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She leaned against the arm of the black leather sofa. “I want my mother to come home. It’s all Mamá’s talked about since her first seizure. But I want her to come home stronger, better. When Dr. Laster talked about getting hospice, it hit me. She’s not getting better. Eventually, I’ll be alone.”
Her blue eyes filled with tears like a flash flood in a gully.
He dropped the bucket and hugged her. “What about me?”
“You have your own family.” Her chest shook as she cried.
His words hadn’t come out right. “You have me. You’ll always have me.”
His words were a promise they were going to be together—always. A warmth spread through him. He wanted to spend his life with her. Didn’t he?
She sobbed into his wet shirt. “But what if I lose you, too?”
“Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.”
* * *
“HEY, MOM.” SAGE sat below the step he’d just painted. Luckily, the rain hadn’t soaked everything. He angled his phone so he could see the video.
“Hi. Happy Thursday!” His mother blew him a kiss. “Where are you?”
“I’ve been released to drive, so I’m helping Carolina and her mother out by painting her porch and steps.”
“Fantastic! How are you feeling?”
Sage rubbed at the dull ache in his head, but at least it wasn’t pounding. He hadn’t taken a pain pill in over a week. “Better, but I’m still not cleared for work.”
“It’s a start.” Mom brushed back her sun-streaked hair. She wore a blue work shirt over a gray tank top. Her ranch uniform. “How is Carolina?”
Too quiet. “I was able to take her mother to her opening night last weekend. But her mother is still in the hospital.”
Mom frowned. “But how is Carolina?”
He didn’t know how to answer.
She broke the silence. “Did something happen?”
“She lied about…” He paused. “Well, she didn’t exactly lie, but she never told me she was related to the Fitzgeralds.”
“What?”
He explained the whole situation. As he talked, his mother’s face grew more and more solemn.
He pushed back his hair. “She never told me. And the Fitzgeralds’ mother was screaming at Carolina to leave.”
“That’s horrible.”
He sighed. “I’m not sure what to make of Carolina’s actions. They don’t exactly live up to the Cornell honor code.”
“Why would you think that? She was honoring her mother by not telling her half sisters that they were related.” Mom rubbed her head like she had a headache. “Why is honoring her mother’s wishes not living honorably?”
“Because she didn’t tell me.” His words vibrated in the air.
Carolina hadn’t told him. She’d said she’d loved him, but hadn’t told him this monumental thing.
“Don’t you think you’re being too hard on her? Her mother’s dying. Where’s your compassion?” Mom pushed on her eyes with the heel of her hand. “I thought I’d raised you right. I thought by keeping your father’s memory untarnished, you would become better men. I failed.”
“You didn’t fail. You instilled in me a great moral compass.” His breath heaved out like he’d run a marathon. “I just want to make Dad proud, even if he never knows.”
“Sage.” Mom’s lips formed a straight line.
“I’m having trouble getting past Carolina not telling me. I thought we had something special.”
“Sage,” Mom groaned again.
“If my ethics were…flexible, Dad would be disgusted,” he said. “Honor is black-and-white. There is no gray. I wouldn’t be living up to his example.”
“He was just a man,” his mother choked out.
“An honorable man.”
“Your father was human. Very human.” Mom’s lips pinched together.
Why was she so upset? “His whole life was devoted to service.”
“He was just a man. Not a god. Hehadanaffair!”
Her words ran together. Didn’t make sense. “Uh…what?”
A tear streaked down mother’s face. “He had an affair.”
“Mom?” Everything crumbled inside him. Affair? Not Dad.
She closed her eyes. Her chest heaved up and down.
“Talk to me.” He almost couldn’t push the words out.
“It was an interpreter.” His mother bit her lip. “She…your father. In Somalia.”
“No.” Not possible. His hands formed fists.
“She came to the funeral.” Tears coursed down her cheeks.
