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Only one explanation made sense. Her mother had wanted to leave. Roy Buchanan loved his wife and gave her whatever she wanted if it was within his power to do so.
Carrie was the one who was scared of Sam, not Roy.
She must have talked him into leaving.
Only one other thing could have made them leave. If they thought harm could come to Duke by staying.
But in leaving, they’d taken Duke away from Sydney as well.
From Sassy.
Tears erupted in her eyes. She wanted her baby boy. Why, oh why had she given him up?
She’d taken the easy way out. She’d given him up without really giving him up. Duke got parents who loved him and a “big sister” who doted on him.
Sam was the real loser here. He hadn’t had a choice in the matter.
She had to fix this. For Duke and for Sam.
They will not harm Duke, they will not harm Duke. She repeated the
mantra in her mind.
“What should we do now?” Blake said to Sam.
“I don’t know. We have to find Duke. I’m scared for him now. You don’t think your parents would—”
“No.” Blake shook his head. “They never harmed Syd or me. They were good parents. They just never told us the truth.”
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. She hadn’t told Sam the truth. She felt like shit.
“Sydney?” Sam caressed her shoulder. “Are you feeling better?”
Better? That was a laugh. It would be a long time before she felt anything close to better. But she nodded anyway. They had to get on with it. “I can’t believe they stole my money.”
“They’ve been stealing our money for years, Sis,” Blake said, “when they had near a million dollars in the bank.”
“But they were good parents. They loved us.”
He nodded. “They did, I think.”
“It killed them when you left.”
“I’m sure it did,” Blake said, “but I hope you’ll excuse me if I don’t feel a whole lot of remorse about that.”
Sydney nodded. She’d have a hard time forgiving her parents for what they’d done. She didn’t want to hold a grudge against Blake. She had her brother back, and she wanted to keep him.
“If I’d known, Syd…”
“Known what?”
Blake cleared his throat. “If I’d known you were going to let them adopt your child, I would have come back. I would have told you.” He sat down on the other side of the bed, next to her. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too, Blake. You were a good brother. I should have known you had a good reason for leaving.”
“It wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t good enough to leave my pregnant sister there.”
“It’s okay. We’ve both made mistakes. Now it’s time to correct them. Will you help Sam and me find Mom and Dad?”
