“I think he didn’t like being told to leave,” she said. “And the fact that there was another man in the picture.”
“There was?” Sara said in surprise.
“Mike Richards. A guy I worked with at the time.” Her mother stirred the sugar in her tea round and round. “Anyway, I’d never seen Gary so angry. He started in on how I’d always thought I was too good for him even though I was nothing but a two-timing…” Her mother’s voice trailed off and she fluttered one hand in the air. “You get the picture.”
Sara could only stare. Could it possibly be true that the money hadn’t played any part in what had happened? “You’re not making this up, are you?”
Her mother wiped the tears from her eyes and laughed. “Even I couldn’t make up something like this.”
“All these years I thought he’d hurt you because of me,” Sara said.
“Even if your taking the money had caused Gary to blow, it would still have been my fault. I knew how mean he could be. I should have never brought him into our lives in the first place.” Her mother shook her head. “I was more worried about him hurting you rather than me.”
“We barely talked,” Sara said. “I tried to stay out of his way as much as possible.”
“I know you did,” Ilene said. “But you had to have been aware of his fascination with you.”
“Fascination?” Sara rolled her eyes. “Christina and I thought he was a perv. Do you know once he offered us each a twenty-dollar bill if we’d sunbathe topless?”
She and Chris had laughed at the offer, too naive at the time to be really afraid.
“I didn’t know that.” Her mother’s lips tightened. “But why am I not surprised? Gary thought you were the most beautiful ‘woman’ he’d ever seen. It irritated him that you wouldn’t give him the time of day.”
All this time Sara had attributed her being taken out of the only home she’d known as an act of punishment. Now she could see that God had gotten her out of there in the nick of time.
“It was a blessing in disguise,” Sara murmured.
“It turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me, too,” her mother said softly. “Eventually it forced me to look at myself and where I was going. It took me quite a while to get myself on track, but at least I knew you had a good life.”
Sara lifted a brow.
“Your foster parents sent me regular updates,” she said. “I told them not to tell you.”
“I wish I would have known.”
“It was better you didn’t,” Ilene said matter-of-factly, signaling the waiter for more iced tea. “Being a teenager is hard enough without having a screwed-up mother to contend with.”
“You weren’t screwed up,” Sara said.
“Thanks, but actually I was. Big-time.” Her mother’s voice took on a forced casualness. She gave the waiter a bright smile and held out her glass for a refill, as if grateful for the interruption.
Sara covered her glass with her hand and shook her head. Not until the waiter had moved on to the next table did her mother continue.
“I was a terrible mother.” Ilene slowly sipped her tea while two spots of pink colored her cheeks. “I am sorry. Truly sorry.”
Sara swallowed hard against the hurt and anger welling up inside her. She’d prayed before she came that she and her mother would both have the courage to speak from their hearts. The question now was where did they go from here?
Forgiveness frees us.
She couldn’t say that what her mother had done hadn’t hurt, but how could she not forgive her? After all, Sara had made her share of mistakes along the way, too. And God had always forgiven her.
“I want you to know something.” Sara leaned forward and pinned her mother with her gaze. “In spite of everything, I still love you.”
Tears filled her mother’s eyes.
“And…I forgive you.” Sara’s voice cracked with emotion. “I hope you can forgive me, too.”
“Of course I forgive you. Though I’m not sure what for.” Tears slipped down Sara’s mother’s cheeks. “And I’d like it very much if we could be friends.”
Sara smiled and she couldn’t remember when her heart had felt so light. “I’d like that.”
“Will you two ladies be having any dessert?” The waiter stood with his pen poised.
“None for me, thanks,” Sara said.
“I’ll pass.” Her mother extended her hand. “But I will take the check.”
“Mother,” Sara said firmly, reaching out. “I want to pick it up.”
“Mother?” The waiter’s gaze darted from Sara to Ilene and back again. “She’s your mother?”
Sara nodded and reached across the table and squeezed her mother’s hand, proud to say the words. “Yes, this is my mother.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “I would have sworn the two of you were sisters.”
Sara’s mother rolled her eyes and they giggled.
Gary Burke’s corner booth allowed him a perfect view of the two women across the room.
With Sara being a celebrity, Gary had thought she’d be easy to find. He’d been wrong. Despite her fame, she kept tight wraps on the details of her life and he’d been unable to find her whereabouts online. He’d been following Ilene since he’d gotten out of prison last week, hoping she’d lead him to Sara. Today he’d hit pay dirt.
Gary had recognized Sara the minute she’d entered the restaurant. Pretty at fifteen, she was breathtaking at twenty-five. She still had that air of sweet innocence that he’d found so appealing all those years ago. He wondered if she could possibly still be innocent.
He discarded the notion immediately. All the articles he’d read made her sound like some kind of saint. But he’d known too many women to believe that kind of garbage.
Women. They were nothing but trouble. Look at Ilene. If she hadn’t threatened to leave him, he never would have gotten mad. And he never would have ended up in prison.
Sitting in that cell, he’d had a lot of time to reflect on the unfairness of life. On people who thought they were too good for you.
His hand slipped into his pocket and he fingered the switchblade.
It was time the pretty little songbird and her mother were taught a lesson.
Crow sat in an office at the police station and stared at the file he’d ordered on Gary Burke. Though the guy had only gotten out of prison last week, he’d already disappeared. His parole officer thought he’d left the state, but Crow wasn’t so sure. He had the sinking feeling that Gary was in St. Louis.
According to prison officials, Gary Burke had been obsessed with Sara and her career. His counselors had alluded to it as a type of “fatherly” pride, though the two weren’t related. Gary’s cell mate on the other hand had said laughingly that there was nothing the least bit “fatherly” about Gary’s interest in Sara.
Crow’s fingers tightened around the pencil, snapping it in two. If that guy so much as harmed one hair on Sara’s head…
“Sal—” one of the secretaries stuck her head in the doorway “—there’s a call for you on line two.”