His mother reached over to put her hand on his arm. “She loves you, Owen. She wants to support you through this. You have to let her.”

“I know that, too. What will you say when Charlie tells you he loves you and wants to support you through it?”

“That’s different. We aren’t engaged or having children together, and he doesn’t love me. Not like Laura loves you.”

“If that’s what you think, you haven’t been paying attention to the way he looks at you. Love is love, Mom. You need to be prepared for him to want to come.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Owen saw his mother shudder at the thought of Charlie coming with them to Virginia.

“I talked to John today,” he said of his brother who worked as a police officer in Tennessee. “He can’t make it next week or to the wedding. They have two guys out on medical leave, so he can’t get the time off. He said to tell you he’s sorry.”

“So… That leaves just us, huh?”

All of Owen’s six siblings had called in the last week to tell him they couldn’t make it to the trial for one reason or another. For most of them it had come down to a choice—go to the trial or come to Gansett for his wedding. Not surprisingly, most of them had chosen option B.

“It’s all right. Between the two of us, we’ll get the job done.” The only thing that mattered at the end of the day was seeing his father put away for a long time for the abuse he’d inflicted on his wife and children for decades, culminating in the vicious beating that had brought Sarah to Gansett last fall to recover. She’d stayed ever since and had been instrumental in helping him and Laura run the Sand & Surf Hotel and care for Holden, too.

“I don’t know what I’d ever do without you, Owen. You and I… We’ve traveled a long road together.”

“I was just thinking how Laura and I never would’ve gotten through the last year without you here to help us.”

The comment drew a smile from his mother. He’d never seen her so happy or so at peace and hated the thought of the trial disrupting the hard-won peace for either of them. “Despite everything that brought me here, this year has been one of the best of my life. With some time and perspective, I can’t believe I ever lived the way I did for as long as I did.”

“That’s over now. One more hurdle to clear and you’re free.”

“Two hurdles. Still waiting on the divorce, too. Naturally, your father is stonewalling the entire process.”

“Of course he is.”