you have any idea how worried I was? How scared? The entire town searched for you day and night. Jericho, Tony and Billy drove back and forth to town for weeks looking for clues that would help us find you. Your parents put up fliers. The church held fund-raisers to raise money for a reward. They raised twenty-five-thousand dollars for information. Mr. Rivers contributed twenty-five-thousand dollars so we would have a fifty-thousand-dollar reward.”
Donovan stiffened at Karl Rivers’s name. That old hypocrite, pretending to care about Donovan. No doubt he thought it was best to keep track of what was being done to find him. Not to mention it made him look good. Having a good public image made it that much easier to do his dirt in the dark. That and owning politicians and controlling law enforcement.
“Do you know how many nights I couldn’t sleep because I was worrying about you? Praying for you? I cried for months. I had to force myself to eat because of... I was devastated. Everyone kept telling me that you were dead, but I didn’t believe it. I kept hoping you would come back to me. As time passed without a word, I figured you must have been hurt. That was the only reason I could think of that you wouldn’t return to me. I promised God that I would take care of you if he’d only bring you back. And all the time you’ve been fine. You could have come home if you’d wanted. You just didn’t want to.”
“That’s not true.” He hadn’t meant to justify his actions, but hearing her speak as if she hadn’t been his entire world was unbearable. He would have sacrificed his life to come back. He just hadn’t been willing to sacrifice hers.
“Were you in prison? In a coma? Held hostage?”
He’d been held hostage but not in the way Raven meant. His love for her and his family had made it impossible to return as long as Karl Rivers lived. But as soon as the news of the man’s death reached him, Donovan had been freed from his captivity. He’d barely stopped to sleep or eat on his race to get home.
“Well?” Raven pressed.
There would be no reasoning with her tonight. Not unless he was willing to shock her further by telling her about the threat to her life. He didn’t want to win the argument that badly.
“No. I was none of those things.”
* * *
Raven forced herself not to cry at Donovan’s words. She thought of all the years she’d spent hoping he would come home. She’d never believed he would leave her without a good reason, so she’d figured something had to be wrong with him. There just had to be a reason he hadn’t returned to her. She’d tried to put herself in his mind and come up with an explanation for his prolonged absence. As time went on, her reasons became more desperate.
Perhaps he’d been badly injured. Maybe he’d been disfigured or paralyzed and thought she wouldn’t love him any longer. But she’d love Donovan no matter what. She’d prayed that God could reach him wherever he was and help him to know that.
Other times she’d imagine he had amnesia and had forgotten who he was and where he belonged. She’d searched online for stories about young men found without identification and police looking for help from the public. Over the years she’d read about three or four such cases, but none had been the man she’d loved with her whole heart and soul. She’d been dying inside, and he’d been fine and dandy, living his life in Texas.
How could he do that to her? And his parents? The Corderos had been destroyed. With the passage of time, they’d become more distraught, barely able to care for themselves. After a while other people moved on with their lives, putting Donovan’s disappearance in the past as a mystery that might never be solved. Mr. and Mrs. Cordero had been the only ones who’d shared Raven’s belief that Donovan would one day return.
“Did your parents know where you were?” It would be awful to think that they’d betrayed her the way he had.
“No. No one knew where I was.”
“Well, at least I know you were just as cruel to them as you were to me.”
“Don’t cry, Raven. I didn’t come here to hurt you.”
She angrily wiped at tears she hadn’t realized were falling. “Then why did you come?”
He seemed to mull that over. That was different. The Donovan of her youth had been impulsive and fun. A daredevil, he’d act first and think later. He’d changed. And not just his personality.
He was physically different, too.
Ten years ago he’d been tall and lanky. Being a ranch kid, he’d been physically strong even if he hadn’t had the muscles as evidence. He was still the same height, probably six feet two or three, but his shoulders were broader and his chest was fuller, yet his stomach was just as flat, his waist as trim. If his muscular body was anything to go by, whatever he’d been doing had been physical. His brown skin glowed with good health and his eyes were clear and sharp as ever. From all appearances, he’d lived well this past decade.
That thought pierced her soul. He could have returned to her and had chosen not to. Instead he’d been living the good life in Texas. Not that she’d wanted him to have suffered. The thought of him in agony somewhere was more than her heart could take. But knowing that he’d left her in misery for ten long years when he hadn’t had to shred her heart. She would never forgive him.
And to think she’d dreamed of this moment for years. None of her imaginings had looked like this. And they certainly hadn’t hurt like this. Nothing could ever hurt this badly. “You need to leave. Now.”
“I’m sorry for hurting you. I hope we can become friends again.”
Friends? Not likely. She hated him. If she never saw him again, it would be too soon. As far as she was concerned he could disappear forever. He’d kept his existence a secret for years. If he wanted to keep secrets...well she could do the same. “No. We’re done.”
She heard the pounding of feet a second before she heard the voice. And then she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her secret after all.
“Mom?”
Mom? Donovan reeled at the word. Did Raven have a child? A husband? Although he’d told himself he wanted her to have moved on and made a happy life without him, the thought that she’d fallen in love with another man sucked the air from his lungs. He didn’t even try to reconcile the two opposing feelings. Emotions weren’t logical and it would be foolish to try to make sense of them.
He turned to see a boy of about eight or nine standing there looking straight at Raven. When she didn’t answer him, he directed his attention to Donovan. “Who are you?”
Donovan opened his mouth to answer but when he met the kid’s eyes he couldn’t speak. His stomach seized as if he’d been punched in the gut. The kid’s eyes were the exact shade of gray as the ones that stared at Donovan from the mirror each morning as he shaved. The same gray eyes Donovan had inherited from his father. Realization dawned fast and Donovan’s knees buckled. This boy was his son. Raven had been pregnant and he hadn’t known it. Was that what she’d planned to tell him that last day?
“Who is he, Mom?”
Donovan
