35
It was late, and Alec hadn’t come back to the house he’d rented for them. Katie was asleep. Telling her that they’d found her mother and that she was gone had been difficult.
But Katie’s reaction had been telling. She had not expressed surprise or the hysterical grief that Diana had felt when her own mother had died. She had simply nodded, no tears. All she’d wanted to know was what would happen to her now.
“Do you want me to find your dad?” Diana had asked.
“No. He doesn’t want to be a daddy,” Katie had said, breaking Diana’s heart.
“Then I have an idea. I know of an excellent daddy who is missing his boy a lot right now. Your friend, the one who stayed with you at the farmhouse? He can’t go home. You know about that, don’t you?”
Katie nodded.
“I think it would be a good thing f
