The Soldier's Newfound Family

Carter had jotted his cell phone number and the Colby Ranch’s address on a piece of paper and tucked it under the windshield wiper of her car after she’d shut the door in his face the day before.

He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Wondering what had happened between her and Rob. None of the things Savannah had told him lined up with the claims his friend had made, but Carter couldn’t shake the feeling that she was the one who’d been telling the truth. Unsettling, given the fact he’d trusted Rob with his life.

“Jack said he might be able to find some work for you around the ranch now that you’re out of the service,” Maddie continued. “You love being outdoors. You helped Dad build that playhouse in the backyard when we lived in Appleton, remember? Once it was finished, you told everyone that you wanted to live there. I had to lure you into the house with chocolate chip cookies when it was bedtime.”

Maddie’s low laugh flowed over him, stirring up memories from the past.

Carter remembered handing his dad the nails, one by one. It was one of the few times they’d actually worked on a project together. Once his dad had started medical school, he’d left Rachel, the full-time nanny he’d hired, in charge of the family. Carter had heard the words “don’t bother your father” so often over the next few years, he’d eventually taken them to heart.

“I’ll come to Grasslands and meet Violet and Jack—” Carter still couldn’t think of them as family. “But I can’t promise any more than that right now.”

“I just want us to be together,” Maddie whispered. “With Dad gone...”

Dad is always gone, Carter was tempted to say. He knew that Gray and Maddie were concerned that something bad might have happened to their father, but knowing Brian, he’d probably just got caught up in his work and assumed everything back home was fine. Thanksgiving, the day he’d promised he would be home, was still three weeks away.

Gray had explained they couldn’t file a missing person’s report because technically, Brian Wallace wasn’t considered missing.

“I’ll be there.” Carter inserted the key into the post office box he’d kept in the city. “By the weekend—” A package tumbled out with an avalanche of junk mail. He winced as it hit the tiled floor. “I hope that wasn’t something breakable,” he muttered.

Maddie heard him. “Breakable? Where are you?”

“I’m at the post office and there’s a package in here that didn’t get forwarded for some reason.”

“A package,” Maddie repeated. “What does it look like?”

“Um...like a package?”

“Well, open it!”

Carter rolled his eyes. Bossy older sisters. But there was a tension in Maddie’s voice that hadn’t been there before. Not even when she’d been pestering him about coming to Grasslands. He dumped the letters onto a nearby counter and cut through the tape on the package with his pocketknife.

“Did you send this?” Carter stared at the small, leather-bound book swaddled in tissue paper. “Because I already have one.”

Not that he’d cracked it open for a few years.

“What is it?” Maddie whispered.

“A Bible.”

“Is there a note inside?”

Carter thumbed through the delicate, gold-tipped pages and found a piece of paper. “How did you know?”

“Because someone sent a Bible to me and Gray. And to Violet and Jack.”

Carter quickly skimmed the contents of the letter and then read it out loud.

“‘I’m sorry for what I did to you and your family. I hope you and your siblings can find it in your hearts to forgive me.’”

It wasn’t signed.

“What is this about? Who sent it?”

“We don’t know,” Maddie admitted. “At first we assumed it was a mistake because whoever wrote the other letters specifically mentioned a twin. But Gray thinks it might have something to do with the reason we were separated.”

“Maybe it has something to do with Dad’s disappearance.” Carter read through the words a second time, trying to make sense of the cryptic message. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“We didn’t think you’d—” Maddie stopped.

“Get one.” Carter filled in the blanks.

Because at the moment, he was the only one in the Wallace-Colby puzzle who actually knew where he fit. Which, the irony wasn’t lost on Carter, made him the odd man out. Again.

“I’m sorry, Carter.” Maddie sounded on the verge of tears now. “Gray will want to see the letter and compare the handwriting, but it has to be from the same person. Maybe if we put all of them together, we’ll find something that we missed.”

Carter held back a sigh.

“I’m on my way.”

* * *

“I have to admit I’m not happy with the numbers I’m seeing this morning.”

Savannah felt a stab of fear as Dr. Yardley set the paperwork down on the desk and took a seat across from her in the examining room.

“Is there something wrong with the baby?”

“The baby seems to be fine. It’s you I’m worried about,” the doctor said bluntly. “Your blood pressure is elevated, and you’ve actually lost weight since your last appointment.”

“I’m feeling fine,” Savannah protested. “A little tired, that’s all.”

“Mmm.” Dr. Yardley looked skeptical. “How many hours did you work at the diner last week?”

Savannah silently tallied them up. “Between twenty-five and thirty.” Give or take a few. She’d volunteered to cover for one of the waitresses who was standing up in a friend’s wedding so she would have money to cover the security deposit on a new apartment.

The apartment she still hadn’t found.

After being on her feet all day, she just couldn’t seem to summon the energy to search for a new place to live. Savannah assumed it was normal to feel this way but the concern in the doctor’s eyes told her otherwise.

“That’s what I thought.” Dr. Yardley shook her head. “I want you to cut back to half that amount. Effective when you walk out of this office today.”

“But I promised my boss that I could fill in on weekends and evenings when I wasn’t working my regular shift.” Savannah stared at her obstetrician in dismay. “It was the only reason he hired me.”

“You’ve been under a tremendous amount of stress throughout this pregnancy, Savannah, and you still have three months to go. If you end up on complete bed rest, you won’t be able to work at all.” The doctor’s stern words were tempered with a smile. “You need more rest and a little TLC. Two things that I’m afraid modern medicine hasn’t figured out how to put in a pill yet.”

Savannah laced her fingers together in her lap to stop them from shaking. “I’ll talk to him.” Although Bruce didn’t exactly have a reputation for his easygoing disposition.

The doctor gave her a shrewd look. “Is there anything else going on that I should know about?”