually think it would be wonderful if you adopted Esther. I was just worried that you were making a hasty decision. But I think you are a very logical person — much more logical than I am — and you think things through. Granted, you haven’t had the time to think this over, but when you do and you still decide you want to adopt Esther, I’ll support you completely.”

  Audrey’s eyes filled with tears of appreciation and she leaned in to kiss Sienna on the cheek. “Thank you, sis. I really appreciate that. At least someone believes in me and in my ability to be a good mother right now.”

  “Awww, you will be a great mother. And I think Ken also believes in your ability to be a great mother too; it’s just that he doesn’t think both of you are ready to be parents right now. Just as I told you earlier, I can ask Bryan to speak to him and let him see that you are really ready now.”

  Audrey thought about it for only a second and then said, “I don’t think it will help any. And also, with my new desire to adopt Esther, I think it will be best if I spoke to him myself.” She sighed loudly again and said, “I am not looking forward to speaking to him at all. Every time I have brought up the idea of starting a family now, it’s always ended up with us fighting. I am afraid of what he’ll say and what will happen when I bring up my desire to adopt a seven-year-old child. I hate our fights. Apart from the fight about Lauren before we got married, we have not had any fights at all until this whole thing about having a child. It’s so exhausting.”

  “I’m really sorry,” Sienna said. “That must really hurt. I know how I would feel if Bryan had said he didn’t want a child with me when I wanted to start trying. But, please remember that Ken loves you. Maybe there’s a good reason why he doesn’t want to have a child now that goes beyond his concerns that both of you will not be able to dedicate enough time to the child.”

  Audrey couldn’t imagine what reason Ken could possibly have and shrugged. “Maybe there is,” she said.

  They changed the subject and talked about Rosefield. “I miss Rosefield so much,” Sienna said.

  “I understand that. I miss it too when Ken and I are in Miami.”

  “I hope I don’t decide to go back with you when you and Ken are ready to leave Peru.” She sighed. “That day will be difficult for me.”

  Audrey chuckled. “We have only just arrived, Sienna, and you are already thinking about the day we leave. Let’s just live in the moment and enjoy the time we have.”

  Sienna smiled. “You are right.”

  When they got to Sienna and Bryan’s, Audrey went into the house feeling nervous.

  I wonder what tonight will be like, she wondered to herself. Would Ken end up sleeping on Sienna and Bryan’s couch after they had a huge fight, or would they be wrapped up in each other’s arms in bed, unable to wait until the next day so they would see Esther and start the process of adopting her? Audrey knew it was a tall order to actually expect Ken to immediately agree to the adoption. It was more likely that the former would be the case for them.

  Ken walked up to her and kissed her immediately when she stepped into the living room. Sienna and Bryan went out of the living room, hand in hand. Audrey could hear the faint sound of the baby crying. Her heart raced as she looked into Ken’s eyes. She had to tell him now or she would lose her courage.

  He smiled curiously at her and said, “Why are you looking at me like that? What’s on your mind, Audrey?”

  “I have something very important to talk to you about.”

  Ken sighed deeply and, with weariness in his voice, said, “Please don’t tell me it’s about having a baby again. I thought we promised not to talk about it for this month that we are on our vacation.”

  Audrey said, “It’s not really about that.”

  Ken stared quizzically at her, but said nothing.

  Audrey took his hand and said, “I think it would be best to talk about it in the privacy of the bedroom.”

  Ken lifted his brows and stared incredulously at her. “You are expecting a fight, then. That means this discussion is serious and will not end very well.” He groaned. “Must we talk about it right now? Can’t we wait until our vacation is over to talk about whatever it is?”

  Audrey shook her head and wove her fingers through his. She led him to the guest bedroom where they would be staying for the month. She sat down on the bed and smiled nervously at him as he sat beside her.

  He looked her straight in the eye and asked, “So, what do you want us to talk about, Audrey?”

  Audrey took a deep breath, and then went ahead without wasting any more time. “When Sienna and I went to the orphanage today, a little girl called Esther ran up to us with the other children. But immediately when I saw her, I knew there was something special about her. When Esther threaded her fingers through mine and told me she wanted me to be her mommy, the
re was something that took hold of my heart.”

  Audrey looked up as the memory of that moment flooded her mind. She looked at Ken again. He had an astonished look on his face. “It wasn’t just her words or the look in her eyes that got to me. It was something deep inside of me. I just knew in my heart that I loved this girl.”

