Surrender to Fate (Fate's Path Part One: A New Adult Romance Series) (6 page)

Sarah could not believe what she just did. She told Margaret exactly what she thought. She didn’t cry, she didn’t yell, she didn’t give Margaret any satisfaction of detecting a weakness. In all of her life, she had felt forced to bite her tongue all in the name of appearing proper and respectful. She wondered what her mother would think of her confrontation. She wasn’t sure she would approve, but right now she didn’t care. She felt liberated, she felt alive; she felt downright exuberant for finally telling Margaret Thornton what she had been thinking for years. From this day forward, things would be different. Sarah had drawn a line in the sand, and if Margaret dared to cross it, then she’d have the unleashed wrath of Sarah to contend with. The fact that Margaret now knew that was an even sweeter victory.

William seemed dazed and more than just a little astonished by Sarah’s newfound vernacular. “Sarah, that was...that was a little harsh, don’t you think?”

What did he just say?
Sarah’s soaring confidence just met the sharp pin prick of his words and came sputtering to the ground. “Are you serious? Have you been blind to everything that girl has said and done? She has made it her goal in life to make me miserable, and I’m not going to stand by and take it any longer. I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

William attempted to rectify his comment, “I...I just thought that maybe you overreacted, that’s all.”

“Overreacted? Over…reacted?” It was now Sarah’s turn to be stunned. “After the soda fountain? After sneaking up on us? No! I don’t think I
overreacted
. In fact, I’d dare say that she got off easy compared to what I’d like to do and say.” Tears welled in her eyes. Nothing could have prepared her for the ache in her chest left from defending herself to the one person she never thought that she would have to. “I can’t believe that you think
I
was in the wrong.” Sarah’s emotions had completely overwhelmed her and the tears were screaming down her cheeks as she searched his eyes for some sort of explanation.

“Oh, Sarah, don’t cry. Come here.” William scooped her wilted frame in his arms and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I really am. I don’t think you were wrong. I guess it’s just that I’ve never seen you act like that and it surprised me, that’s all. You shouldn’t let her get to you. I don’t know if what she’s done has been intentional or not, but I do know that I would hope that you wouldn’t let anyone change the person you are. You are the sweetest, most tenderhearted person I know. I don’t want you to become something that you’re not.”

Sarah managed to stop the deluge of tears, but her body shook, and she was definitely rattled to her core. What she wanted to do was to release a war cry from down deep inside her damning Margaret Thornton to hell. Once again, that girl managed to ruin an otherwise perfect moment with Will, and she caused their first argument, to boot.

After several minutes, and several deep breaths, Sarah was calm enough to continue on their way to the picnic. She was grateful for dusk so that her beet red eyes might go undetected. A bonfire was crackling against a tower of logs, sending sparks popping and dancing into the cool air. People lined both sides of the tables of food, strategically placing portions on their plates to allow a sampling of everything. Sarah was hungry, and once again she tried to escape the menacing memory of Margaret and enjoy the picnic. It would be a whole year until the next one, and with all of the tension she had been feeling lately, she wanted to try and enjoy what was left of the evening.

She and William collected their plates and utensils. Sarah scanned the benches and tables and saw that Matty and Thomas had already plopped themselves on a blanket and were mostly likely on their second helping. The two took their place in line behind William’s mother, and she gave Sarah a quick hug with her free hand. “Hello, you two. Finally decided to eat something?” Although she didn’t actually do it, Sarah could hear the wink in her voice at she looked at her and William.

“Yes, ma’am.” William answered. Sarah tried to hide her smile as Will attempted to hide the bright red that rushed to his cheeks. Catherine adored William, and William had a place in his heart for only his mother, and Sarah found it endearing that Catherine could tease her son, all in good-natured fun.

They were slowly making their way down the buffet when Vernon Thornton suddenly darted in front of Catherine. It was so abrupt that she nearly ran right into him and spilled her plate. “Oh, do excuse me, Miss Catherine!” Vernon overly exaggerated. “I thought I could just sneak in here real quick and get some more of that gooseberry pie. Did you make that pie?”

Catherine was so startled at the infringement that she quickly backed up into Sarah’s plate, nearly spilling it all over the front of her dress. Sarah was disgusted.
Of course, he would think that he could just butt into the line instead of waiting like everyone else! That whole family is the epitome of infuriating!

Catherine glanced up quickly at him and then looked down at the contents of her plate that were somehow still there. She quietly cleared her throat and answered, “Yes, I did.”

With no regard for his rude behavior, Vernon bellowed, “I thought so. You know how I can’t resist your tasty pie. I just can’t seem to get enough. I thought I better steal another slice before it got gone.” He smiled at Catherine with such smugness.

William had to bite his tongue. But perhaps he had caught a bit of Sarah’s moxie because he too was unsuccessful. “Mr. Thornton. I do believe an apology would be in order. You nearly knocked these two ladies over.”

