Author's Note: On the morning of 14 July 2022, a missile strike by the invader hit a business center in the city of Vinnystsia, Ukraine. At least twenty-eight people were killed, including three children. More than two hundred were injured. Among the dead was a precious little girl named Liza Dmitrieva. Liza, a four-year-old with Down Syndrome, had been walking with her mother, pushing her own stroller, on the way to visit her speech therapist when the strike hit. Her mother Irena lost a leg, but the much greater loss was the light of her life. I've been following this senseless, unnecessary war from its beginning, and I am heartbroken by such stories of devastation. In this chapter, you will meet a little girl named Liza. She's four and she has Down Syndrome, just like Liza Dmitrieva. Including her in this story is my small way of honoring the victims of this war.

P.S. Make sure you don't miss Chapter 12. I posted it so recently, some of you might not have read it yet. Thanks for all your support!

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22 September 1985

Tonya and Mike arrived at the Child Services building half an hour early. Mike had been less than pleased that she'd made an appointment with a total stranger without even taking time to verify who he was. There wasn't a lot she could have found out on a weekend, but the more Tonya thought over the telephone conversation, the stronger her sense became that Wentworth was someone she could trust to have Sarah Kate's best interests in mind. She'd almost managed to persuade Mike to see things her way, but he was still grumbly about it. At least he was here. She knew he was only grumbling because of his protective nature. With Mike, she felt safe.

"I'll meet him at the front door and escort him back," Mike said at about 8:20. He leaned in for a kiss. "Sorry I growled at you about all this. I know you just want to help the kid. You've got a good heart, Tonya, but sometimes I worry it's gonna get you in trouble you can't get out of."

"Not today, it won't." She squeezed his hand and smiled up at him. "That's why I've got you with me."

She studied Sarah Kate's chart until she heard voices in the hall, moving toward her office. They were discussing the Seahawks' prospects. Mike sounded more relaxed. Perhaps something about Wentworth had won his approval. And then an unexpected voice made Tonya shake her head in confusion. A small child's laughter.

A few seconds later, Mike opened the door to her office and waved a slender grey-haired man through. The man was carrying a little girl on his shoulders and seemed untroubled by the fact that her pudgy fingers were clutching at his ears. She was no more than four, with her long blonde hair in pigtails. Her flat, round face and almond-shaped eyes indicated that she had Down Syndrome. Once upon a time, Tonya would have been horrified, but over the last several years, her work had shown her that such children weren't all that different from any others. This little girl looked happy and healthy. She clearly trusted the man who was carrying her, and that more than anything gained him a measure of respect from Tonya Diehl.

Mr. Wentworth steadied the child with one hand as he set down his briefcase and then reached to shake Tonya's hand. "Hello, Mrs. Diehl. Stephen J. Wentworth at your service." He patted on the child's arm. "And this little princess is Liza." He glanced side to side and lowered his voice. "She is Mark Hamilton's younger daughter." His eyes narrowed, and he focused his gaze directly at her. "That information will never leave this office. For the sake of her safety, all of her documentation is in her maternal grandmother's maiden name."

"Sarah Kate has a sister?" Tonya hadn't meant to let the girl's name slip, but she was feeling suddenly discombobulated. "I mean… of course, I… I won't say a word." Her eyes darted from the child to Mr. Wentworth and she remembered her manners. "Please," she said, gesturing to a chair. "Have a seat. We need to talk. You promised to tell me everything."

"Ahh… I said, 'everything you need to know.' There's a difference, Mrs. Diehl." He folded his lanky form into the chair and stretched out his legs, removing Liza from his shoulders in one smooth motion and setting her on the floor. "May she play?" He nodded toward a box of toys that Tonya kept in her office for just such occasions.

"Of course. Go on, sweetheart."

"Go on, Liza-love." The tenderness in his eyes told Tonya that this girl was something more to him than just a client's child. "See what you can find in the box."

After an initial moment of hesitation, Liza scooted toward the box with a delighted smile and began rummaging through it. Tonya watched for a moment, her heart warming when Mike got down on the floor with her and found a plastic princess tiara for her to wear. Liza giggled, then put the tiara on his head. Laughing, Tonya turned her attention back to Wentworth. "She's special to you."

