Because of Him: A Christian Romance (New Hope Falls Book 2) Read online

  CHAPTER TWO

  Cara Morgan guided her car along the road between Seattle, Washington and New Hope Falls. Exhausted from having been up since three that morning, she would be glad to get home. Though she’d been traveling alone, her papa had been a constant companion in her thoughts. The memory of their last conversation had played over and over in her mind.

  “Promise me, carissima,” he’d said, his dark gaze intense. “You must never ever tell anyone who you are.”

  “I promise, Papa. On my life, I promise.”

  He’d reached out and taken her hand. His grip wasn’t as strong as it had once been, and there was a tremor that hadn’t been present until recently.

  “I am sorry you had to give up your life in Chicago, but you have a new life now, and I don’t want you to lose that.” His grip had tightened. “So you must protect our secret. Your life depends on it.”

  “I know. I understand.”

  “I love you so much, carissima.” His gaze had softened as emotion flooded his face. “You are my world. You and your mama meant everything to me. I already lost her. I don’t want to lose you too.”

  It had been five years since the incident that had taken her mama from her, and now she was facing losing her papa too. His battle against cancer had been waging for a year now, and she could see that it was taking its toll on him. His mind was as sharp as ever, but his body was failing him.

  For the past couple of months, during each visit, he’d pressed the same point over and over. Keep our secret. Be safe. Trust no one. It was a difficult way to live, but for her papa’s peace of mind, it was how she’d lived her last five years.

  “You are my world, too, Papa. I love you.”

  His expression had turned regretful. “I wish you could find someone else to be your world when I am no longer here.”

  “That’s hard to do when I can’t tell them the truth about my past,” she’d reminded him.

  “You can embrace the parts that don’t reveal your true identity. Most people won’t dig too far into your past. Just don’t tell them the worst parts.”

  She could do that…maybe. It just made her wonder how she could be in a relationship while withholding information about herself. She hadn’t yet figured out to have a friendship because of her reluctance to let people close, so she wasn’t sure how to manage a relationship while keeping secrets. But she’d made her promise to her papa, so that would be how she lived her life. Out of love and respect for him, she would uphold the promise she’d made to him.

  When New Hope Falls finally came into view, Cara breathed a sigh of relief as the memories of the visit with her father began to fade. She was nearly home.

  As she turned her car into the back lane, she pressed the button on the opener attached to her visor. By the time she reached the garage door, it was already completely up, allowing her to swing right into the garage. As soon as she was inside, she pressed the button to lower the door back into place.

  She watched in her side mirror until the strip of daylight narrowed then disappeared completely as the door reached the floor. Once she was confident the garage was secure, she grabbed her phone and scrolled through the security cameras installed in her apartment, office, and the studio.

  After a glance at the digital clock on her dashboard, she checked the clocks she’d set out at strategic places in front of the cameras, making sure that each of them lined up with the current time. It was a precaution she’d taken to make sure that no one was looping feed through her cameras. While it wasn’t foolproof, it made her feel a bit better.

  Once she was satisfied that her home was safe, Cara pushed open the car door and got out. She retrieved her suitcase from the trunk, then locked the car and headed for the doorway that led out of the garage. Bending toward the security panel there, she looked into the optical scanner.

  The scanning took seconds, then a nondescript box next to the door slid open. She pressed her hand to the screen that appeared. Within moments, the lock on the door released. Without hesitation, she grabbed the handle and pulled it open to reveal a narrow staircase that led to the second floor and her home.

  The door closed behind her with a thud, the locks engaging as she began to climb the stairs. Thankfully, the stairway was well lit, so a quick glance up the staircase revealed that the door at the top of the stairs was still secure. After going through one more set of scans, she was finally into her apartment.

  As she set her suitcase down, Cara let out the breath it felt like she’d been holding since she’d left home three days ago. She leaned back against the door, closing her eyes and allowing herself to relax.

  Finally straightening up a couple of minutes later, she unzipped first one boot and then the other before pulling them off and putting them in the small coat closet near the door. She hung up her jacket, then pulled her suitcase to the nearby door that led to her bedroom, but she didn’t bother to unpack it.

  First thing on her priority list was a bath. She wanted to soak off the last three days of travel and hotels. And, of course, the prison hospital.

  She walked into her bathroom and turned on the faucets of her large whirlpool tub. As she waited for it to fill, she returned to the living room and stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over Main Street. The day was cloudy and drizzly, casting a blanket of gray over the town.

  After having been out in the world, dealing with people, for the past three days, she was ready to retreat from it all. With one final look at her adopted hometown, Cara hit the button to lower the motorized blinds that covered the windows. Once the world beyond them was blocked out, she returned to the bathroom and within minutes, was sinking into the warmth of the water.

  This trip to visit her father had been particularly draining. Ever since his cancer diagnosis, their visits had become more emotional. For the first time, she’d forgone begging him to take treatment for the disease. Seeing how gaunt he was had made her realize how little time they actually had left together.

  She hoped that she would have at least one more visit with him, but something told her that might not happen. And not just because she’d visited him in the medical center not far from the federal prison where he’d been transferred a couple of years earlier.

