“They stayed married.”

“Because of Stuart. She was free to leave, as her husband often said, but Stuart would always remain with him. She couldn’t leave her son, so she stayed. From what I could see, they always lived separate lives. Miss Olivia focused on her son and her gardens, and Dr. Carter kept working at the hospital in Lynchburg until it closed in the seventies. To the day he died, he believed he was doing those women a service.”

“Miss Olivia protected Sadie but not Elaine.”

“She knew Dr. Carter would have shunned his Elaine and you. And she feared he would have made your lives as miserable as her own.”

“So where did Elaine go when she was pregnant? I know she was in New Jersey when I was born.”

“Elaine went to live with Sadie on the Jersey Shore.”

“Sadie?”

“Sadie rode the train to New Jersey when she left Virginia and found work in a wartime factory. In those days, they were hiring women because there was such a shortage of men. After the war, she went back to school, and though it took her nearly a decade, she earned her college degree. She became a teacher.”

“A teacher. Wow, that’s amazing. So Olivia must have kept up with Sadie?”

“Miss Olivia took the train to New York every summer and stayed for a week. I didn’t learn until later that Miss Olivia always saw Sadie on those visits. As I said, she took me on my first trip to New York when I was thirteen and introduced us.”

Libby wondered how the meeting between mother and daughter had gone, but Margaret did not offer, and she did not press. “Did Sadie ever marry?”

“She did. A real nice fellow named Arthur. They never had children, but they were dedicated to each other until his heart gave out a few years before she died.”

“Did she ever have any regrets about leaving you?”

Margaret stared out at the long driveway. “It was the best for both of us. I knew that as soon as I saw her, and she saw me. I know when she looked at me, she saw Malcolm. And my grandmother was the best mother I could have asked for.”

Libby released a breath. “When did Sadie die?”

“When you were about five. Miss Olivia and I were with her when she passed.” Margaret laid her hand on Libby’s arm. “Sometimes there’s no choosing between right and wrong. Sometimes you have to pick the best of the worst solutions and hope for the best. Miss Olivia did that, and she’s the reason we’re all standing here today.”

An engine rumbled in the distance, and she looked up to see Colton’s truck. The boys jumped up and down and started waving as their father approached. And for the first time in a long time, Libby was happy.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

SADIE

Tuesday, April 5, 1994

Trenton, New Jersey

The worried expression on Miss Olivia’s face proved she too knew a secret held too long grew toxic and could poison any life. Sadie’s younger self would have pressed the matter, but now that she was dying, she did not want her last words to Miss Olivia to be harsh. “You do what you think is best, Miss Olivia.”

“After all these years, why don’t you simply call me Olivia?”

Sadie moistened her lips and allowed a slight grin. “It never felt right on my tongue.”

Miss Olivia squeezed her hand in a strong grip. “Sadie. It’s good to see you again. I want you to know how much I’ve always appreciated you. I wish we could go to lunch as we used to do.”

“I’m sorry that I’m feeling so poorly.” She tried to sit up but was hooked to so many tubes, and her body was so tired.

“Don’t you worry about moving an inch,” Miss Olivia said. “You just relax.”

“I was having a dream,” Sadie said. “I was remembering that time in the greenhouse when we were planting those shrubs.”

“That was a fun afternoon. You were really clever about how best to arrange the plants in their beds.”

“How is that greenhouse?”

“It’s closed up. Too much for me.”

“Never thought I would hear the day, Miss Olivia.”

“Me either. But your name is still carved in the glass. It’s important to me that someone knows you were there when I needed a friend the most. Coming from London and the war, being a newlywed to Edward, and losing two pregnancies was almost too much.”

Miss Olivia reached for a cup and straw and held it up to Sadie’s lips. She took a small sip, and though she craved more, she knew her stomach would not tolerate it.

“You shouldn’t have come all this way.”

“Like I told you earlier, I would not miss this for the world.”

“Could I see Margaret?”

“Of course.” Miss Olivia pushed open the curtain and spoke to someone. Seconds later a woman appeared. She was in her early fifties now, and gray streaked her hair, but Olivia still saw the child who had played with her Stuart in the nursery. “She’s been here the entire time. She just woke up.”

“I wouldn’t have minded seeing her sleep. Reminds me of when she was a tiny little baby.” In those quiet moments, she had thought maybe she could forget about how she had come to be a mother and let loose the love the child needed. She had always believed in time she would have been a good mother to her girl. But time was the one thing they had never had.

Margaret approached the bed. She smiled down at her birth mother, taking her hand.

“Margaret,” Sadie said. “It’s good to see you.”

“And you too, Mama.”

“How have you been doing?” Sadie searched the face of the woman, seeing neither signs of herself nor him in her face. She saw only Margaret.

She smoothed her hand over Sadie’s tissue-thin skin. “Just fine.”

“And Ginger and Colton?”

“Ginger has been accepted to the honors high school. She says she’s going to be a doctor.”

“Is she?” Pride swelled in her as she thought about the grandchildren whose pictures covered the inside of her tiny apartment.

“Miss Olivia saw to it she got the Carter Foundation Grant.”

“My goodness.” The world turned in directions she never would have imagined. “And Colton?”

“Still a wild guy.”

“He’s the spitting image of your brother Johnny. Wild and looking for adventure.” Johnny had returned from the war and visited her once. It had been good to spend time with him, and she had mourned when he died fifteen years ago of a heart attack. He had been gone for so long now she couldn’t remember the sound of his voice.

She turned to Miss Olivia. “How’s Elaine and her girl?”

“Both are doing well. I see the girl in town from time to time. She reminds me of myself at that age. And Elaine had another girl. She wanted to be here, but the baby has a bad cold.”

“Best she not be around me now. Better she just look ahead.” Sadie closed her eyes, feeling the weight of life on her shoulders. “I suppose it’s all worked out for the best.”

“Not the best,” Miss Olivia said. “But the best we could manage.”

EPILOGUE

Wednesday, February 24, 2021