"My granddaughter," he admitted. Tonya wasn't surprised. Then his eyes welled with tears. "Her parents — Marcus and my daughter Irene — passed away in a car accident a couple of months ago. Liza had been in the hospital with a bad case of pneumonia. She was about to be discharged — they were going to pick her up and then go get Sarah Kate when… when another driver ran them off the road." His long, slender fingers trembled as they drew a cloth handkerchief out of a pocket. He dabbed at his eyes and took a moment to compose himself. Tonya listened silently, her heart going out to the man.

He reached for his briefcase and opened it to retrieve a file folder. "My sources in Bakersfield say you were asking for this. Officially, they had to deny its existence, but they alerted me to your interest and your dogged determination to protect Sarah Kate." He set the folder on the desk in front of her. "This is the file on Marcus DiAngelo, AKA Mark Dover. He's also known as Mark Hamilton, but that isn't in the file. You may look at it here, in front of me, but you may not make any copies and I'm taking it with me when I leave."

Stunned, Tonya reached to pull the file folder across the desk toward her. She opened it up and began to read. Page after page detailed Marcus' story. He was the only son of a mob member whose mother wanted more for her boy than a life of crime. He served his nation honorably in the military. After his discharge, he worked as a truck driver, which took him away from his family for extended periods of time. One day he came home to find his first wife had left their daughter with her mother and disappeared. The loss sent him into a spiral of depression, and he made some bad choices. He agreed that Sarah Kate's grandmother should keep her guardianship of the child, then took a job driving for his infamous cousin, Joey Allegro. But after witnessing a brutal murder, Marcus woke up to what he had chosen. He decided to turn state's evidence. For his cooperation, he was granted immunity and placed in witness protection under the name Mark Dover, but he was not allowed to take his daughter with him. The information in the file ended there. Tonya laid the last page down and looked back to Wentworth. "I need more."

He nodded. "I met Marcus in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was working for a mechanic shop and at first, I'll admit I thought him beneath my notice. All I cared about was that he could change my oil and repair my car in a timely manner. Then my daughter was accosted by some hoodlums at the bus stop just outside the shop. They wouldn't leave her alone. When she screamed for help, Marcus came lumbering out of the garage. He was a big fellow, Mrs. Diehl. Built like an offensive lineman. When he showed up, those hoodlums scattered. But Irene wasn't afraid of him. She said, 'I took one look in his eyes and I could see he was a big teddy bear.' He was, too… a very protective teddy bear. He waited with her for the bus, then got on and rode with her all the way across town and accompanied her to her door to make sure she got home safely."

His fingers occupied themselves at folding and unfolding the handkerchief, and he blinked rapidly several times. "Because Irene liked him, I decided to get to know this young man. At first, he was hard to decipher. It seemed he longed for connection, but whenever anyone started to get close he would pull away. I'm not sure how many times he and Irene split up because of it, but they always got back together, and eventually they married. Sometimes he would disappear for a few days at a time — we only found out later that he was making secret visits to Sarah Kate — a big risk if his WitSec handlers ever got wind of it. And then last year he learned that his mother-in-law was dying. That was when he opened up to me abou —" A harsh cough cut him off. Tonya swiveled in her chair and opened her mini refrigerator. She pulled out a bottle of water and offered it to him, but he waved it away.

Once the cough had finally subsided, he continued. "That's when he opened up to me and Irene about everything. He wanted to get Sarah Kate away from Peter Benedict, his ex-wife's brother and Allegro's lawyer. He was afraid Benedict would use Sarah Kate to keep him from testifying." His knitted brow and deep scowl were strong evidence of his opinion of Peter Benedict. "The man had deep pockets — deep enough to pay off a judge and Social Services to get his adoption of Sarah Kate pushed through despite her accusation against his son, despite the conflict of interest given his representation of Allegro. I tried to help Marcus legally, but without cooperation from WitSec, and with all the trouble surrounding the Allegro trial, I couldn't do much for him. Finally, he brought Irene and Liza to me and said he was withdrawing from WitSec, that he had to go get his Sarah Kate. He said he would come back for our girls as soon as it was safe, but he might have to go on the run for a while first."