  There had been something about his goodbye to her that suggested he knew they wouldn’t see each other again. She’d resisted thinking about that on the long trip back to New Hope Falls, but now that she was here within the safety of her home, it was all she could think about.

  It was inevitable. His death. For years, she’d worried that his enemies would find him, despite the measures that had been taken to protect him as a mobster turned witness for the prosecution. He’d worried the same for her, which was why she’d let him talk her into all the crazy security precautions that seemed like overkill in the small town of New Hope Falls. And also why his goodbyes always included variations of the promise he insisted on extracting from her.

  They’d always said goodbye at the end of each visit, knowing it might well be their last. But this visit…well, it had seemed more final than any before it.

  Cara sat forward in the warm water, drawing her legs close as she wrapped her arms around them. She stared at the bubbles, mesmerized by their iridescent shine while trying not to think about the dullness of her father’s complexion. The tremor of his voice. It was like her father had been reduced to 2D. A piece of onion skin paper where he’d once been a vibrant painting. Larger than life. Someone people had looked up to. Admired. Feared.

  But to Cara, he was simply her beloved papa. He hadn’t been with her and her mother all the time, but when he had been with them, he was the man whose arms had held her when she’d had a nightmare, promising to keep all the monsters at bay. Even now, the scents of patchouli, sandalwood, and tobacco brought those memories from childhood to the forefront of her mind.

  It was hard to imagine her life without him, even though their monthly face-to-face meetings over the past four and a half
years had all taken place in one prison or another. Would she be safe once he was gone? Would his enemies be content with his death? Or would they want to wipe her out as well, if they realized she was still alive?

  Because of who her father was, her life had always been at risk. She’d lost her mother because of decisions her father had made. She’d lost the life she’d had in Chicago because of those decisions. Sure, she’d built a life of sorts in New Hope Falls, but it wasn’t anything like the life she’d once imagined for herself.

  She closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath, but the tight bands of emotion around her chest kept it from happening. Exhaling shakily, Cara tried to keep a grip on her emotions. Her father wasn’t dead yet. She wouldn’t mourn him prematurely.

  Using her damp hands to brush away the few tears that had escaped, Cara exhaled deeply. He’d extracted another promise from the last time he’d held her in his arms as a free man. No matter what else happens, I want you to live your life. Promise me you’ll embrace the beauty of it the way your mama always did. Live for both of us.

  Often it had been a struggle for her to do that, but this time of year made it a little easier. The Fall Festival was that weekend, and her father had told her that she had to go and enjoy herself so that she could report back to him all about it. In the years since she’d come to New Hope, he’d loved hearing about all the events of the town, but the Fall Festival had been his absolute favorite.

  She’d done her best to describe it all for him. The colors of autumn. The caramel apples. The harvest pie contest. The pie-eating contest. The first time she’d told him about that, his eyes had lit up, and he’d said how much he wished he could have been there for that.

  So she’d buy one of the harvest pies from the church booth and eat a piece just for him. Normally, pies weren’t a big thing for her, but she’d make an exception for this. For him. This year, he’d requested that she buy a peach pie.

  So for now, she’d stop mourning his loss and do what he’d asked of her.

  “I mithed you, Miss Cara.” The five-year-old with ringlet pigtails grinned up at Cara, her wide smile revealing her missing front teeth.

  “I missed you too, Sophie.” Cara took the little girl’s hand and smiled as she spun in a circle, the skirt she was wearing over thick tights flaring out in a circle around her. “Your spinning is terrific.”

  “I’th been practithing like you told uth to.” Sophie dropped Cara’s hand and lifted both hands above her head imitating the little ballerina she wanted to be.

  “You’re doing a great job. Keep it up.”

  “I will!” Sophie grabbed her mom’s hand. “I’ll thee you nexth clath.”

  “That you will,” Cara said.

  “It was nice seeing you,” Sophie’s mom, Allison, said.

  “You too. Hope you enjoy the festival.”

  Cara watched as the little girl skipped away at her mother’s side. She was one of the students in the beginner ballet class Cara taught at her studio. All of the students were a joy to teach since they were all as spirited as little Sophie. Her father had loved hearing about them, too.

  Because she’d been unable to send him letters in between their visits due to security concerns, she’d gotten in the habit of keeping a journal, detailing the interesting parts of each day. When she’d go to visit him, she’d give him the journal to read through, to tide him over until their next visit. Well, she didn’t give him the journal directly. It had to go through the scrutiny of a guard or warden before her father could read it, but eventually, he would receive the journal and read through it.

  She moved through the crowds of people, careful to avoid bumping into anyone as she walked. It had taken her until mid-afternoon on Saturday to feel up to joining the festival instead of just watching from her window. Being that her apartment faced the street, she’d been able to observe without having to be in the midst of it. The isolation had suited her mood, but eventually, she’d had to come down from her ivory tower—so to speak.

  Her building was one of a handful on Main Street that had a second floor, but as far as she knew, only a couple of them had a living space. She loved her apartment as well as her studio and office on the main floor, but sometimes it felt as much a prison as it was a sanctuary.

