“Like I’d believe anything you have to say about it.”

Neither Bridget nor Margaret wanted to know what really happened.

Sarah’s cell phone rang upstairs. “Believe whatever you want.” She turned to Margaret. “I bought and set up all the ingredients in the kitchen for you to make and decorate cupcakes. I’ll send the kids down and get back to work so you can enjoy your time with them.”

Sarah turned for the stairs just as Sophia ran down them, her brand-new tablet in hand.

Sophia launched herself into Sarah and hugged her. “Thank you so much, Aunt Sarah. I love it. I’ve been wanting one forever, but Mom said it was too expensive.”

Sarah held Sophia and kissed her on the head. “I’m so glad you like it. Now you can play games, read books, and use it for schoolwork.” Sarah stepped back and took the tablet. She clicked on the store icon, then handed it back to Sophia and pointed out, “See here? You’ve got a fifty-dollar credit. Use it wisely and not all at once.”

“Are you serious?” Bridget fumed. “That’s too much.”

Sophia turned to her mom. “I’ll be responsible. I won’t spend all of it at once, like she said. And there’s this sci-fi book series I’ve been dying to read. All the kids at school have all five books and I have no idea what they’re raving about. Now I can read them.”

Bridget reluctantly nodded for her to go ahead and get the books. “But you can’t get anything else until you read all of those first.”

Sophia beamed. “Yes. Okay. Thank you.” She turned to Sarah again. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Sarah smiled. “You’re welcome. Now go make cupcakes with your grandma. I’ll send the boys down.”

Sarah started up the stairs when Margaret said to Bridget, “At least she spent some of Sean’s money on his niece. He’d have wanted to do that for her.”

However Margaret and Bridget wanted to justify the tablet for Sophia without giving Sarah credit for doing something nice, fine. Sarah didn’t really care. Let them think Sean would have done it. She knew the truth. Sean hadn’t bought anything for any of them in all the years they were married. She sent all the birthday and Christmas gifts. She had to remind Sean to call his mom and sister on their birthdays. And when he did, he played it up big-time that he remembered them and was so glad they liked the gift he picked out just for them. They ate it up. Sean kept his good-guy, best-brother-and-son status because of her.

They really didn’t know him at all.

Not the way Sarah did.

Chapter Eleven

Luke’s surly mood simmered for the next day and a half. He didn’t know what to do with the information it took Dean only a few hours to obtain and send to Luke. Sarah’s adult record was clean. No arrests. No parking or speeding tickets. She’d been an upstanding citizen as an adult.