He shifted in his seat. Liza came running over to show him a tower she had built from some oversized Legos, and he smiled down at her and murmured words of praise, then sent her back to play. He watched her for a minute, a fond smile lighting up his whole face. Then he went on. "He called every day, but we didn't know where he was. He assumed the surname Hamilton, and I was able to help him get documents in that name, for himself and Sarah Kate." He raised an eyebrow. "I'm a law-abiding man, Mrs. Diehl, but I have contacts in Bakersfield who confirmed Marcus' story for me, and I knew the Benedicts had no business adopting that innocent little girl. I was glad to help Marcus, and ready to accept Sarah Kate as my granddaughter, just as much as Liza here. But then Liza got sick and was admitted to the hospital with an uncertain prognosis. Marcus made the difficult decision to leave Sarah Kate and come back to Tennessee to support Irene. But he'd trained his daughter well, so she could manage on her own if she had to. It wasn't supposed to be for so long. And then he and Irene were killed. Custody of Liza fell to me. I have paperwork showing that, in the event of his death, Marcus wanted me to take custody of Sarah Kate too, but it took me this long to discover where she was."

Tonya nodded slowly as she absorbed Wentworth's story. "So, are you here to pursue custody, Mr. Wentworth?"

He shook his head and dabbed at his eyes with his handkerchief again. "I wish I could. I would love that girl like she was my own… same as I came to love her father like a son. But… what Irene and Marcus never knew was, my heart is failing. The medications aren't working. Sarah Kate already lost a grandmother she loved… and now her father… she doesn't… doesn't need to go through that again."

He took a deep breath, which sent him into another coughing spell, worse than the first. Liza came trotting over, her concern for her grandfather shining in her soft blue eyes. "PopPop's all right, honey," he reassured her once he had caught his breath. "Go on back to the toys." She pressed close against him for a second, but then she obeyed.

Tonya watched as the little girl picked up a doll and began rocking it in her arms. After a minute, she yawned, then curled up on the floor and lay her head in Mike's lap. Apparently, the pair were already fast friends. Wentworth leaned forward in his seat. "I'm here, Mrs. Diehl, to make sure that Sarah Kate doesn't go back to the Benedicts. And I want to make sure that she and her little sister are placed together with a good family. Once I'm gone, all they'll have left is each other."

Tonya moved around the desk to sit in the vacant chair next to Wentworth. She took his frail hands in her own. How had she missed that he was so ill? She could see it now — the trembling in his hands, the sunken cheeks, the cough, the slightly glazed eyes. And yet he had taken a journey like this for the sake of his granddaughter. No, his granddaughters. Love made him Sarah Kate's grandfather whether anyone officially recognized it or not. "They'll have me, Mr. Wentworth. And I promise to fight for them with all my strength." She pushed the file back to him. "I might be able to make a case to move jurisdiction over Sarah Kate to Washington, but it's a long shot. At the very least, though, between your connections and mine, we should be able to get jurisdiction moved to a court Peter Benedict can't influence."

She closed the file on Sarah Kate's father and passed it back to Wentworth. "First thing tomorrow morning, I'll make some calls. In the meantime, there's… um… a young couple I'd like you to meet. Matthew Carter is the one who convinced me to dig deeper on Sarah Kate's case in the first place. I haven't met his wife yet — she's a patient at Harborview right now. If you're willing, Mike could watch Liza while we go up to talk with them. And…" She paused and sucked in a deep breath. "Well, then, I think we need to go see Sarah Kate and introduce her to her sister… and to her grandfather. Mr. Wentworth, I've never met a stronger child than that little girl. I think her resiliency — as long as we're straight with her from the beginning — will surprise you."

He nodded. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. "All right, then," he agreed, his voice dropping to a rough whisper. He squared his shoulders and cleared his throat. "What are we waiting for?"

