Miracle Road

stood at the foot of the staircase and fumed. In the small house, it took him little time at all to search, but it did give her time to think. When he came downstairs, she’d returned to her position in front of the fire. She said, “Mark, this will be the last time. I will not allow you to do this again. The sheriff here is a friend of mine. I am going to take out a restraining order on you. I’ll go to the press. I know you have political aspirations. You don’t want the press.”

His jaw was set, his eyes hard and a little wild. So angry. After all these years, he’s still so angry. “What, are you spying on me? Do you think I stole Holly and hid her away?”

She closed her eyes for a moment and tempered her own reaction. “You’re in the paper a lot. You were my husband. I’m interested.”

Once, she had loved this man. Once, he’d been someone she admired, kind and funny and romantic. His chosen career had taken a toll on their marriage. Maybe they wouldn’t have made it through the tough times, anyway. Who knows? But Mark Montgomery wasn’t a bad man. He’d loved his daughter. He mourned the loss of her, too.

But, according to what I read in the newspaper, he hasn’t moved forward. What does it say about me that I have and he hasn’t? Does that make him a better father than I am a mother, or is he just not as emotionally healthy?

Well, he does have his mother to contend with. Maybe he needs to move to Eternity Springs, too.

Weariness overcame Hope. She was tired of fighting him. She felt sorry for him. He needed to heal. “Mark, barging in on me this way doesn’t do either of us any good. It’s not healthy behavior. It’s been five years. You know I’m not hiding Holly away from you—that I didn’t execute some elaborate plot to destroy our family. You know in your heart that coming here like this is crazy. Why do you do it, Mark?”

“I’m not crazy!” he fired back, his blue eyes flashing. Holly had blue eyes, her father’s eyes. She’d had his smile, too. Hope couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen Mark genuinely smile. He paced the room, shoving his fingers through his hair. “I’m a father and I don’t know where my daughter is!”

“And it’s horrible.”

“It’s horrible for me. I don’t know about you. You don’t even have her picture out. I need to find her, Hope. I’m her father and I need to find her! That doesn’t go away.”

The pain, the heartache in his voice reached inside Hope and stirred the embers of the love she’d once felt for him. He was devastated, still, as was she. The wound would never heal. “No, it doesn’t. It’s horrible,” she repeated quietly. “The absolute most horrible thing in the world. I know. I do know, better than anybody.”

“I hate you. It’s your fault,” he said, his voice dead calm with fury.

“I know.”

“You did this to me. To us. To her! You just couldn’t wait for me to …” He paused, his speech trembling. “Come home … from work. I try to fall asleep at night, and the images … The things I hear on the news. All the ugliness in the world that happens to little kids. To know that she’s out there, somewhere … it’s killing me. God only knows what has happened to her. What monster or pervert has touched her, hurt her. All because you left my child with a stranger.”

At the horror and devastation in his voice, she swallowed hard. “I know it’s my fault, Mark. Believe me, I live with it every day. And I know you hate me for causing you this pain.”

He closed his eyes and held his head in his hands. “I don’t really hate you, Hope. Oh, and I’ve tried. It would be a lot easier if I did.”

Hearing him say this wounded her more than the words of hate.

“I don’t know why. Maybe because you’re Holly’s mother. Maybe that’s why I came here. To see you, because I can’t see her. To try and hate you for destroying us. Our family. But I can’t … I’m in the same limbo as you. I just want to know what happened to her.”

And this tore Hope up. Because once upon a time, she had loved him so very much. She attempted to reach him, to show him the compassion she felt. “I do, too. But we have to accept that we may never know. It’s been five years. We will never forget her, but maybe it’s time to let go, to move on.”

“To give up?” He looked at her in shock that quickly transformed to fury again. “I’m not ever going to give up, damn you. I’ll search for her until I’m dead. I’m different from you. You and your cozy little life here. I’m never giving up on our daughter!”

“I’m not saying we should give up,” she fired back. “I will never stop looking for Holly and praying that we find her, but there’s a difference between giving up and moving forward. It’s time to move forward, Mark. Whatever the thought processes are that led you to travel from Florida to Colorado in order to spend two minutes searching my home for a child who you know isn’t here need to change.”

He momentarily closed his eyes, and the hands at his sides fisted. When he looked at her again, the light had gone from angry to stark. “I miss her.”

Her heart twisting, Hope took a step toward him. “I know, Mark. But this sort of thing … it’s not good. I think you need to …”

Hope’s voice trailed off when she saw him look past her, his eyes widening in shock, his jaw dropping open in surprise. What in the … oh. Oh, no.

He stared at the book she’d left lying on the table beside her rocker. The title You’re Pregnant, Now What? all but jumped off the cover. His voice returned to dead calm as he asked, “What the hell is that?”

“Mark—”

“What the hell is that?” he repeated, his complexion pale as he pointed at the book. “Are you pregnant?”

Before she could respond, he accused, “My God, Hope. Are you having another baby?”

Might as well do this. “Yes, I am.”

“Who’s the father? Are you remarried?”

She straightened her backbone. “We’re divorced, Mark. It’s not your business.”

He looked at her hand. “Guess not, you’re not wearing a ring. You’re still Ms. Montgomery at the school. I checked.” His expression turned malevolent. “Did it again, did you? Got yourself knocked up so some poor sap will have to marry you. Well, well, well … always resourceful, weren’t you? Mom said you’d do it again once you had the chance. Honestly, I really didn’t think you would. I never imagined you’d have the unmitigated nerve to have another child. You certainly don’t deserve one.”

That stole her breath away, and Hope reached out to grab the back of a chair to steady herself.

Mark picked up the book. “I remember you reading these when you were pregnant with Holly. Funny, you must have missed the chapter about giving your child to strangers.” He tossed the book to the floor.

“This man of yours. Does he know what you did? Does he know how irresponsible you are? Does he—” A rap on the door interrupted him, then the door opened and Lucca stepped inside carrying a bag of groceries.

“Hey, beautiful. Guess what they had at the Trading Post this—” Lucca caught sight of Mark and stopped abruptly. “Um, hello.”

“So, it’s you? You’re the guy?” Mark rounded on Lucca, his color high.

“Hope?” Lucca’s gaze shifted from Mark to Hope. “Is there a problem here?”

“Oh, yeah. I’d say there’s a problem. You’re the one with the problem, though. My wife is your child’s mother. That’s about as big a problem as it gets.”

“Wife?” Lucca’s expression went blank. “You’re Montgomery?”

His voice scathing, Mark said, “Do you know what she did? I bet she hasn’t told you, has she? About how careless she is? About how she put her vanity ahead of our family? How she left our child with a criminal so she could go get her roots done?”

“Mark, please,” Hope said.

“She’ll destroy you, you know. Just like she destroyed me. She trapped me into marriage, and then she stabbed me in the heart. She did it to me, and she’ll do it to you. That’s what she does.” He turned a malice-filled stare upon her. “Is this your replacement for Holly? Is this how you … how did you say it? ‘Move forward’? You don’t deserve a second chance.”

“Whoa, that’s enough,” Lucca said, moving between them, then stepping back to stand beside Hope. “That’s quite enough, Montgomery.”