“William,” Catherine interrupted, “it’s okay. I’m fine.”

Vernon’s beady eyes bore into William before his lips curled into a slight grin. “You’re right, young man.” He turned back to Catherine and took her free hand and covered it in both of his. “I do hope you can forgive my intrusion.”

Catherine pulled her hand from his grasp. “Not at all, Mr. Thornton. No harm done.”

One side of his mouth curled up into a half smirk and he turned his gaze to William and Sarah. “Enjoy the picnic.” He turned and sauntered back to the waiting Mrs. Thornton, who had watched the whole episode from her throne at an empty table.

As Sarah imagined, the food was delicious, and the evening proceeded without any further clashes with the Thorntons. William and Sarah joined the boys in a rousing horseshoe tournament, and to the best of her ability, Sarah tried to focus on feeling happy. After all, she had stood up to Margaret. And although it caused a temporary rift between her and Will, she knew it was the right thing to do and she didn’t have any regrets. Margaret seemed to know the tide had momentarily turned in Sarah’s favor, and so she sat at the table with her parents. Sarah pretended not to notice, but the glare from Margaret was anything but subtle. She couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the daggers being thrown her way. Will was right. Sarah wasn’t suited to fight dirty, but Margaret was, and both girls knew it.

Will never left Sarah’s side throughout the entire evening. A few of the families were beginning to pack up their belongings, and Sarah knew that this year’s picnic was about to be in the books. She and William sat on a bench together watching the bonfire, letting it warm their faces. All in all, she felt content.

Her father’s voice barged in through her drowsy trance. “Excuse me, everyone. Excuse me. Before you all head home, Annie and I would like to say something.”

Sarah stared at her father. He wasn’t known for public speaking, and she was astounded that he was about to start. He seemed nervous, but that didn’t deter him from continuing.

His voice quieted slightly but could still be heard over the crackling snaps of the fire. Everyone stopped and respectfully looked toward Edward. “Ahem,” he cleared his throat and paused. All of a sudden it looked as if his speech delivering days were over as quickly as they had begun. But he looked back up to meet the curious stares from his neighbors. He then looked at Anne. Sarah had never before seen the look on her face. She knew her mother’s looks all too well to know that this one wasn’t good.

Edward continued on as confidently as he could. “Annie and I wanted to tell you all, while we were all together that…,” he paused again, obviously searching deep for the words, or maybe not so much the words, but for the courage, to continue. Sarah stopped breathing. Her eyes widened and her body became as stiff as the bench she was sitting on.

Edward maintained his course, “…that we both have cherished your friendship all these years, and having you all in our lives.” He stopped to move his mouth around as if he was chewing a tough cut of meat and trying to swallow it. “We wanted you all to know that it’s not what we would choose to do if given a choice, but we have no choice. We are going to be leaving Colorado…and moving out west, to California.” He exhaled loudly and immediately looked exhausted from his torturous speech.

At his words, Sarah eyes began to vibrate and she felt herself spinning. The pit in her stomach at the beginning of her father’s speech was now a full-fledged wool blanket lodged in her throat and she could not breathe. She tried to swallow, she tried to move, she tried to look at her father. But all that she could see was blackness as she fought the swirling in her head.

“I’ve been offered a foreman job at a big farm, and I just can’t turn it down. Annie and I would like to ask for your prayers on our new endeavor, and just for you all to know, that you will all be missed terribly.” He looked at Anne, who had Catherine on one side of her and Henry on the other, and both of them had their arms around her. They, too, were showing their bravest faces in light of the announcement. Sarah could see that for them, it was not a shock to hear this. Clearly, Edward and Anne had confided in only them. She knew that their best friends deserved to hear the news when they could all cry together in the privacy of their own home, but it infuriated her even more to know that her parents hadn’t shown her the same respect.

Sarah was certain she just had an out of body experience. She imagined, she dreamt, she hallucinated the whole thing, she kept telling herself. But as the jostle of people around her bumped into her bench as they made their way to Edward and Anne, the reality came crashing down on her head.

In slow motion, she turned and looked at Will. He too was trying to wrap his head around what had just occurred. He looked at Sarah in disbelief, “Why…why didn’t you tell me?”

Sarah had no voice. She could only whisper the words, “I didn’t know,” before she crumbled into his arms. She wanted to cry, she wanted to do anything but sit on that bench as neighbors went to wish her parents well, shake their hands, give them a hug, and tell them goodbye. But she couldn’t do anything. As far as she was concerned, she might as well crawl into a hole and never do anything ever again.

