“I know it well.”
“Know what well?” Sunny asked.
“Nowhere important,” he replied. “I lived there for years myself.”
Sunny laughed. “We probably just missed each other in passing.”
“You wanna have lunch with me? I know a great little place within walking distance.”
Sunny felt completely under his spell. “I’d like that. Let me go change. I can be ready in ten minutes.”
“I kind of like what you’re not wearing right now.”
Sunny got up and wrapped the towel around her body. “I thought the way you were staring perhaps implied disapproval. I’ll be right back.” She batted her eyelashes and threw him an impish grin as she looked back over her shoulder. She knew this look to be quite effective on the boys at school.
The look he gave her in return was almost smoldering. It left Sunny weak in the knees and almost breathless. By the time she reached her apartment, Sunny felt all reasonable thought flee her mind.
Two months later, as she agreed to be Mitch Haas’s wife, her ability to reason was still strangely absent. She could hardly believe this was happening. Marriage was the last thing she had on her mind when she’d left Kansas, but Mitch made it all seem so very necessary.
“We’re going to have the best time, Sunny,” he whispered just before kissing her soundly.
The justice of the peace completed their paper work and congratulated them. Mitch paid the man with money Sunny had given him on the way to the chapel. He’d forgotten his wallet back at the apartment, but Sunny didn’t care. She loved him. He was strong and capable, and he made her feel like a princess.
For the first six months things seemed ideal. Sunny had never been happier, in fact. She thought about calling home and letting her family know where she was and what she’d done, but one thing after another conspired to keep her from such action.
Then one night when Mitch came home from work late, Sunny forgot all about her family. Mitch was angry, but he wouldn’t say why for the longest time. Then he finally threw a bank statement at Sunny.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had a separate bank account? We’ve been married for months now—that money should be in a joint account.”
Sunny looked at the open envelope. “You opened my mail?” She would never have tolerated that kind of thing at home.
“You want to make something of it?” he asked sarcastically. “I’m your husband. I’ll do whatever I please.”
“I just thought we respected each other,” Sunny said, trying not to let her anger overrun her mouth.
“Me respect you? You’re barely nineteen. I’m twenty- seven. I know a lot more about the world than you could imagine. I’ll start respecting you when you know as much as I do. Tomorrow, you go to the bank and transfer that money to our joint account. I mean it.”
“I have a right to keep my own account,” Sunny said, feeling rather defiant. “My father gave me that money. I have a job, and I put the money I earn there in our joint account. That ought to be enough.”
He delivered a slap across her face so quickly that Sunny didn’t even have time to defend herself. “I didn’t ask for your lip. I gave you an order. Do you understand?”
Sunny could hardly see through her tears. “Why are you doing this, Mitch? I thought you loved me.”
“I thought you loved
me
. Love doesn’t keep secrets or hoard money. If you loved me the way you claim to love me, you wouldn’t have any problem with sharing what you have.”
But she did have a problem with it. She supposed there was something in the back of her mind that cautioned her to keep the money separate just in case. Just in case the marriage didn’t work out and she needed to move on. Just in case she needed something that Mitch wouldn’t get her.
Without warning, he pulled her up out of her chair and threw her against the wall. “I’m not taking this anymore.” He grabbed her and threw her back against the wall again. “I mean it. You’re going to do things my way or suffer the consequences.”
Sunny’s head hit the wall with such force she momentarily saw stars. She tried to fight back, but it was no use. She was five-four and weighed all of a hundred pounds. Mitch was six-two and had at least eighty pounds on her.
When he’d finished beating her, Mitch stared down at her in indifference. He almost seemed surprised to see her there in a heap on the dining room floor. “Get that money transferred tomorrow.”
He left the apartment, slamming the door hard behind him. Unable to move without hurting, Sunny curled up in a ball and fell asleep—confident that this must be some kind of nightmare that she would awaken from in the morning.
Sunny looked up to see tears in her father’s eyes. “Don’t cry, Daddy. It’s behind me now—behind us both. I’m sorry. I should have never told you about Mitch or the problems we had. It’s an ugly truth that’s best forgotten.”
