I said that. And you you just you saved my life. You saved all of us. And I was so I was so wrong. I was so cruel to you, and I don't I don't deserve.
She couldn't finish. She stood there and shook and wept undone by the enormity of it of being alive because of the man she'd tried to throw away. The whole cabin was watching. Kalin was watching. Delaney was watching from the aisle.
Walter Hensley stood a few feet back with little Tyler's hand in his watching. Everyone waited to see what the biker would do to the woman who'd spent 3 hours trying to destroy him. Ethan Carter looked at her for a long moment. And then slowly, using the last of his strength, he pushed himself up out of the pilot seat and stood. And he stepped forward, and he was so much bigger than her, this scarred man in the leather jacket.
And Margaret flinched despite herself. One last involuntary flinch, the reflex of her own fear. And Ethan saw it. And it didn't make him angry. It made him sad.
Ma'am, he said gently. Look at me. She looked up at him, terrified, ashamed, waiting for whatever she had coming. I'm not angry at you, Ethan said. Margaret's face crumpled further.
But you should be, maybe, but I'm not. He let out a slow breath. You want to know something? You weren't wrong that I've done things. These scars.
He held up his hands. They're real. I've been in some dark places. I've done some things I'll answer for someday. I'm not a saint, ma'am.
I'm just a man. His voice softened. But I learned a long time ago that the worst thing you can do to a person is decide who they are before you know them. It's the thing the whole world did to me, and I promised myself I'd never do it back. He looked at her steadily.
You were scared. You just buried your sister. I heard you tell the flight attendant. You were grieving and you were scared. And you looked at me and I was the easiest thing in the world to be afraid of.
I understand that. I forgive you for that. It's already forgotten. How? Margaret choked.
How can you forgive me? I don't understand how you can. Because I've got a daughter, Ethan said simply. And someday somebody's going to look at her and decide she's less than she is because of who her daddy is because of the jacket I wear and the people I ride with. And when that day comes, I want the world to have a little more forgiveness in it than it does right now.