Julianna had stolen his heart at a time when he was searching for worth and significance. Both young and uncertain about the world, they’d built their lives around one another. They’d become each other’s missing part, an idea the world dressed up in beautifully poetic language. In reality their dependence on each other had become a kind of slavery, bound by a knot.

But that knot failed to deliver the promised bliss. So they’d pressed on, desperate to be saved by each other. When that knot finally unraveled, they were left with threadbare souls.

He’d spent so much time being angry with Julianna for taking the children. And yet now, even after so many years and such distance, his heart skipped a beat when she crossed his mind. He longed to tell her how precious she was.

Eli was reading a newspaper when Ben climbed back into the driver’s seat. The boy’s bare feet were perched on the dash, ankles crossed, newspaper opened like a book in front of him.

“Where’d you get that?” Ben asked, closing his door.

“At the free news box,” Eli said.

Ben glanced out the boy’s window to see a dispenser with “Free” and “Take One” plastered across the glass.

“Anything good?” Ben asked.

Eli looked up out the windshield. He scrunched his nose and laughed at something only he was thinking, then returned his eyes to the newspaper. “I think everything is good,” he said.

Ben nodded and turned over the engine. The truck roared to life. Before shifting into drive, he reached into the plastic bag of goods he’d found inside and pulled out a round package. He playfully tossed the package into Eli’s lap. “Look what I found.”

Eli squealed with delight, dropped the paper, and grabbed the gift with both hands. “Powdered donuts!”

“I thought you might like that.”

Chapter
Fifteen

I WALKED THROUGH THE BACK DOOR OF OUR HOME, hoping to escape to my bedroom. My body was exhausted. Rose’s sharp reprimand still echoed in my mind. Even after Evelyn was safely home, her panic continued to escalate. We sent for Rose, and by the time she arrived Evelyn’s forearm had broken out into a bright red rash.

Stephen, who’d gone into the grass, was fine. Not a mark on him.

The look of anger in Evelyn’s teary eyes as I left the Pierce home haunted me. I was scheduled to care for the children in two days, but I wasn’t sure Rose would allow it.

I could hear my mother’s soft voice in the kitchen. She was talking to someone? I stooped to remove my shoes, wiped them clean, and hurried down the hall.

Jamie was sitting at the kitchen table, listening to my mother as she cooked dinner. My surprise melted to joy, and I flew across the room to embrace my brother.