“Don’t apologize, Sunshine. The things I used to imagine—the things I thought might be happening to you are so much worse. I figure the truth will set us free.”
Sunny said nothing. She knew the truth was much worse. Worse than anything she would ever confide to her father. She could never tell him about the endless hours of physical and sexual abuse she’d suffered at the hands of her husband. The truth of her life with Mitch Haas would never set anyone free.
“Try to get some sleep,” she told her father. “We can talk more in the morning.” But she knew she wouldn’t. She couldn’t bear to put him through that kind of misery.
She went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of milk. Sitting at the table, Sunny shuddered. She hadn’t allowed herself to remember Mitch in such a long time. In fact, there was a great deal she hadn’t allowed herself to remember. Her friend Lana had said that sometimes allowing the memories to come was a good thing. When a person could look at the past—remember the events and people who had changed their lives forever—it sometimes unlocked the door to better things. Much like freeing yourself from a prison.
Sunny’s hand shook violently as she raised the glass to her lips. There was nothing freeing about the memories she’d just shared. Mitch had hurt her far more than she cared to remember. Maybe because he’d been the first person she’d really given her heart to. She’d honestly fallen head over heels in love with the man . . . and he’d nearly killed her.
“But it was a love built on lies,” she reminded herself. He’d only wanted her for her money. Someone had told him that Sunny was wealthy and that sent him crashing into her destiny.
“I was such a fool,” Sunny murmured. “Such a fool to leave home. Such a fool to believe in love.”
KATHY TURNED THE HEAT DOWN on the bacon, then went to make coffee. She had no idea if Sunny would want breakfast, but it seemed a reasonable thing to expect. Funny, she really didn’t know much at all about her sister. She didn’t know what Sunny liked or disliked. She didn’t even know if her sister ate breakfast. She obviously watched her weight, because her figure was perfect—maybe too perfect. Kathy was suspicious that her sister had probably had breast augmentation. None of the women in their family filled out a blouse in quite the way Sunny did. Of course, that could just be happenstance.
The phone rang, distracting her coffee count. “Did I put in four scoops or three?” she questioned aloud as she stared at the basket. With a sigh she decided it was four and closed the maker.
“Hello?” she answered on the fifth ring.
“Hello, sweetie. It’s Aunt Glynnis.”
Kathy glanced at the clock. Glynnis lived in Colorado Springs and the time was an hour behind. “Goodness, but you’re up early. It’s only six-thirty your time.”
“I didn’t think. Did I wake you?”
“No.” Kathy laughed. “Even when I sleep late, I don’t think it’s ever much past eight o’clock. It’s that early-to-bed, early-to-rise mentality of the Kansas farmer, don’t you know.”
Glynnis laughed. “Well, for me it’s forty-plus years married to a man who has to be to work at six in the morning. I’ve been getting up at four-thirty most of my adult life. Look, I got the message about your sister. Has she really come back? Is she all right?”
“Yeah, she’s here all right. Showed up without warning and she seems to be fine.”
“What a wonder. An answer to prayer, even if it took twelve years in coming. Where has she been all this time?”
Kathy frowned at the prayer reference. She still hadn’t been able to bring herself to see Sunny’s return as an answer to prayer. “I really can’t say. We haven’t talked much. I’ve been afraid of what I might say, and she’s been pretty consumed with Dad’s dying.”
“I can well imagine. No doubt she took the news about your mom hard too.”
“I suppose. I guess I don’t actually care. I mean, I don’t want to sound callous, but I figure when you don’t bother to keep in touch with your family, you can’t expect anything more.”
“You don’t sound callous at all, sweetie. You sound enraged.”
Kathy sighed. “I am. I don’t know how to be anything else. I guess I’m happy for Dad, because it means so much to him. Otherwise, I’m just frustrated and angry. Oh, Aunt Glynnis, none of this makes sense.”
“It makes more sense than you’d imagine. There are a lot of years of pain and sorrow built up inside you. You probably even thought Amy . . . I mean Sunshine had died.”
