“Rachel!”
Rachel stopped and turned, relief flooding through her when she saw it was her aunt and uncle’s station wagon. She hurried to the car, noticing that the back end was packed full, and there was more stuff tied down and covered with a tarp on the top.
“Are you going somewhere?” Rachel asked her Aunt Julie as she drew closer to the passenger side. Her uncle smiled at her and waved.
“Didn’t your mother tell you?” Julie asked. “We’re moving across the country. Gordy was offered a new job, and I found one too.”
“Oh.” Rachel’s heart fell. She’d miss her aunt terribly.
“Don’t be sad,” Julie said, smiling widely. “We have great news. Your mother agreed to let us have custody of you. You’re going with us.”
The little girl stared at her aunt, stunned. “I’m going to live with you? And not in this town, but far away?”
“Yes, sweetie. Isn’t that great? We’re so happy. And I promise we’ll take good care of you.”
Rachel glanced around. Kids were starting to arrive at the park, as well as a few parents. Leave? Never see my father again? Rachel wasn’t sure how to react. She knew her mother and brother wouldn’t care if she left, but what about her father? Would he give her away so easily?
“Hop in the car, sweetie,” Julie said sweetly. “We have to get going so we can arrive on time. We’ll be stopping at hotels at night, and we’ll be sure to get ones with a pool so you can swim if you want. It’s going to be so much fun.”
It did sound like fun to Rachel. “What about my clothes? And my toys. I have to stop at the house for my things.”
Her aunt seemed to be getting anxious. “Don’t worry about your things. We can buy you new clothes and toys along the way. I promise you can have whatever you want. But we should go now.”
Rachel looked past her Aunt Julie to her Uncle Gordon. He was smiling and nodding his head. She adored her aunt and uncle, but it all seemed so odd to her. Leaving without even saying goodbye to her parents or friends.
“You do want to live with us, don’t you, Rachel?” Aunt Julie asked, sounding desperate now. “We love you so much, honey. You know that it’s always been my dream to have you come live with us. Don’t you want to?”
Rachel did want to live with her aunt and uncle. She was scared of Keith, and she knew her mother didn’t love her. And her father was home so little. Maybe she would be happier if she left with them.
“Rachel?” her aunt asked.
“Yes. I want to come with you,” the little girl finally said. She opened the back door and climbed in.
Her Aunt Julie beamed. “We’re going to have such a great life, the three of us. I’m so happy you’re coming with us.”
Rachel nodded, still confused as to why she couldn’t at least pack a few things. But new things would be nice. And she did love her aunt and uncle.
As they drove down the road, past the park, and over the small bridge that crossed the river, Rachel saw Keith entering the woods that followed the river path. At least she’d never have to put up with him scaring her again. She turned her eyes forward and watched the road ahead.
Chapter Two
Thirty-five years later
Rachel Scott Emery was hunched over her computer, creating an advertising graphic for her newest client, Robbin’s Grocery. Jobs like this weren’t as interesting as creating ads and book covers for authors, which was two-thirds of her graphic design business, but it helped pay the bills. And with her daughter, Jules, in her second year at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Rachel needed as much money as she could earn.
Pushing a strand of her dark, shoulder-length hair behind her ear, Rachel tried to concentrate on the project before her. But the fall day outside her studio office window was gorgeous and distracted her. The leaves had just begun to change color in her lush yard behind the house. The oaks, maples, and dogwoods were tinging red with a yellow backdrop from the aspen and magnolia trees. Rachel sighed. She found great solace in the private yard filled with flowering and fruit trees as well as many other beautiful plants. Her husband had loved gardening and had turned their two-acre lot into a peaceful haven with colorful trees, shrubs, and flowers. He’d added brick pavers as pathways and the circular brick center with the firepit. They’d spent many a summer evening out by the fire in comfortable padded chairs as the moon rose in the Floridian sky.
How Rachel wished for those days again.
Her phone buzzed, interrupting her thoughts, and Rachel quickly picked it up. Seeing it was the memory care center in Tallahassee, she answered quickly.
“Hello, Mrs. Emery. This is Shirley again, from the Magnolia Memory Care Center,” the woman said with a light southern drawl. “I’m so sorry to bother you, dear, but Miss Julie is having another anxious day, and we’re wondering if you could stop by and help calm her down.”
Rachel frowned at the phone. Her Aunt Julie had been having quite a few agitated days of late. She wondered why she was upset so often. Rachel visited her aunt five times a week, sometimes staying to eat lunch or dinner with her. She loved her Aunt Julie, who’d been more of a mother to her than her own mother had ever been, but today she really needed to finish her work.
“Why is she agitated today?” she asked Shirley.
“Darlin, I just don’t know,” Shirley said familiarly, which made Rachel smile. Shirley was one of the sweetest women she’d ever met, and her aunt felt comfortable around her. “She had a nice lunch with the other ladies, but after she went back to her room, she started getting anxious again. She keeps saying she has to tell you something important.”
“Okay,”
