Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“I don’t remember Sarah wearing this. Maybe…” She looked at me. I knew what she was thinking.
“Maybe it was from my father,” I finished for her. That would explain why Sarah hadn’t worn it but had thought enough of it to keep it in her bedside drawer.
“May I?” Ford asked, reaching for the box as Martha handed it to him. He stared down at it for a long moment, then reached for the tab at the base of the piece that displayed the pearl on the chain and pulled it up. Beneath, gold flashed.
“There’s something in there, under the necklace,” Hope said.
“Looks like it.” Ford pulled out half of a gold heart pendant, one side jagged, as if meant to fit perfectly with the other side.
My breath caught in my throat.
Ford heard the choked sound and his eyes shot to me. “You recognize it?”
“I found the other half in my father’s trunk,” I said. “It’s with my things. I can show you later. He must have given it to her…or she gave it to him.”
“And she hid it to keep it safe,” Hope said. “I’d say if anyone was wondering if Paige’s father was Sarah’s mysterious lover, that question’s been answered.”
I nodded. I’d been sure, but I could understand why they might have had questions. Now those were put to rest. I wished that had settled anything for me.
We went through the remainder of the box but found no more clues to their relationship. No letters from my father to Sarah. Nothing of his at all, except the half of the pendant and the volume of sonnets.
Griffen folded down the top of the box and placed it in the storage bin, surrounded by cookbooks. “We might as well keep this here for now, since there’s nothing in it we need.”
Ford nodded in agreement, and together they slid the bin back on the shelf.
Griffen shoved his hands in his pockets when he straightened. “I haven’t heard back from Cooper on the search for Paul Williams, but it’s almost the weekend. We may have to wait till Monday.”
“What about your mother?” I asked. “Are they looking for her, too?”
Ford looked to Griffen, and Griffen shrugged.
“I asked them to look years ago, when I first joined the team at Sinclair Security. As far as they could see, she dropped off the face of the earth the day she left Sawyers Bend. They’ve checked here and there over the years, and no change. None of her accounts were ever touched, and her IDs never popped back up, but that doesn’t mean much.”
“Why not?” I asked, not understanding. Not finding a sign of Sarah in over three decades seemed pretty significant to me.
“Because if she had any intention of leaving our father, she would have known the only way to do it was to disappear,” Griffen explained. “She would have made plans.”
“What about a divorce?” I asked, feeling a little lost. “People get divorced all the time. Custody, alimony… People don’t usually disappear.”
“No, he wouldn’t have let her go,” Miss Martha said. She shook her head sadly. “She didn’t have any money of her own. Her parents were well-off, but they were older and wanted her settled with Prentice. They were old-fashioned—husband knows best. She tried to leave—with Griffen—not long after he was born, and they sent her right back. She had no help, couldn’t afford a lawyer. I don’t honestly know how she could have divorced Prentice and had a hope of ever seeing the two of you again.”
“Courts usually give custody to the mother. At least they did back then, right?” Hope asked.
“Back then, yeah,” Griffen said, “but most husbands aren’t Prentice Sawyer.”
“Good point,” Hope agreed. “Poor Sarah…” She looked to Griffen with a guilty expression. “I know she left you. I don’t understand how she could have done that, but I can’t help but feel sorry for her. Your father was a nightmare. I picture her so young, not knowing what she was getting into, and then she was stuck. I want to judge her for leaving you two, but I can’t.”
“Neither can I,” Ford said slowly. “Especially if she’d already tried to leave before she got pregnant with me.”
I hated the picture forming in my head, hated more knowing that Ford was probably thinking the same thing. If Sarah had tried to leave Prentice before she got pregnant with Ford, she probably hadn’t wanted to have another child in the first place. Not with Prentice. And I’d seen enough pictures of past Sawyers to know that Ford was a Sawyer by blood. Had Prentice forced her? Or had she gone along with what he wanted, knowing she didn’t have a choice?
As if she was reading our minds, Miss Martha reached for Ford’s hand, letting him help her to her feet. When she stood, she didn’t let go; instead, she clasped his hand in both of hers. “She loved you so much, Ford. No matter how unhappy she was with your father, she never regretted either of you, not for a second.”