The Path to Sunshine Cove (Cape Sanctuary #2) - RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,96
to be.”
Back at the house, Jess and Sophie gathered a pretty flowered robe, two soft nightgowns from her dresser and a pair of pale green slippers as well as Eleanor’s reading glasses, a few toiletries, the mystery novel by the side of her bed and her knitting, just in case. By the time they stowed it in a leather overnight bag they found in the closet, Sophie seemed more calm. As they drove the short distance to the medical center, her anxiety returned.
“I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose Gram. She’s...well, she’s like my mom. I don’t even remember my real mom.”
Jess tried to give her a reassuring smile. “She’s been terrific, hasn’t she?”
Sophie nodded, clutching the overnight bag to her chest. “Do you have a grandmother?” she asked Jess.
She shook her head. “My father’s mother died before I was born. My mother’s mother died when I was about Ava’s age. Five. Maybe six. I only met her once or twice. I just remember that she smelled like roses, gave the best hugs and that my mom cried a lot after she died.”
She had forgotten all about that, coming home from school and finding her mother in tears again. If Roni’s parents hadn’t died, maybe Jess’s mother wouldn’t have been so emotionally needy. Maybe she would have been able to find the strength to leave her abusive husband.
“I don’t remember much about my grandmother. You’re really lucky you’ve had Eleanor all this time.”
“I know.”
Though she knew this was a sore spot, she was also compelled to add, “You’re lucky to have your dad, too. He’s been really worried about you. Maybe it’s time you gave him a break.”
Sophie looked out the window. “It’s not that easy. He lied to me and I don’t think I can ever forgive him.”
Jess jerked her gaze from the road. Sophie had told her Nate lied to her but she had an even harder time believing this now than she had then. He struck her as scrupulously honest.
“Your dad is a good man. I’m sure you simply misunderstood something he said.”
“I didn’t misunderstand,” Sophie said bitterly. “I heard him clear as day.”
She shouldn’t get involved. This was between Nate and Sophie. But if the girl wouldn’t talk to her father about it, maybe Jess could at least get to the core of the issue and point Nate in that direction.
“What did he lie about?” she finally asked.
“My whole life has been a lie,” Sophie said, with the kind of drama only a thirteen-year-old girl could manage.
“Could you be more specific?”
Sophie looked out the window. “My mom. Nothing he told me about her was true.”
Jess tensed, not at all certain she wanted to dive into these particular murky waters with Sophie.
She had opened the door, though, and now Sophie didn’t give her any choice.
“All my life, he’s been telling me how great my mom was and how much she loved me and what a hero she was. None of it was true.”
“You don’t think your mother loved you?” she asked carefully.
“No. How could she have? If she loved me, she would have stayed with me instead of choosing to go with the army to such a dangerous place where she would end up killed.”
“Your mother had an obligation to her unit. She signed up to serve. She couldn’t just walk away.”
“She could have, though. She could have deferred her deployment until I was older if she wanted to. She didn’t want to. She chose to go after she had me. She could have stayed with my dad and me, but she didn’t want to.”
“How do you know that?”
“I heard my dad and grandma talking about it a month ago. They were outside on our patio talking, but my window was open and I heard the whole thing.”
That must have been the trigger for the new tension between Sophie and her father, one overheard conversation.
Jess couldn’t completely blame Sophie. She knew what it felt like to be abandoned. Left behind. First by her mother, then by Rachel. It formed a deep wound that didn’t readily heal.
“He should have told me what really happened instead of letting me believe all these years that she cared about me,” Sophie said, sounding distressed. “Why did he have to lie? I don’t know if I can ever forgive him.”
She shouldn’t get involved in this discussion, she should leave it to Nate and Eleanor. It wasn’t Jess’s business what Sophie thought about her father.