Anne walked over to Sarah and pulled her up and hugged her. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I’m so very sorry.” Sarah’s mind raced with a thousand questions, but none of them could be formed into words. She stood there like a rag doll until she felt a familiar shape next to her. Matty. Matty stood as silent as a statue, looking to her for answers. She didn’t even know what to say or think, as one by one the faces of people she had grown up knowing gave her a hug and told her goodbye, and told Matty to be good. All she could do was move her head up and down, up and down. She turned to the bench behind her, but Will was gone. She turned back to the mosh of people surrounding her and her family, still not looking at any of them. Until one particular face came into view. None other than the beaming face of Margaret.

The triumph on her face was unmistakable. “I just wanted to say goodbye, Sarah,” in her most chipper voice. “Oh, and one more thing. Don’t worry about William. I’ll make sure he doesn’t get lonely.” She didn’t even wait for a response from Sarah. She turned on her heel, and with her red hair blazing behind her, she disappeared into the crowd.

Once they returned home from the picnic, Sarah’s astonishment had time to become full-fledged outrage. “How could you do this?” she demanded to know.

“Sarah, we know you can’t understand. But we have no choice. We are unable to make the payments on the farm, and we are losing it to the bank. One of your father’s long-time friends has a ranch in California and offered your father a job to oversee all of the workers and maintain the equipment. The farming business is booming in California, and we should be thanking our stars that there is a job waiting for us there.”

“How could you not tell me? How could you let me find out with the whole entire town that this was happening? How could you?” Sarah’s voice was as close to yelling as it had ever been, but she didn’t seem to care if there was a consequence to the tone she was taking with her mother.

“Sweetie, your father and I didn’t know what to do. We thought about telling you ahead of time, but we knew that it would ruin the picnic for you. We wanted you to enjoy the—”

“The last happy moment of my life?” Sarah interjected.

“Sarah, please don’t be so dramatic! This is not about you. This is about what we have to do to survive as a family. And whether it suits you or not, we can no longer make it work here. What I need you to do is stop being selfish. This is hard enough for your father and me, without having you act like this. Don’t you see? We can’t…we just can’t do it anymore!”

Her mother’s sobs wracked Sarah with guilt, but she was not ready to stop her insistence how this was most definitely going to ruin her life. “I can’t believe this,” she said quietly. “This is my home, Mama. This is where I want to stay.” Everything she thought was going to happen in her future with Will vanished in that one horrible moment when her father had started his awful speech. She had never known such contentment as she did when she was with William. And now, she was being yanked away from him, and there was not one thing that she could do about it. And as if that wasn’t horrific enough, the mere thought of Margaret “making sure he didn’t get lonely” was like adding salt and a searing branding iron to an already gaping wound.

Sarah slumped into a chair. This, in fact, was happening. After it was all said and done, it was Margaret who got the last laugh this time, and, if she had anything to do with it, she’d have William, too.

Over the next two weeks, Sarah’s life slowly was disassembled piece by piece. Edward sold off most of their farming equipment, the chickens, and the pig. They attempted to give Lulu to Tommy, but each day Sarah watched her amble up the drive back home. Sarah wished she could be a cat, too, and just keep coming back home no matter who tried to take her away from it.

Anne, who was usually steadfast and calm in her daily chores, had become emotional at seemingly random tasks throughout the day, and despite Sarah’s complete discontentment with what was happening, she knew she just better do as she was told and stay out of her mother’s way. But for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why her mother was so insistent on leaving behind a nearly spotless house. A house that they would never step foot in again. A house that was no longer their home.

To compound her already dismal outlook, it broke her heart that Matty didn’t know what to make of the disheveled life he was now living. One day, he was roaming the countryside and climbing trees, and the next, he was trying to fit his entire life into a small trunk. The Ellises were taking only their clothes and a few very special mementos. But what was really tearing Matty apart was that his parents had told him that under no circumstances could his dog, Riley, make the trip to California with them. Anne and Edward truly wished he could, especially because the whole family loved that Irish Setter, like he was one of the family. But when it came down to it, there was just no logical way they could justify it. The trip would be hard enough with the four of them squeezed into the cab of the farm truck and the bed of the truck packed from hell to breakfast with their belongings. There was no room for a dog. The Harstons wished they could take Riley, but the truth was, they couldn’t afford to feed another animal. At least Lulu could catch her dinner. Riley had no way to earn his keep. Edward hadn’t given up on finding him a home, but so far, there were no takers. Sarah was mortified at the thought of just leaving him behind and what that would do to poor Matty.

As horrible as it was to be preparing to leave, at least it meant that they were still there. It meant that she was still just a stone’s throw away from Will. It meant that the nightmare hadn’t become a reality. Yet.

But, as with any nightmare, Sarah eventually had to wake up and face the day. Today was that day. But instead of waking up and feeling relieved that it was all just a dream, Sarah woke up knowing that today, she would be telling Will goodbye, which was something in her wildest dreams, or in this case, her worst nightmare, she never thought she would have to do.