said goodbye to her hours later, he told her he’d gone to the park and called Bella and spent his last hours talking to her. A quick kiss on Sara’s cheek was all she got. Plus his words. “I hate leaving you with this, but I have to get back. You have my power of attorney, do whatever you think I would do. It would be nice if you could magically double my bank account while I’m gone, because when I finish this tour, I’m going to ask Bella to marry me. We’ll need to buy a house for the kids we plan on having and a truck for me and an SUV for Bella to haul the kids around in. Bella asked me to ask you if you would be her maid of honor. You’re the only family I have, and by extension, Bella’s also. I said you would. My buddy Paul is going to be my best man. If I can get him here, that is.” Andy blew her a kiss, and yelled, “See ya, sis. Pray I get back in one piece.”
She didn’t pray, though. She was too distraught to do that. Andy was going to marry the faceless Bella. Hate blossomed quickly. She had to find a way to get rid of her once and for all. If they got married, then she’d get a Christmas card once a year. Andy would forget about her. He’d have kids. Bella would require all his time. And there she was, not belonging again, left out in the cold, her life as empty as a grocery sack after the groceries were put away. She had money, but money couldn’t make her happy no matter how much she had. She was smart enough to figure that out. The only thing that could ever make her happy was Andy taking her in his arms and saying, “I love you, I love you, I love you!”
Now it seemed like it was never going to happen.
More time went by. Sometimes, it was fast and other times tortoise slow. Communications from the other part of the world were sparse. Sara understood that Andy was fighting a war. He had the rank of major now. He’d risen quickly in the army. She’d tried to find out whatever she could about Bella, but Andy wasn’t sharing anything. He did mention her on occasion. He said she’d moved east and that she liked Washington, D.C. Then he threw what Sara called the mother of all bombs at her. He said he’d wrangled a ride on a cargo plane that was coming Stateside and would be here for two days. He didn’t tell her the dates and there was no way for her to find out, either. Andy said he was calling and apologizing ahead of time for not being able to see her, but he was dragging Bella to a justice of the peace the minute he got off the plane. “We’re finally going to get married, and I want to spend every second with the love of my life.”
“What are you saying, Andy? Are you really saying you don’t want me at your wedding?”
The answer was an explosive, “Yes, that’s what I’m saying!” It was the ultimate put-down that Sara knew she would never recover from. Andy must have realized his words hurt her, so he hastened to say, “It’s just us, sis. Don’t be upset. Next leave, we’ll all go out to dinner, and you’ll get to meet Bella. I know you will love her like I do. Just be happy for me, okay. Gotta go. Love ya!” Sara’s hate was in full bloom now. She went out and bought a gun.
And those were the last words she’d ever heard Andy speak. Sara told herself not to go there because she couldn’t handle the grief. She told herself to think about other things, secrets Andy had told her, confidences he’d shared, like his donating his sperm to a sperm bank to freeze. How two visits ago, he’d convinced Bella to freeze her eggs in case something happened to him. Things like that.
Sara looked around the beautiful kitchen but barely noticed it. She knew it was considered beautiful because she’d read in the real-estate brochures that this kitchen was crafted for every homemaker in the world, not someone like her. It had everything. Everything. And it was all built-in and flush with the wall—clean, stark lines. She looked at the top-of-the-line names on the appliances. Wolf,