Chapter 1
It was raining as the Crane limo crawled along the streets of Harmony, leaving the somber scene at the church far behind.
God's tears, Sheridan thought. God himself couldn't keep a dry eye after witnessing such heartbreak. The grief of Pilar's children as she was laid to rest beneath mounds of sodden earth was forever etched in her memory. And Ivy's, she suspected, glancing at the older woman, seated beside her with a handkerchief held to her cheeks, blotting her tears. Sheridan held out her hand, and Ivy took it gratefully.
"Oh, Sheridan," Ivy spoke in a trembling voice. "I can't believe she's really gone."
"Neither can I," Sheridan answered her, feeling her own blue eyes well up with fresh tears. If there was one person in this world she loved as much as the mother she could barely remember, Pilar was that person, and now, now she felt a vise squeeze her heart with the knowledge that she'd never see her again. "I should have come home sooner. I should have been here. I…" she faltered as her chin wobbled and her vision blurred with her tears.
Ivy opened her arms to her young sister-in-law. While she'd lost a dear friend, Sheridan had lost the only mother figure she'd known for much of her eighteen years, the only real 'parent' in her life. She was devastated, and Ivy felt the unselfish need to comfort her. She rubbed Sheridan's back with one hand and stroked her short blond hair back from her tear-streaked face with the other. "She's in a better place, Darling, a place where that godforsaken cancer can't cause her anymore pain. She's with her Martin. Think of how happy she must have been to see him again."
The thought brought a brief, shining smile to Sheridan's face until memory made her throat tight again. Lifting her head up from Ivy's shoulder, she posed the question that was on everyone's minds. "But what will happen to the children?"
Thanks for reading!