“Your birthday is coming up soon.”
Jade looked up from her phone as Harley came into the room. He had a satisfied smirk on his face as he leaned in and gave her a hello kiss. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“Thirty is a big birthday. We need to do something.”
“Like what?”
Harley reached into his suit coat breast pocket and pulled out a check. He handed it over to her. “Whatever you want. I’ve got my payment from St. Francis Hospital burning a hole in my pocket.”
Jade’s eyes grew wide when she saw the digits on the check. Even more so, she was excited about what the check meant. If the hospital had paid Harley, the job he had been originally hired for—to find out who switched Jade with another child at St. Francis—was done at last. “It’s over?”
“It’s over, baby.”
Jade stood up and leaped into Harley’s arms. “Tell me everything!”
He hugged her tight, then led her over to the couch. “After we arrested Greg Crowley for the bombing, he was anxious to cut a deal. He spilled on everything, from the baby switch, to the kidnapping, to finally the bombing. The maternity nurse was his sister, Nancy, and when she committed suicide, she did so without telling Greg and her boyfriend, Buster, where the Steeles’ daughter ended up. They didn’t know where you were until you went on the news almost thirty years later. They decided that was their chance to get their payoff, and it worked.”
“So why did Greg turn around and blow up the Steele mansion? I would’ve taken the ten million and disappeared.”
“He was angry. Buster screwed him and took all the money, disappearing. Greg was out for revenge and targeted the Steele family because he decided they were the cause of all his troubles. Thanks to some superior detective work on my team’s part, we were able to track Buster down to Honduras. He was extradited back to the US on Wednesday and is being held without bail until his trial.”
“Wow.” Jade sat back against the soft couch cushions and tried to absorb everything he’d told her. It had been over six months since she’d first gotten her DNA results and the world had been turned on its ear. To know the truth finally, and for the men responsible to be in jail where they belonged, was a huge weight off her shoulders.
“When they found Buster, they also found his stash of money. The idiot was keeping all that cash in the same duffel bag I used to leave the ransom money. He’d only spent about fifty grand, so Trevor and I got most of it back.”
Jade let out an audible sigh of relief. She’d never said anything to Harley or Trevor, but she’d felt horribly guilty about the money they’d paid for her ransom. When the cops failed to catch them, it was like ten million dollars had vanished into thin air. Getting it back was almost as big of a relief as the men being arrested.
“So I was thinking...since I got all that money back, we should do something good with it. Not just for your birthday, but maybe we could look into some real estate here. Like a house.”
“A house here?” She perked up in surprise. They’d been so focused on the investigation that they’d never really discussed what they would do after it was done. She’d presumed they would go to DC eventually, but any talks about where they would live, when they would marry... It had all been pushed to the future. Apparently, the future had arrived without warning and she wasn’t at all prepared.
“Yes, here. You love it in Charleston. I really can’t see you living anywhere else.”
“I do like it here, but I can work anywhere. Your business is based out of DC. That’s more important.”
“And it’s run perfectly fine the last six months with me here. Isaiah has managed, but if we stay here, I’ll get someone to run the business for me full time. I’ve never enjoyed that part of the work. And maybe I’ll get a small plane I can use to fly back and forth when I need to.”
Jade couldn’t keep her jaw from dropping. She didn’t really want to move away from her family, old and new, but she was willing to do whatever she had to for Harley. She had never expected him to be willing to do the same for her. “Really?”
Harley moved closer and pulled Jade into his arms. “Anything you want, my love. With all this behind us, we can start our lives together without the shadow hanging over our heads. No one is ever going to hurt you again, and I’m going to spend every day of my life making you smile.”
* * *
River looked down at the ring the jeweler held out to him. It had taken three days to get it ready, but it was finally done. The jeweler probably thought he was crazy, having two round flawless pink diamonds added to such a cheap diamond ring. It was ten-karat gold plated with a diamond that would require a magnifying glass to see if not for the thick mounting making it look larger. It was all his twenty-one-year-old self had been able to afford.