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Matt gently stroked Melissa's hand as he eyed the monitors she was hooked up to. Her vitals were pretty good and she was getting some color back in her cheeks. She'd been asleep last night when word came that JoJo was found, and it was the first good sleep she'd had in weeks, so he hadn't awakened her to tell her about it. But now she was blinking open her pretty green eyes. He was pleased when they didn't have that pinched, pained look he'd gotten used to lately. "Hey, Gorgeous. Good morning." He bent to kiss her on the lips. "I've got good news. JoJo's back with Johnny and Nita. She's ok. They've got her in the pediatric ward here for observation, but should be releasing her later this morning." He chuckled. "Johnny says she was talking up a storm all the way back to Seattle yesterday, as if nothing unusual had happened." He helped her sit up, then filled a cup with water and handed it to her. "Your breakfast should be here soon."

"Good," she said. "I'm actually hungry." Her soft smile warmed him all the way through.

The next face at the door wasn't the orderly with a breakfast tray, though. It was Tonya Diehl from Child Services. She was the last person he had expected to see, but her presence had to mean news about Sarah Kate. Matt jumped to his feet. "Uh… good morning, Mrs. Diehl. Please, come in. Um… this is my wife, Melissa. Honey, this is Mrs. Tonya Diehl from Child Services. She's overseeing Sarah Kate's case and —" He stopped short as he noticed a gentleman standing in the doorway. Matt looked him over with the practiced eye of a paramedic. He was sick… should probably be in a hospital bed.

Mrs. Diehl was already approaching the bed, a smile on her face. She turned and beckoned to the man, who followed her in. "Hello, dear. I'm so glad to meet you." She proceeded to introduce Stephen Wentworth. "Mr. Wentworth's granddaughter Liza is Sarah Kate's half-sister, and Mr. Wentworth is an attorney who represents Sarah Kate's father." She gestured for the elderly man to sit in one of the chairs.

Matt couldn't imagine this frail old man representing anyone, but he was interested to hear more. He motioned Mrs. Diehl toward the other chair and took a seat next to Melissa on the bed.

"Let's get right down to the heart of the matter," Mr. Wentworth said. "I'm not much for small talk these days. Don't have time for it, to be honest. Mrs. Diehl here says you're interested in adopting Sarah Kate. Her father died a couple of months ago. He wanted me to take custody of her in the event of his death, but I can't do it. I don't have more than a few months left to live myself. We intend to fight the Benedicts' adoption of her, and it would help if we knew of good people who were ready to take her." He cleared his throat. "They would also need to be willing to take her little sister, Liza. I want the girls to be together. Mrs. Diehl thinks you two might be the right people for the job."

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Sarah Kate hadn't been to church in months. Daddy took her sometimes before he disappeared, but most Sundays he just wanted to sleep in. Uncle Peter and Aunt Judy had taken her every Sunday without fail, morning and evening, but their church felt kind of empty. She couldn't feel God there the way she could at Grandma's church. The Halverson's church was more like Grandma's than Uncle Peter and Aunt Judy's, but it was missing one crucial thing — Grandma. Without her, Sarah Kate wasn't sure how to approach God. She tried anyway, though. When they pulled down the kneelers for prayer, she knelt along with everyone else and made the sign of the cross and silently asked God to make it so she didn't have to run away and could stay with the Halversons a while longer. What she really wanted was to go live with Matt and Melissa Carter, but she didn't dare ask for that. It was too much to expect.

She was still planning to run away after Sunday dinner, when Nancy Halverson had promised to take her to the library. "They just recently started having Sunday hours," Nancy had explained that morning. "But they don't open until one o'clock. We'll eat dinner right after church, and Jo and I will take you and DJ over there after the dishes are done. We grownups can sit in the lobby and talk while you look for books."

It was all Sarah Kate could do not to groan audibly. "I don't mind taking myself. That bike you let me use is just my size and I promise I'll lock it up and everything."

Nancy had just smiled and squeezed her shoulder. "Honey, I know you've had to be independent for a while. Now you need to get used to having grown ups look after you again. Maybe once I'm sure you know the area well enough, you can ride your bike over there, but today I'm going with you."