  Audrey paused for a second to gather her thoughts and then went on. “When we were leaving, she looked so sad and begged me not to go. I knew then that I didn’t want to leave her and I wanted her to be mine.” Audrey took a deep breath again and looked into Ken’s eyes. She said, “I knew with my whole heart that I wanted to be her mother.” She smiled softly. “I want to adopt Esther, Ken… No, I want us to adopt Esther.”

  Ken’s eyes bulged and there was a throbbing vein in his neck. He shot up from the bed as though his body were on fire. “You cannot be serious, Audrey!” he exclaimed, staring at her. “What are you thinking? Please tell me you’re kidding.”

  Ken’s reaction had been expected, but still, Audrey felt a mix of emotions in her heart as he stared down at her with a look of outrage. She felt fear and anger. Once again, she took a deep breath in order to still her emotions and said, “I am very serious, Ken. With everything in me, I want Esther. I want us to adopt her.”

  Ken shook his head slowly and then gave a harsh laugh. He continued to stare down at Audrey for a long moment and began to pace the room. He finally stopped in front of Audrey again and said, “What has gotten into you, Audrey? For a while now, you have been talking almost non-stop about us having a baby, and now you’ve switched to wanting to adopt a child. Are you serious?”

  Audrey folded her arms across her chest and said, “I still want to have a child with you… but I want to adopt Esther as well. Besides, you don’t want a baby now because you say we will not have time to take care of a newborn. Esther is seven; definitely not a baby. She will not need the amount of attention that a small baby will.”

  “Audrey, please listen to yourself. You went to an orphanage and saw a child for the first time, and all of a sudden you want to adopt her. What’s wrong with you?”

  Audrey felt anger burning in her mind and threatening to spill out of her mouth, and she pushed it down. Getting mad at this time would only make things worse. “Ken, I know what I have just told you seems like it’s coming out of the blue. But just come to the orphanage tomorrow and see Esther. I think after you have seen and talked to her, you will probably feel the same way I do.”

  “I certainly won’t!”

  Audrey cried, “You won’t come to the orphanage tomorrow?”

  “I promised Bryan I would come,” Ken said. “But I will not feel the same way that you do about some little girl I meet for the first time. In fact, I am not going to meet her tomorrow. There is no way we are adopting a child. I told you we will have a baby, but not right now. But as for adoption, I have no interest in doing that. No interest at all.”

  Audrey frowned deeply. Why was Ken being so obstinate? “Please, Ken,” she pleaded. “Please, just . . .”

  Ken cut her off. “Please, Audrey! Stop it! We are not adopting a child!” He turned away from her and abruptly walked out of the bedroom.

  For long time, she stood looking after Ken. She felt dread, not because she and Ken just had a fight, but because she was afraid of missing out on the opportunity to become Esther’s mother. If she couldn’t convince Ken about the adoption by the time they left in a month, she probably would never be able to convince him, and they would end up not adopting Esther.

  The thought did not sit well with her at all, and she fell to her knees. She did the only thing she knew to do right now. She lifted up her voice and began to pray that the Lord would touch Ken’s heart so he would agree to meet Esther tomorrow, and that when he did meet her, he would feel the same way she did, or at least be open to the idea of adopting her.

  Since they’d started talking about having a baby, this had been her one and only prayer—that God would touch Ken’s heart. Nowadays, she was constantly asking the Lord to touch his heart. Why was Ken so stubborn, anyway? Why couldn’t he see things the way she did?

  She stood up from her knees and sat on the bed again. All she could do now was hope and pray and believe that her hunch was right—that once Ken met and spoke to Esther tomorrow, he would fall in love with the child just as deeply as she had.

  Chapter Eleven

  Leila came out of the taxi with her suitcase and stared at the very familiar Nira market. This time, unlike the other times when she had come to Nira, it wasn’t daytime. Darkness was approaching. She glanced at the watch on her wrist, a gold wristwatch that Dauda had bought for her before she left and insisted she wear. The time was almost seven p.m.

  The time she’d arrived here wasn’t the only thing that was different. She had taken a taxi from the airport in Bamako all the way here. It had cost an arm and a leg, but she had the money to hire the taxi solely for herself. She’d told the driver to drop her near the market, as she did not want to be driven to Malik’s house so she could avoid alerting anyone of her arrival. She’d arrived at almost the time she wanted. Soon, it would be dark and the darkness would act as her protection. Then she would, by God’s grace, sneak into the community and go to Malik’s without Karim Keita or any of his men seeing her; at least she hoped so.