Morgan had never looked at the ring with anything less than beaming enthusiasm. She’d told him that she was rich and could have all the diamonds she could want, but one given to her by River was more special than anything else.
He’d kept that thought in mind after Trevor left that afternoon. A lot had gone through his mind as he tried to process everything he’d just been told. By the time he lay down in bed that night, he realized that he’d been too harsh on Morgan. In the moment, it had felt like the ultimate betrayal, and maybe it was, but he had to understand her side of the story, too.
Married or not, they had been just kids. And to find herself pregnant and scared—believing only the worst about River—she’d done what she had to do and kept it a secret from him. Then she had to go through a scary delivery and the loss of their daughter alone. He couldn’t imagine what that had to have been like for her. She lost her love and her child, and was put in a position by her family not to be able to talk about it to anyone.
The thought made River’s stomach ache. But by morning, he knew what he had to do to put everything right. That meant going to Morgan and winning her over for good. Not dating, not just some fling, but a real relationship. Another chance at their marriage.
He’d considered buying another engagement ring. It wouldn’t be hard to find a nicer, flashier one with a fat, flawless diamond set in platinum. He could afford it now. But there was something about this old one that seemed special enough to keep, so he’d dug it out of his sock drawer and taken it to the jeweler for some upgrades.
With the work finished, he admired the ring and wrapped up the transaction. River accepted the tiny gift bag from the jeweler and walked out of the shop with nervous anticipation. He wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of proposing to a woman. He’d done it once, and successfully. He’d even proposed to the same woman. But this time was very different.
That Morgan had been head over heels for him and hadn’t had a worry in the world. Love was everything she needed. That young naïve girl would learn soon after her engagement how hard life could be on her heart. The Morgan he was heading to see now had lived ten more years. She’d experienced more heartbreak and loss than someone her age should. Some of that was his fault. And that was why he wasn’t so sure how this was going to go. Her father seemed positive that she cared for him, but would she opt for self-preservation over her feelings? He wouldn’t blame her if she did.
Climbing into his truck, he set the ring on the passenger seat and started driving to Mount Pleasant. Whether or not he would be successful, it had to be tonight. Trevor had called that morning to tell him that the legal matters had been handled more quickly than he’d expected and Morgan was driving back to DC in the morning. He also mentioned that he and his wife would be out to dinner after six o’clock with Morgan alone at the house.
It wasn’t subtle, but River appreciated what the man was trying to do. Tonight was the night. And if he failed, she was gone tomorrow.
True, Washington, DC, wasn’t the other side of the world, but it wasn’t Savannah, either, and her ties to Charleston grew more tenuous as time went on. She had told him about how she’d quit her job at Steele Tools. He wasn’t sure what she intended to do now, but if she took a job somewhere else, she could be on the west coast before he could try to change her mind.
After everything that had happened over the last few weeks, he got the feeling that Morgan wouldn’t be coming back to Charleston for a very long time.
The windows of the Steele mansion were mostly dark as he pulled in. He could see her Mercedes convertible parked on the far side of the motor court, so he knew she was home. He parked by the front door and slipped the ring box into his pocket before getting out.
It felt a bit surreal coming back to the house after everything that had happened the night of the key ceremony. But he climbed up the steps anyway and rang the doorbell.
It took several minutes, but eventually he heard footsteps clicking across the marble foyer floor. River was expecting the housekeeper to answer, but when the door swung open, he found a stunned Morgan standing there instead.
Her mouth was agape, but after a moment, she clamped her lips shut and narrowed her gaze. Her expression hardened, her face regarding him with more distaste than it had when he’d first shown up in the ballroom. “What are you doing here, River?”
That was an icier reception than even he had been expecting. He was the one who had been lied to, but he’d obviously hurt her as well with how he’d handled the whole situation. Taking a deep breath, he told himself to go for it anyway. The thorniest fruits held the sweetest juices. “I wanted to talk to you.”
Morgan crossed her arms over her chest, protectively. “Well, I don’t want to talk to you. When I tried to explain myself, you weren’t interested in listening to what I had to say. You just wanted to yell and blame me, and I’ve had my fill of that for the week.”
