They were coming for Grace.
And Naomi wasn’t going to let that happen.
Naomi couldn’t help but feel that the drive back to Refuge Cove was longer than the drive there.
She sat in the back seat with Grace, who now slept in her car seat. The baby had no idea what had just happened. No memory of the sterile room, the plexiglass barrier, the sound of her mother’s voice breaking through a phone line.
Grace was just asleep. Safe. Unaware.
Naomi wished she could be that oblivious.
She stared out the window at the trees blurring past, but all she could see was Sissy’s face. The hollow look in her eyes. The way her hands had pressed against the glass like she could push through it if she just tried hard enough.
I love you so much.
The words echoed in Naomi’s mind, over and over.
Sissy loved Grace. That much was clear. She loved this baby in a way that made Naomi’s chest ache.
But Sissy also loved Richard.
That was the part Naomi couldn’t reconcile.
How could someone love a man who’d manipulated her? Who’d used her?
Naomi didn’t understand it.
But she’d seen it in Sissy’s face. She’d heard it in her voice.
And that reality scared her.
Because if Sissy still loved Richard, then how much could they really trust her warnings about his family?
“You okay back there?”
Micah’s voice pulled her from her thoughts.
Naomi blinked and looked up, meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
He didn’t look convinced. “That was hard.”
“It really was.”
They drove in silence a few minutes before Micah spoke again, his voice quieter. “Are you glad you went?”
Naomi considered the question. Was she glad?
She’d wanted to give Sissy the chance to see Grace. Had wanted to do the right thing, the compassionate thing. And she had. Sissy had seen her daughter.
But the visit had left Naomi feeling empty, sad, and more uncertain than before.
“I don’t know,” she finally said, answering Micah’s question. “I wanted it to help. To make things clearer. But I just—I feel worse now.”
“You did a good thing, even if it didn’t feel good.”
Naomi nodded, though she wasn’t sure she believed it.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
