Sully groaned.

“This breaks my heart for you. It was cruel and heartless, and I don’t know what to say. But it answers the question I had of why they’d never told me. And why I didn’t know about my father’s necklace until they’d both passed.” And then it hit him. “The necklace! Wait a minute. I’ll be right back.”

He ran out of the room and up the stairs, and when he did, Melissa went to sit beside Lovey.

“I am so happy for the both of you,” she said.

Lovey shivered. “I’m still in shock. I never thought I would see my baby again, and then look what he became. This big, wonderful man!”

Sully came hurrying back into the room and walked up behind her.

“Close your eyes, and don’t open them until I say to.” He put the necklace around her neck and fastened it, then circled the sofa and took her by the hand. “Now, come with me, please,” he said, and led her to the mirror in the hall. When he was standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders, he spoke. “You can look now.”

Lovey looked, straight into the mirror, staring in disbelief at her reflection. Marc’s Byzantine cross was back around her neck.

“Oh, Sully,” Lovey said, and leaned back against him. “Thank you for this. It was a special gift when he gave it to me, and after I learned you were on the way, in my heart it became the ‘wedding ring’ I never had.”

Sully turned her just a little toward the painting visible from the living room.

“There we were, and here we are,” he said, looking at their reflections in the mirror, in the same amazement as he had when he’d seen the painting.

Lovey put her hand over the cross, but she was looking at Sully as he spoke.

“I made a promise to myself that if I ever found you, I was giving it back. My father gave it to you, and that’s who it still belongs to.”

Lovey sighed. “I haven’t seen Marc since he moved away, so I don’t know what he grew up to look like, but you have his coloring…the same dark eyes and black hair, and you have his nose. But you have my smile, Johnny Raines.”

Sully smiled back at her reflection, then wrapped his arms around her neck and kissed the top of her head.

“Thank you for making such a life-altering sacrifice, Janie Chapman. Thank you for my life.”

Chapter 16

Sully and Lovey were looking at the painting again and Melissa was out of the room when Lovey’s phone rang. Lovey looked at the time and gasped.

“Oh lord, they probably think I went off somewhere and died,” she muttered as she answered without the usual greeting. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m on my way.” She disconnected without letting anyone talk.

“This has been a most remarkable day,” Sully said. “There’s just one last thing. Mother insisted on being called ‘Mother,’ and I always wanted to be one of those kids who came in the door from school yelling, ‘Hey, Mom.’ It sounds silly now, but since I have a second chance to ask, how do you feel about me calling you ‘Mom’?”