“I’m interested in listening now. And I’m sorry for how I reacted. You have no idea how sorry. I just needed some time to think. We’ve both made mistakes, Morgan. Then and now. Please let me in so we can talk. I don’t want to do this on the front porch, but I will.”
Her green eyes searched his face for a moment, then she acquiesced and took a step back from the door. “Come in,” she said, although her tone was anything but welcoming.
River stepped inside and glanced over at the ballroom. There was still police tape and plastic tarps blocking most of the view, but he could see some late evening light coming through the hole left by the man’s bomb. Morgan ignored the mess and led him to the west side of the mansion that was untouched by the explosion.
She opened a pair of double wooden doors that led into the library. The scent of leather and old books assaulted his senses as they stepped inside. Morgan approached the hunter green leather sofa with ornate dark wood details and sat at one end, indicating he should do the same.
“I overreacted when I learned about Dawn,” he started out, but Morgan held up her hand to stop him.
“No. No, you didn’t. You reacted exactly the way a man would react to news like that. That’s why I dreaded telling you the truth. I didn’t want to ruin what we had, but I knew we couldn’t be together if I couldn’t be honest. Did I tell you now or horde as many minutes and hours with you as I could before the truth came out? I backed myself into a corner and there was no way out of it. The moment I realized where we were in the gardens, I knew it was all over.”
River reached out and took Morgan’s hand. “It’s not over. Not by a long shot.”
She looked at her hand in his and back up at him. “It is, River. We have too much baggage weighing us down. Too many secrets and too much hurt. Eventually, no matter how hard we fight to stay afloat, it’s going to pull us under. I will always have the scars on my body that Dawn’s birth left behind. Every time I see them, every time you see them, the past will come back to haunt us.”
River squeezed his eyes shut tight as the pieces started coming together at last. “That’s what you were hiding from me,” he said.
Morgan nodded. “I wish it were just a bad tattoo. But the scar... I knew if you saw it, you would have questions. It’s a physical reminder of the pain I went through, but even harder to ignore than the psychological scars. You might think that you’ve forgiven me or my family for what happened, but that kind of wound never really heals completely.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is true. I tell myself that it has to be to protect what’s left of my fragile spirit. River, don’t ask me to give my heart to you, because every time I do it, I get it back in pieces. Don’t make promises about our future and how everything will be okay, because one day when I least expect it, you’re going to change your mind and realize you can’t forgive me. I can’t go through that. I’d rather walk away now and safeguard myself than give in and get hurt again.”
“Do you think that I haven’t been hurt just as badly? I have. The woman I loved was taken from me for no other reason than I wasn’t good enough for her. Our love wasn’t allowed to exist because I was poor and uneducated. It was my all-time low point. After I lost you, the idea of starting and building my new company was the only thing getting me out of bed every day. I wanted to make myself better so something like that never happened to me again. If I’m being honest with myself, I wanted to make myself worthy of being the husband your father wanted for you. I didn’t believe I stood a chance at winning you again, but I had to try. It was that or give up on everything.”
Morgan bit at her lip, her eyes starting to shimmer with the first flicker of emotion. “River, I’m scared.”
Moving over to her, River scooped her into his arms. She wrapped herself around him just as tightly, burying her face in his neck. With his lips against the outer shell of her ear, he whispered, “I’m scared, too. I can’t promise you that you’ll never get hurt. That’s impossible. I can’t promise you that I won’t ever say or do something that upsets you. Or that we won’t make mistakes. Couples fight. They argue. But if they love each other and fight for that love, they’ll make it through. We’ve had a rocky start, but I intend to make it to the finish line with you by my side, Morgan.”
River pulled away to look her in the eye. “You’re worth the risk. You always have been, to me.”
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the ring. He slipped off the couch onto one knee and opened the box on its hinge. He offered it up to Morgan and held his breath. It was now or never.