  She glanced at her gold wristwatch again and then frowned at herself. She was wearing an expensive sapphire gown—a gift from Dauda, just like the wristwatch. It occurred to her that what she was wearing now, how she looked, might be startling to Malik when he saw her. She had been dressed very simply when they’d met. In cheap clothes, actually. Now, she looked totally different; like a rich man’s wife. Maybe she should not have put on all these things. She removed the wristwatch, put it in her designer purse, and then sighed wearily. Maybe there was no way to hide the wealth that she had on.

  She looked this way and that, and then crossed the road. Going straight to the hut where she had waited out the daytime, she stood this time, looking out the window. In just a few minutes, it would be totally dark outside. She could then go out and not be noticed until she got to Malik’s house.

  Fifteen minutes later, she came out of the hut, brought out her phone from her purse, and switched it on. Using the light from her phone as a flashlight, she slowly made her way through the short path she had taken to Malik’s the last time she was here.

  She pressed her lips tightly together as she remembered the events that happened the last time she came here. The path that she took now led to the back of Malik’s house. She had been tapping on his window, trying to figure out if he was home when she’d been apprehended by Karim Keita’s men. Everything had happened so quickly after that. Everything she had feared had happened to her. Malik’s father had thrown her into that awful shack and had deceived her into giving Zainah up. After that, she and Zainah had been married, or rather, taken away by their husbands. Zainah had managed, through Faizan’s help, to escape her husband’s grasp and get her marriage dissolved. But it had taken her being shot for that to happen.

  Leila sighed. She, on the other hand, had not been that lucky in terms of being reunited with the love of her life and escaping the awful marriage. She’d been bundled away by Dauda to Saudi Arabia. But God had been faithful. Dauda had never touched her like she’d feared, and he had turned out to be kinder than she’d expected. Now, she was free to find Malik and Dauda had promised to come to Nira to have the marriage dissolved as soon as he could. God had been truly gracious to her. Now, her one prayer was that she and Malik would be reunited.

  Lord, please let him be at home.

  She continued to walk on the cleared path, seeing only a few people who paid her no mind. She got to the back of Malik’s house minutes later, and just as she did the last time, she gently tapped on his window. Her hands were clammy with fear and anticipation. She told herself she had no need to be afraid. It wasn’t like Karim Keita could force her to be married to Dauda anymore whe
n Dauda had agreed to dissolve their marriage. However, Malik and Zainah’s father was unpredictable. It would be just like him to have another friend in the wings that he wanted to marry her off to.

  She told herself to stop being ridiculous. She was pretty sure Karim did not know that she wasn’t married to Dauda anymore. It was unlikely that he would hurt her in any way knowing that she was Dauda’s wife. She had no need to be afraid, at least for now. If he found out that she was in Nira and asked why she was here, she would tell him that she had Dauda’s full permission to visit her friends here. And that would be true.

  She frowned when no one came to the window. Tapping on the window again, she waited once more, her heart racing with anxiety. After another minute, when there was still no answer, she guessed that Malik was not in Nira.

  And why did you expect him to be here anyway?

  She had blindly come here, hoping against hope that Malik would be here. She had naively held on to the hope that God would cause him to be here when she arrived. If the Lord had miraculously made a way for her to leave Saudi Arabia and had provided everything she needed to come, she’d believed He would also keep Malik here and would give them a beautiful reunion. But, apparently, she had been wrong. She should have known that he would not be in Nira. He spent more time on that farm in God-knew-where than he did in Nira now.

  Dread gripped her. Maybe Khadija would know where that farm was. Since Leila didn’t know where the farm was located, she had to risk being found out by Karim and go to his house to see if she would find Khadija.

  And you think Karim Keita will not see you when knock on his front door?

  She shuddered at the thought. But she had no choice. She had to go to the house to find Khadija. Karim would probably see her, but she was already married to Dauda. He wouldn’t dare hurt her.

  With her heart racing, Leila made her way to the only house that, as usual, had light. The security lights in front of the house were on, clearly illuminating the building. The sound of the generator reverberated in the air as she approached the house. She got to the front gate, knocked on it, and then waited.