Epilogue
Mitch Hayden
held his infant daughter in his arms, totally in awe of the
precious new life that he and Emily had created together. Hannah
Hayden, a pink satin bow nestled in her wispy blond curls, stared
up at her father with eyes as ice-blue as his own and let out a
cry.
“Hey, big girl, don’t do that. Don’t
cry, sweetheart. Daddy’ll make it all right.”
Holding a large cardboard box in her
arms, Emily entered the living room from the front porch. “I don’t
think Daddy can take care of the problem.” Emily set the box down
on the carpenter’s trunk she used as a coffee table. “Hannah’s
probably hungry. It’s past her feeding time.”
Mitch held his daughter against his
chest, cradling her tiny head with the back of his big hand.
“What’s Mama got in the box?”
“Here, let me take her,” Emily said.
“Open the box for me, Mitch. It’s from Republic Books. I think it
must be copies of my first Hannah book. When Hardy called last
week, he said to be looking for them any day.”
Mitch handed Hannah to her mother.
Emily unbuttoned her blouse as she sat down in the rocker they had
placed by the front window. Glorious August sunshine poured inside,
lighting the room and casting a pure, clean brightness over
everything, including Emily and her baby.
After pulling a knife from his pocket,
Mitch ripped into the box and lifted out a slender hardback book,
the jacket depicting a dark-haired little girl dressed in a sailor
suit and straw hat, so popular in the early twentieth century.
Smiling, he held up the book for Emily to see; then the sight of
his daughter at his wife’s breast took his breath away. Emily sang
quietly as she rocked. Hannah laid her tiny fist against her
mother’s breast while she nursed greedily.
Swallowing hard, Mitch cleared his
throat. “It’s copies of your first Hannah book, all right. They
look great. honey.”
“Take out two copies,” Emily told him.
“I want to sign them and have them ready to give Nikki and Zed
tomorrow before the christening.”
“The month of August is going to be
busy for us,” Mitch said. “First Hannah’s christening, with Nikki
and Zed as godparents, and then Nikki and Zed’s wedding, with us as
best man and matron of honor.”
“Too bad Hannah isn’t old enough to be
a flower girl.” Emily smiled as she gazed down in adoration at her
child. “But I’m just thankful Nikki waited until after Hannah was
born so I wouldn’t have to be an enormously pregnant matron of
honor.”
“You would have been a beautiful
enormously pregnant matron of honor.”
“You just say that because you love
me.”
Laughing, Mitch stood, laid the book on
the trunk and turned back to Emily. Leaning over, he kissed
Hannah’s rosy cheek.
“Did you ever imagine we could be so
happy?” Emily asked. “We’ve been married nearly two years. We have
a beautiful daughter. I’ve just published my first book, and as
Banning Construction’s new vice president, you’ll be running Zed’s
whole construction empire while he’s away on a two-month
honeymoon.”
“Zed has done a lot for me. I can’t
imagine what my life would be like now if he hadn’t come to
Arkansas and saved me from myself.”
Emily lifted her hand to his face,
cupping his chin. “I can’t imagine my life without you and Hannah,”
she told him. “I love you both so very much.”
“You and Hannah are my life,” Mitch
said.
And Emily Hayden believed her husband,
the stranger who had entered her world over two years ago and given
her a new and gloriously happy life.
They had survived so much heartbreak
and tragedy in their lifetimes, but for the past two years, since
they’d married, they had stood together, strong and invincible,
against the outside forces that could have destroyed
them.
Emily tried to remember the loving
uncle who had cared for her so devotedly for five long years, the
uncle who had forced her to live when she wanted to die. Even now,
after two years, she found it difficult to think of Fowler Jordan
as the same man who had murdered two other human beings in such a
cold, calculated way.
Emily knew she could never forget the
past—not completely. It would always be a part of her, just as it
would always be a part of Mitch. But the past was behind them, and
that’s where it belonged. Yesterday. A faded memory that could
never harm them again.
Emily sighed, then looked at Mitch and
smiled. Her husband. The father of her child. The man she loved.
The stranger in her heart was a stranger no more.