Because of what Leah had been through with her parents, the brand of love she valued most was the brand of love that stayed. That showed up over and over, year after year.

That was the kind of love Tess and Rudy had given to her and her brother.

It was no longer possible for Leah to view Tess with the same wholehearted trust that she had before. But even if she could not forget what Tess had done, she could forgive.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

It was Dylan’s closet that precipitated Leah’s breakdown.

The morning after his accident, Tess and Rudy arrived at the hospital just as they’d said they would. Leah returned home to shower, change, and gather the items Dylan had requested.

To her astonishment, she’d slept well last night on the hard futon. She and Dylan had shared a room when he’d been small, so sharing a room with him last night had wrapped her in a blanket of nostalgia. Even the middle-of-the-night visits from the nurses had soothed her because it had been reassuring to know she wasn’t the only one in charge of Dylan’s well-being. Trained professionals were watching over him!

It wasn’t until she opened his closet in order to pack some of his clothes and smelled the familiar scent of his soap that a wave of emotion swelled up and enveloped her.

Every article was so him. So familiar.

Her brother was going to live.

Thank God, her brother was going to live. Her gratitude was too enormous to contain.

Knowing everything she knew now . . . if she could go back to the hospital nursery on the day of her birth and change the course of events . . . would she choose life with the Brooksides over life with Dylan?

She would not.

It wasn’t even a close call. No set of circumstances could tempt her to give her brother up.

Tears slid down her cheeks.

Tess’s action had impacted Leah’s life in drastic ways. It was easy to think that Tess had entered in and mucked up what God had ordained. But could Tess’s error in judgment actually have been used by God?

Could something happen in a way that was so strange and amazing that it could only have been Him?

In recent days, she’d been disappointed by what she’d perceived as God’s inattention. Dylan’s accident revealed that God had not been inattentive. He’d simply been working in ways she hadn’t understood.

Yesterday, when Dylan raced off in his truck, her false sense of control had been stripped from her. She’d been powerless.

Yet God had not been.

He’d brought Sebastian to her months ago. When Dylan overheard her switched-at-birth secret, God had placed Sebastian there. When Dylan collided with that tree, God ensured that Sebastian possessed the skills needed to preserve her brother’s life.