Nothing causes time to fly by faster than raising a child. Christy breastfed her new baby boy, Christian, and watched from the sunroom as Anthony and three-year-old Slade played in the backyard. Anthony’s long black braid swung from side to side as he chased Slade who in turn was chasing Crook and Esmeralda.

She looked down at her son and noticed that his bright blue eyes had been fixated on her as he suckled. She smiled and stroked his soft cheek. He had Anthony’s dark skin and a shock of wild black hair that a bald baby girl might envy. Seeing his dark cheek against her pale breast reminded her of how different she and Anthony had seemed so many years ago. It had taken Anthony a while to see that the black and white world he’d lived in was filled with more shades of gray than he’d wanted to admit. “The criminal and the heiress sure know how to make beautiful babies,” she said out loud.

She glanced up and saw the same contrast when Anthony picked up Slade and swung him around. Slade favored Christy. His light arms were distinct against Anthony’s huge dark hands that held him tightly as they flew around in circles while both goats tried to keep up with them, nipping at Slade’s feet. The windows were closed, but Christy could hear the child’s squeals of delight.

She looked around the sunroom, and her eyes landed on some of the art projects she’d started, but had set aside when motherhood became a priority. A priority that she would never regret. She then reflected on the first picture she’d painted in this room. It was of a momentous thunderstorm with dark mountains in the background. She’d realized while painting it that the lightning didn’t seem as scary as she’d thought. And before she knew it, she was painting the reason why. As if in a trance, the mountain changed and began to resemble a man’s strong profile. Her man’s profile. When she’d finally built up the courage to show it to Anthony, he’d asked her if she was afraid of him. The answer was no. She wasn’t afraid of him. He was the reason she felt safe. That picture now hung over their bed, replacing the scary looking snarling bear she’d woken up to that first day after he’d abducted her from Vivian’s bedroom.

Not long after Slade was born, Christy sold the Chapman estate. And just last year, they decided to sell the dealerships. Anthony was in complete agreement with her, especially after getting a tip that there was a good chance of the operation getting some uninvited notice. Within hours of receiving that tip, Anthony heard the same news from Grizz. Anthony and Christy didn’t know where or how Grizz obtained certain information, but they never questioned it. Grizz was a good friend and a solid source.

Kit had recently shared with Christy that she was finally pregnant. She and Grizz were expecting before the end of the year.

Christy looked down at Christian and gently removed her nipple from his perfect tiny mouth. He started smiling in his sleep. Christy smiled too when she remembered what Gloria had told her a couple of years ago when she took a then baby Slade to the camp for her regular Tuesday afternoon visit.

“My momma always said that when they smile in their sleep like that, they’re talking to the angels.”

Christy warmed at the memory of Gloria’s words and kissed Christian on the forehead. She quietly reflected on how a conversation with Kit a few years ago, followed by Slade’s birth, allowed her to give God a second chance. She hadn’t realized how much anger, resentment and bitterness she’d clung to until she looked into Slade’s pale gray eyes. How could she love an innocent child with the untainted purity of a mother’s love when her heart was filled with hate and bitterness? Hate for Van who’d victimized her and the people who might have known and looked the other way; and bitterness for circumstances over which she’d had no control. If there was anything she’d learned from that epiphany, it was that with God’s help, she’d found a strength she didn’t know existed and a peace that had always eluded her.

The shrill ring of the phone broke through her tranquil and happy thoughts, and she grabbed the cordless phone quickly. Grateful that it didn’t wake Christian, she whispered, “Hello?”

What she heard next caused her heart to race. The fear that had tormented her soul so many years ago had become Kit’s reality. Grizz had been arrested.