* * *
Thirty minutes ago, Morgan was putting a few last things in her luggage and pondering what time she was leaving in the morning. Lena had just pestered her about coming downstairs for some dinner, but she wasn’t in the mood to eat. Really, she had lost her appetite the night of the key ceremony. Every time she tried to eat, her throat tried to close up on her. She supposed that was better than drowning her sorrow in cookies.
Then the doorbell had rung. Morgan was in the laundry, looking for her favorite blouse, when she heard it. Lena had her hands full with a load of towels she was pulling from the dryer, so Morgan had gone to answer the door.
She wasn’t sure who she had been expecting to be there. The police had come and gone for a while, and then the press had been a nuisance, investigating the bombing for the papers, but that had tapered off. She never could’ve anticipated what the ringing of the doorbell would bring into her life.
“We’ve already lost years together because of other people’s expectations and demands. I would give anything to go back in time and throw that check in your father’s face. Even if just so I could be there to hold your hand when we lost our daughter. But I can’t do anything about that and neither can you. What’s done is done. All I know now is that I love you. I’ve always loved you, Morgan. And I can’t bear the idea of losing any more time with you. I want our future together to start right now, if you’ll have me.”
Morgan’s heart was pounding so loudly in her chest she could barely hear River’s heartfelt words. She had to focus intently on each sentence, but it was difficult when he opened the ring box and blew her away. Not because he was proposing—which was a surprise in and of itself—but because of the ring he held up to her.
It was her ring.
She stared at it for a moment before she realized it, because the ring wasn’t exactly as she remembered. She reached out and plucked it from its velvet bed to study the inside of the band and the words she knew would be there.
You are my everything, it read. Just as it had all those years ago. It was her original engagement ring. With a few notable enhancements.
She didn’t know what to say. When she realized what was happening, she’d expected a big gaudy ring. He was a man of means now, so it was practically a given that he would buy a new diamond to propose to her. But he hadn’t. He’d given her back the ring he’d chosen for her all those years ago.
“This is my ring,” she whispered in disbelief. He could’ve spent any amount of money on a ring, but he was offering her the one he had given her the first time. The one he’d saved months for, eating nothing but ramen noodles and peanut butter to afford. That meant more than any of the flashy gems she’d spied on the hands of local society ladies at the charity gala.
River nodded. “It is.”
“How did you...?” She looked down at him, still on his knee, with her eyes blurring with tears. “You kept the ring all this time?”
“I did. When you sent it back to me, I didn’t have the heart to get rid of it. For a few years, I even carried it around in my wallet as a reminder.”
“A reminder of how much I hurt you?”
“No. Of how much you loved me. And then I finally put it away in a drawer, but I never forgot it was there. After our fight, I did some thinking and I decided it was time to put it to good use again. It’s been gathering dust for too long.”
The tears were flowing in earnest now. “You changed it since I saw it last.” It was a stupid observation in the moment, but she couldn’t think of anything else. She was overwhelmed with so many feelings she could hardly figure out how to process everything. All she could do was focus on the two shining pink stones on each side of her original diamond. They were beautifully cut trillion stones, enhancing the center setting without managing to overpower it. It reminded her of the pink diamond at the Smithsonian. The one she’d told River she loved.
“I did. I had the jeweler add two pink diamonds to it. For Dawn.”
Morgan clutched the ring in her fist and held it against her chest as her heart swelled with emotions. This was the most precious thing he could ever give her. It was a sign, an undeniable one, that what they had in their youth was real, not just some puppy love. If this symbol of their love, and now a symbol of their daughter, could survive all these years, they could, too.
Taking a breath, she wiped the tears from her cheeks and slipped the ring onto her finger. She admired it for a moment before she said, “Yes.”
River looked up from admiring the ring on her hand with confusion lining his eyes. “Yes, what?”
She smiled. They’d discussed the details of the ring for so long, her acceptance of his proposal was out of context. She reached out and took his hands into hers. “Yes, I will marry you, River Atkinson.”
He leaped to his feet and pulled Morgan up from the couch with him. She fell into his arms, wrapping her own around his neck to pull his lips to hers.
Yes, she would marry him. And this time, it would be forever.