  Even though she’d had to force herself out into the world beyond the walls of her apartment, each minute that she was out there, she felt more at ease. Women from her Stretching for Strength class stopped to talk to her. Moms who took her Mommy & Me class smiled at her as they pushed their babies in strollers. Pregnant women who participated in her weekly Pregnancy Stretches stopped her to share how they were feeling as their pregnancy progressed. But best of all were the kids like Sophie who greeted her with smiles and pirouettes.

  By the time she found the booth with the pies, her smile was coming more readily and felt more genuine. The cloak of despondency that had weighed her down since walking away from her father had lifted. It had become easier to accept New Hope Falls when it was a place for her to spend the weeks between visits to see her father.

  But now that it appeared those visits would be coming to an end in the next few months, she was struggling to decide if New Hope Falls could be a forever home.

  “Hello, Cara.” The young woman working at the booth gave her a friendly smile.

  “Hey, Sarah. How’re you doing?”

  “Good. Just trying to figure out how many pieces of pie I can eat before I’ll need to take another class at your studio.”

  Cara laughed. “I think you can enjoy a couple of pieces without too much trouble. I know I plan to.”

  “So you’re here to buy a pie?” Sarah McNamara asked. “A whole pie?”

  “Yep. A whole pie.”

  “Okay. What kind are you in the mood for?”

  “Well, I told my dad all about the festival, and he insisted that I buy a peach pie and eat a piece for him.”

  Sarah’s brows drew together over her light blue eyes. “Why doesn’t he just come here and have a piece himself?”

  “He’s in the hospital in another state.”

  “Oh no.” Sarah reached out to lay her hand on Cara’s arm. “I’m so sorry to hear that. I’ll be praying for him. And for you too.”

  Cara considered her words and offered her a small smile. “Thank you.”

  “Are you able to see him?” Sarah asked as she boxed up one of the peach pies.

  “I go to visit him every month.” Cara pulled a twenty from her wallet and held it out. When Sarah tried to give her change, she waved it off. “I’m sure the church can put it to good use.”

  “Thank you.” Sarah slid the box across the counter. “I’d say don’t eat it all in one sitting, but my aunt’s pies are so good that that advice is pretty much useless.”

  A shriek had Cara turning around. “Isn’t that Coral?”

  “What?” Sarah said as she came around the booth to stand beside Cara. “Oh my word. That’s Eli. And Anna. What is Coral doing?”

  “It looks like she’s…attacking them?”

  People were standing around videoing the incident on their phones, but a few people were trying to pull Coral away from the couple in front of her. A couple of men in uniform ran past them, and within a few minutes, everything seemed to be under control.

  In the midst of the uniformed men, Cara spotted the town’s police chief. She’d noticed him plenty before, but it was the first time she’d seen him in action. She turned away from the sight and found Sarah watching as her brother and the woman with him walked in the opposite direction before they disappeared into the antique store.

  “Oh. That explains a whole lot,” Sarah murmured.

  “What do you mean?” Cara said as she swung back around to look at her.

  “Just that Coral’s attack on Anna explains some things that have happened out at the lodge.”

  “Will they be okay?”

  Sarah smiled. “I think they’ll be just fine.”

  “I gues
s I’d better get this pie home, and maybe I’ll eat a piece while I watch the fireworks.”

  “You have a good vantage point for that.”

  “The only thing is that being inside dulls the noise, and that’s half the experience, isn’t it?”

  “Not if you’re a dog or a baby,” Sarah said with a grin.

  “Hey Sarah,” an older woman said as she stepped behind the booth with her. “It’s my turn to man things here. Why don’t you go have some fun?”

  “Thanks, Lil.” Sarah gave her a quick hug then stepped away. “I told Cece I’d go on some rides with her. I’ll see you later, Cara.”

  “Sure thing.” Cara picked up the box with her pie in it and slowly began to make her way back toward her apartment, stopping at a few more booths as she went. Once to buy a candied apple. Another time to get a cup of hot apple cider. And once to buy a chunk of rocky road fudge. Her dad may have been all about the fruit pies, but if she was going to indulge, she liked her chocolate.

  There were lots of laughter and shrieks as she passed the area where the rides were set up. She hadn’t gone on many rides in her life, but she had a memory of when she’d been six or seven, and her mom had taken her to an amusement park. It had just been the two of them, but her mom had accompanied Cara on every ride she’d begged to go on, and they’d had a blast together.

  As she balanced all her purchases on one arm so she could unlock the front door of the studio, Cara pushed aside the sudden swell of loneliness. It was always there, lingering, but she knew it was partly her own fault. She’d chosen to keep most people around her at arm’s length, so it was no surprise when she was alone at the end of each day.

  Upstairs in her apartment, she cut herself a piece of fudge and a piece of pie and carried them with her hot apple cider to the small table that sat in front of the windows that overlooked Main Street. She settled into her favorite comfy chair and picked up her cider to take a sip. She didn’t turn on any lights so she could keep the blinds up in order to watch the activities on the street below and later, the fireworks.