“What about Sawyer?” her mother asked. “I suspect he’s always been attracted to you.”
Where had that come from? Sawyer had never shown any romantic interest in her. “Sean’s brother?”
“Oh, stop! You don’t look at him like a brother. He was in the military most of the time you were married. You barely ever saw him.”
She pictured Sawyer. At six foot four, he was taller than most men, had a sturdy warrior’s build, thick sandy-blond hair and stormy green eyes that had probably seen too much. “He was raised with Sean.”
“So? He’s not really related to him. He didn’t even live with him for very long.”
He was still connected to Sean. “Sawyer should be glad he’s not actually related to him,” she grumbled.
“Except that now Sawyer has no family.”
Serenity felt bad for him. He hadn’t had an easy childhood. When his mother died shortly after she married Sean’s father, Sean’s father was kind enough to finish raising him. So when Sean went to trial and the whole Alston clan rallied behind him, they considered Sawyer an ungrateful traitor when he wouldn’t join forces with them. “The way they treated him once the trial started wasn’t fair. He was just trying to stand up for what’s right. But as far as the two of us ever getting together, there’s no way. We’ve always butted heads on everything. No matter what the issue is, we’re on opposite sides.”
“You were on the same side when it came to Sean,” her mother pointed out.
“Because Sawyer was able to put his head above his heart, something the rest of the family couldn’t do—or refused to do.” The way Sawyer had handled the situation showed emotional maturity. Serenity had been impressed but not all that surprised. He was incredibly smart, which was why it bugged her so much whenever he disagreed with her. Not only did he think faster than anyone she’d ever met, he was the only person she couldn’t beat, regardless of the game they played—even games of complete chance.
When the entire family got together for a reunion two years ago, they challenged each other at everything they could think of—horseshoes, volleyball, chess, backgammon, trivia. She’d won at backgammon once or twice but lost at all the rest. She’d never forget the enraging smile that had tugged at his lips when she insisted he give her another chance.
“Sean put up a pretty convincing front. He had me fooled for a long time. You, too,” her mother added.
Serenity didn’t need to be reminded of that. She’d fallen hard, planned her whole life around him. “He was a good liar,” she admitted. “And his lawyers were even better.” So good, in fact, there were moments Serenity had wondered if she was crazy for trusting her instincts above what she heard from his counsel in court—moments when she’d asked herself if she was not only being a bad wife, but ruining an innocent man’s life.
If she hadn’t been the one to find the proof and confront Sean before he had time to concoct the slick lies he and his lawyers presented afterward, they might’ve swayed her. Maybe she shouldn’t be so shocked that his family went the other way and only Sawyer could figure out the truth.
“He almost got off,” her mother said. “He would have, if not for your testimony. You were great on the stand. So poised. And Sawyer was right there to support you through it all. I love the way he stood by you. That had to have taken a great deal of courage when the rest of his family was glaring daggers at him, day in and day out.”
Large drops of rain began to splatter on her windshield. Serenity scowled as she glanced up at the foreboding sky. “He only did that because he believed Sean was guilty.” She switched on her wipers. “Anyway, I’m sure he was glad when the trial ended and he could go on with his life and forget all about me.”
Although, oddly enough, she’d heard from Sawyer recently. He’d called her, out of the blue, just to check in—not that she was going to tell her mother. Her conversation with him had been awkward, and he didn’t say much before hurrying off the phone.
“You should reach out to him, see how he’s doing,” Charlotte said.
Serenity wished she’d been friendlier during their brief conversation. But she hadn’t expected to ever hear from him again. And she was still so disillusioned after what’d happened with Sean she was off men in general—and anyone who was associated with Sean in particular. She didn’t need the memories Sawyer evoked. She preferred to forget the past eighteen months, start over.
“If I get the chance,” she said, and before her mother could press the issue any further, she asked how her brother was doing in school. He’d been struggling with his grades lately, which was unusual for him.
Her mother said she thought he was improving, at which point Serenity said the weather was getting bad and she needed to go.
Within ten minutes of hanging up, the rain turned to heavy snow, making the road slick and the traffic slow until she was sitting in place, staring at a sea of red taillights.
“Come on, come on,” she muttered impatiently. She’d been hoping to arrive at the cabin before Lorelei and Reagan. To get settled in, walk around and acclimate. To become anchored in the familiar before having to meet the two strangers who were her half sisters.
But at this rate, they’d beat her there.
2
lorelei
LORELEI CIPRIANO READ the latest text from her husband: Are you kidding me? You left for an entire week right in the middle of everything we’re going through? I thought you’d agreed to try to work things out!
She hadn’t agreed to anything. Her husband had been trying to convince her, had been pleading with her to forgive him ever since the ugly truth came out. And she’d been walking around in a shocked daze, going through the motions of life for the past three weeks like some sort of automaton.
But she’d made no commitments, and wasn’t even sure she was capable of letting this one go...
She was itching to reply to his text and tell him that. He was acting as though she was doing something wrong. But she’d already met up with Reagan at the Reno, Nevada, airport, where they’d rented a car to drive to Serenity’s cabin, and she didn’t want to get caught up fighting with Mark, didn’t want Reagan, who was driving, asking questions. She was so humiliated by what Mark had done she wished no one had to find out.
But, sadly, there’d be no hiding, at least not from her friends and family back home. As the weeks wore on and the proof became more apparent, she’d become an object of everyone’s pity, whether she liked it or not.
“Mommy, I want to get out,” her daughter said, a whine in her voice.
Poor Lucy. At only four, she’d found it difficult to sit on a plane for most of the day. Buckling her into the back seat of a car for another hour and a half as soon as they landed was almost more than the child could bear. And the weather was making the drive take forever. “Soon,” she promised.