"Yes'm." Disappointment and relief had chased one another around in her stomach for the rest of the morning. Disappointment, because it would be harder to run away unnoticed. Relief, because she had really missed having someone care about her like that.

As the car pulled up to the farmhouse, Sarah Kate's heart just about dropped. Mrs. Diehl's red Ford Escort was parked next to the barn. She could see Mrs. Diehl in the distance, by the pasture fence. Had the Benedicts come early to get her? She slunk down in the seat, hoping to avoid being seen.

Swede looked back at her. He must have recognized the car too. "What's up, Sarah Kate? See a ghost or something?" He winked and grinned, then nodded to the door. "C'mon, darlin'. I promise you Mrs. Diehl won't bite. I've known her for years. Let's go see why she's here."

Sarah Kate got out of the car. She felt self-conscious dressed up for church, in a dress that was way too pretty for a tomboy like her. Nancy had bought it for her yesterday. It had pink rosebuds and lace on the collar and sleeves, and as weird as she felt wearing it, she also loved it.

She reached for Swede's hand as Tonya Diehl turned away from the pasture fence and started walking toward her. She was holding a little girl in her arms. A cute little girl with blonde pigtails and a face that looked a lot like DJ's but also a little bit like Daddy's. She stopped at her car and opened the passenger side door and a tall, skinny man stepped out. Sarah Kate didn't recognize him, but the little girl dove at him and wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss on the cheek.

"Hello, Sarah Kate!" Mrs. Diehl called from a distance. "I'd like you to meet someone special."

Swede tugged her forward, and they crossed the remaining distance to meet up with Mrs. Diehl by her car. "Hello," she said shyly.

Mrs. Diehl smiled down at her. "Sarah Kate, honey, this is Mr. Wentworth, and this is his granddaughter, Liza. Liza is your half-sister."

After that, Sarah Kate wasn't sure how she got into the house to sit on the sofa in the living room. She was just suddenly there, and Mrs. Diehl was talking to her about her Daddy, gently breaking the news that he had died in a car accident along with Liza's mother… how they had been planning to come and get her but they got hit by another driver and now he was gone forever. She sat rigidly between Swede and Nancy, her hands fisted around theirs, and tried hard not to cry. Tears are for babies, she told herself. I'm not a baby… I can't cry. But then she felt Swede's arms come around her and pull her close and she crumpled against him and the tears came like a flood.

After that, everyone kind of forgot about dinner. Sarah Kate didn't care — she was pretty sure if she tried eating anything she'd throw up, anyway. Someone carried her to her bedroom and laid her on the bed, kissed her on the forehead, and covered her up with the faded Greek Cross quilt Nancy's grandmother had made. She turned onto her side to stare at the wall. Gradually, she became aware that she wasn't alone. A hand came to rest on her shoulder and a husky voice, just a little off-key, was singing Grandma's favorite hymn, accompanied by the creaking of the old rocking chair next to the bed.

Abide with me, fast falls the evening tide,

The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

Curious, she rolled over to see Mr. Wentworth. He was sitting in the rocking chair with Liza on his knee. "Grandma loved that hymn," Sarah Kate whispered.

"So do I. It got me through the last couple of months when I thought I couldn't take another step. I lost my daughter and your daddy both. Liza needed me, and that helped me too. And one other thing kept me going, dear heart… I had to find you. You needed to know about your daddy, and I needed to make sure you never had to go back to the Benedicts."

"Will you keep me?" she asked, a sudden wild hope surging through her. "Please? I promise I won't be any trouble and I won't make lots of messes and I'll do my homework and everything."

But he shook his head and blinked back tears. "I'm sorry, honey. I want that more than anything. Your daddy was like a son to me, and I know Liza would be happy to share her PopPop with you. But I'm sick, sweetheart. My heart is failing. Doc says I won't last more'n few months."

Liza was resting her head against him now, and Sarah Kate wished she could do the same. She sat up, and as if he sensed her need, he set Liza down and moved from the rocker to sit next to her on the bed. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close while she wept. Liza climbed up on the bed and cuddled her too, and for the first time in months, Sarah Kate truly believed she was loved.