a child on his own. But we do have to come to a conclusion, one way or another, before we can move forward.”
“What’s his name?” she asked, barely holding herself together.
“His name? Oh. Well, I guess I can tell you that. Jake Martin. He’s been away in the military and didn’t know that Savannah had been born. Or so he says.”
She nodded. She wanted to say more, but she would begin to cry in earnest if she tried.
“I do have to warn you,” the voice said, sounding tentative now. “Something happened the last time he was in here. You see, it seems he may have taken a file folder that included your address. It would be completely against regulations to give him your address, of course. But as the file has been missing since his visit … well … I thought you ought to be warned. He might try to contact you.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “He might.” The woman was still talking, but Sara hung up the phone.
She had things to do. She was going to take her baby and run for shelter.
“Be calm,” she repeated to herself over and over, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. “Remember how you were this afternoon in the crazy kitchen. You can do this. You can make it happen. But you have to stay calm.”
They could do it. They would go to a new place and they would hide until the coast was clear, and then … She didn’t know what would happen then. But there was no way she was giving up her baby to that … man.
She dashed upstairs and pulled out two travel bags. Working fast, she began to throw clothes into one, baby supplies into the other. They were going to run.
She looked into the crib where Savannah was sleeping. Her beautiful, beautiful baby. For just a moment she filled her heart with the look of her, her round baby cheeks, her perfect eyebrows, her adorable wisp of blond hair. Everything in her ached for this child. To hand her over? To never see her sweet face again? No! She could not, would not—give her up.
And then Jill was in the doorway.
“Sara! What are you doing?”
Sara shook her head and refused to meet her sister’s gaze. “Sorry, Jill. We’ve got to get out of here.” She threw some little romper suits into the bag.
Jill grabbed her by the shoulders. “Why? Tell me what’s going on.”
Sara blinked back tears. “No time.”
“Sara!”
“Okay, okay.” She took a deep breath. “There’s this man who is renting the Lancaster place next to me. His name is Jake Martin. He claims he’s Savannah’s father.”
Jill gasped. “Oh, Sara! No.”
“Yes. And he wants her.” She set her jaw. “But I won’t let him take her. I’m going to go.”
“But, Sara, where?”
“Away. As far as we can go. Jill, you do see that I have to do this?”
But Jill was shaking her head. “No,” she said softly. “Oh, Sara, no. You can’t run. What good will it do? They’ll find you. You won’t get away. It’s too dangerous. Stay here. We’ll see what we can do. Maybe Connor will know someone …”
“Jill, he’s here. He’s looking for her right now. I have to go.”
“No!”
“Jill, listen to me. You’re the one who talked me into taking this baby. I didn’t want to do it. But I saw the light and I did my duty to our sister Kelly. I took her baby. I put all my heart and soul into loving her, caring for her, making her feel cherished and safe. And now you want me to just give her up to some crazy man who doesn’t have the slightest idea on how to take care of a child? No. I won’t do it. I’m going.”
“Wait until Connor gets home,” Jill insisted. Pulling out her cell phone, she punched in her husband’s number. “Wait. He’ll have an idea. I know he will. We can all work on this together.”
Sara didn’t waste any more time talking. She pulled Savannah into her arms and headed for the changing table. Quickly she changed the diaper as her baby began to wake up and look around, cooing happily as she always did when she saw her mother’s face. Sara pulled on a little playsuit and wrapped her in a blanket, then grabbed the suitcases and headed to the door.
She could hear her sister talking to Connor, giving him the facts and urging him to get home fast. But she couldn’t wait for that. As she rushed out the door, her main fear was that Jake would already be coming up the hill to Jill’s house. She looked quickly, but there was no sign of him, and relief surged in her heart. If she could get to the ferry before he found her, they just might make it. She strapped her baby into the car seat and off they went.
A good twenty minutes of high anxiety passed before sanity began to creep back into Sara’s thinking. She was on the ferry by then, parked behind six cars and in front of two others and gliding across the water. The wait to board had seemed to go on forever. She’d sat behind the wheel, scanning the landscape, staring into her rearview mirror, jumping every time a new man appeared anywhere near.
But he didn’t show up. They opened the gates and let her onto the ferry, and still she didn’t see him anywhere. They started off across the bay and as time passed, she began to breathe again. Seattle lay off in the distance. Her thoughts had centered around losing themselves in the big city. As she calmed down, she began to realize how senseless that was.
Savannah was fussing a bit and she turned to reach out for her little hand. She hadn’t thought to bring some snacks for her but she did have some fresh bottles. Once they got to the other side, she would pull over in a park she knew of and take care of that.
Looking at her adorable child, it came to her in a flash. This was crazy. It was a fantasy—a huge leap out into the great unknown without a safety net. In the modern world there were very few places where you could hide—especially if you were taking a baby with you. You had to have a way to make a living. You had to have someone to watch the baby while you did that. You had to have a place to live in. And all those things required identification. They would be found in no time.
It wouldn’t work. She was endangering the welfare of her baby in order to keep control—and losing all control by doing it. This was nuts. Jill had been right. She was going to have to go back.
Her heart sank. She knew it was a sort of defeat. But at the same time, it was only recognizing reality. A thousand things could go wrong, and most of them might hurt Savannah. What had she been thinking? She couldn’t risk it.
A sense of doom swept over her, catching in her throat, but she fought it back. There were other ways to fight this. It might take a bit of finesse, a talent for persuasion and a touch for manipulation. But she’d been there before.
Jake Martin wasn’t domesticated. He was a wild man. He lived unconventionally. There was nothing in his background or experience that had prepared him to take care of a baby. Surely the powers in the agency would see that. Surely that would go into their decision-making. Or was biology all that mattered?
There was one counselor who had been very helpful to her before, a Mrs. Truesdale. She’d taken a special interest
