Years have gone by since the death of Noah his special needs son, and Wiley Cantrell realizes it’s time to move on. He and his husband Jackson try to adopt little Tony Gorzola, a deaf boy with HIV who is emotionally traumatized.<br><br>Difficulties quickly set in. Tony is a sweet boy but very damaged by abuse and neglect. And Tony’s mother, in prison, is unwilling to relinquish her parental rights. No sooner do they get the go ahead to foster Tony when another child they had considered becomes available -- the daughter Jackson always wanted.<br><br>With two children on their hands, life is complicated -- wonderfully so. But just as things begin to settle down, Tony, his immune system compromised, falls ill with pneumonia ... and Wiley and Jackson find their little family faced with crisis once again.

Go Tell It on the Mountains

“What makes you think that?” I asked.


“Some enlightened self-interest might persuade her. Say, a hundred-dollar donation to her canteen funds or something. Who knows?”


“Sure. Why not? Don’t you want to know?”


“I know what happened to him, Jack.”


“Because it happened to me, in case you forgot.”


“You’re talking about the thing with Father Michael?”


“Yes. The thing.I was a lot older than four years old, but still. It was pretty rough, and I was never the same afterward. I used to wake up during the night, afraid someone was in my room. And when it was dark, I couldn’t look out the windows because I was terrified I’d see a face there. Someone coming to get me. Not some monster like Frankenstein, but a man. Some guy. Some man. So…yeah. I know what it is. But Tony doesn’t know what it is. He doesn’t know how to talk about it.”


Chapter 88