“I did. It sounds crazy, but like I was telling my friend Sylvia, I comforted myself with that thought. I guess I figured it made her seem less heartless. After all, if she were dead, she couldn’t come home. Then it was no longer her being mean and selfish, but rather she had no choice.”
“We comfort ourselves the best we can, with whatever seems reasonable. Still, you don’t want to let that keep eating at you. Letting your mind dwell on the bad things will give the devil an opportunity for mischief.”
“I think he’s had enough of that in this family already.”
“Well, he’s not likely to stop until he destroys as much as he can lay hands to. Anyway, I hope I get to see Sunny. Does she plan to stick around?”
“I’m not sure. Like I said, we haven’t talked much.”
“If you find out, let me know. Oh, I also called because the Realtor told me about a couple of places you might want to consider. He said you could go on the Internet if you wanted to. I have the Web site address for them.”
Kathy considered this for a moment. “I can look, but it seems kind of silly. I don’t know how much longer Dad’s going to last, and if he lingers for a long time, I’ll have to figure that into my plans.”
“The agent knows all of that. I think the places he has in mind for you are ones that won’t be available until fall anyway. Have you had any offers on the farm?”
“No. A couple of people have called, but they only wanted parcels of land. One wanted twenty acres and another wanted ten. Oh, and I guess there was some land developer who was snooping around, but apparently the location wasn’t right for him.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Not as sorry as I am. I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if someone doesn’t make an offer soon. The agent had us drop the price once already. If we drop it much more, it won’t cover everything.”
“We’ll just be praying that God sends the right person along. Someone who needs a Kansas farm.”
Kathy pulled a pencil from the drawer and grabbed a notepad. “And has plenty of money. Okay, give me the Web site address. When I go into Hays next time, I’ll go to the library and check it out on their computers.”
Her aunt rattled off the information and ended the conversation by asking more about her brother. “You know I want to be there. I want to see him one more time on this side of heaven. I’ve been trying to get Will to bring me over. He’s retired from Jackson Pharmaceuticals, but you’d never know it.”
“I wouldn’t wait too long, Aunt Glynnis. Dad is still coherent, but his pain is increasing all the time. The doctor feels it’ll just be a short time before he’s going to have to put him on morphine. So far Dad’s refused, but the pain is really increasing. Once they start morphine, his ability to talk and make sense may change considerably.”
“I understand. I’ll try to get there soon. You tell that stubborn old coot that I said to mind his manners and have the decency not to die until I can come for a visit.”
Kathy laughed. Her aunt was always joking with her brother about doing things her way—telling him not to get any sicker or die before she said it was all right to do so. Dad always found it amusing. He usually told her to stop being such a bossy older sister, but Kathy knew he loved Glynnis’s attention.
“I’ll tell him, Auntie. Look, I’m cooking breakfast so I’d better go. Tell the Realtor I’ll check that information out as soon as possible.”
“I’ll do that.” Her aunt paused as if struggling to find the right words. “You know I love you, Kathy. You’re doing a good job. Please know that we see what you’re doing—what you’ve done. You have made the end of Gary’s life something special. God sees it too.”
“Thank you.” She sighed and felt a little emotional over the praise. Sometimes she thought nobody knew what sacrifices she’d made. Sometimes it seemed she had given up her whole life and no one knew what it had cost her. “I love you too.”
Kathy hung up the phone and turned around to find Sunny watching her. Sunny seemed to realize she’d been caught eavesdropping and startled. “I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I meant to let you know I was here, but . . . well, I’m sorry.”
For a moment, Kathy was angry about the intrusion. She opened her mouth to criticize her sister’s action, then realized it wasn’t all that important. “Do you want some breakfast?” she asked instead.
“That’d be great. I feel starved.” Sunny took another step into the kitchen. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No. I have the coffee brewing and the bacon is done. I need to put the toast down and fry up some eggs. How do you want yours?”
“Hmm, over medium, I guess.” Sunny came to the basket where Kathy kept the bread. “I can at least take care of the toast.”
Kathy knew she was genuinely trying to be helpful. “All right. I just want one slice of the multigrain.”
Sunny nodded and went to work, while Kathy got the eggs from the refrigerator. “How many eggs do you want?”