The Legacy (46 page)

Sadie lay awake staring up at the ceiling, futilely wiping
at the endless stream of tears. She’s been praying unceasingly
that the police will be able to track down her car and catch
Gladys, and her heart aches for Phillip. She will never forgive
herself if anything happens to him. Truthfully, she doesn’t
know if she can forgive herself now for letting things get this
far. She has always considered herself a somewhat intelligent
person, but not anymore. At the moment she feels as far from
smart as a person could be.

Dr. Grant enters the room, wanting, more than needing
to check on Sadie. There are nurses in his charge that can do it,
but when he isn’t busy with another patient, he wants to be
with her. There is no way he can explain how she’d touched his
heart the moment she was put in his care. In the five years he’s
been a doctor, nothing like this has ever happened to him. It is
as if her spirit had spoken to his.

Earlier he talked with his mother about what he was
feeling
and said she
understood.
She
had also
felt
an
unexplainable closeness to Sadie when she picked her up at the
bus stop last night. Helen told him she had a special feeling
about Sadie. She had no idea her son’s life would be affected by
the young woman as well.

When Peter sees the tears rolling back into Sadie's hair, he
again places his hand over hers. “How are you doing?” His
voice is soft.

Her pain-filled eyes meet his. “How could I have been so
stupid?”
The young doctor rolls a stool over by the bed and sits
down. “Sadie, you are not now, nor were you ever stupid. You
thought you were helping someone. You didn’t know.”
“Oh, I helped her all right. I helped her to keep a little
boy from his family.” She looks into his eyes. “Oh, Dr. Grant,
what am I going to do?”
He smiles. “Well, the first thing I want you to do is stop
calling me Dr. Grant. My name is Peter.”
Sadie wipes her eyes and looks into his, her own laced
with
subtle
humor.
“Is
that
allowed?”
she
asks
almost
mischievously.
“For you, it is.”
She gives him a slow smile that melts his heart. He
squeezes her hand. She returns the gesture, her smile fading
slightly.
“The second thing I want you to do is try and relax. You
did everything you could and no one blames you for anything.
In fact, the police think what you did was very brave. I know I
do.”
She sighs as fresh tears come. “I don’t feel very brave.
Right now I’m more afraid than I have ever been in my life.”
She tries not to cry, but it is no use. “I pray that they find him
soon,” she says as she turns to her side and lets the tears come.
“I just don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to him.”
Peter wants so much to hold her and offer comfort, but
he can’t. She is his patient and such actions aren’t permitted.
Instead he presses his free hand against her cheek, caressing it
softly. Even this action is crossing the line, but at the moment
he doesn’t care. “Everything will be okay,” he says softly.
Sadie covers his hand with hers, pressing it against her
face, trying to draw strength from him. “I hope you’re right.

Cisely
and Jessica’s
hands
are
submerged in
pastry
dough when the phone rings.
“I’ll get it,” Adagio says, wiping his wet hands on his
apron.
“Hello.”
“Yes, Mr. St. John, this is Officer Ed Payne. I have some
news about your son.”
Adagio reaches for a chair, suddenly feeling a little weak.
Cisely has just finished washing her hands and is about to put a
new batch of rolls in the oven when she sees Adagio’s face go
pale. “What is it?” she asks moving to his side.
He takes her hand. “It's about Phillip.”
She sucks in a breath and pulls a chair close to his. He
puts an arm around her. Jessica quickly retrieves the other
cordless phone from the living room and hands it to Cisely,
then stands with her hand pressed to her chest, waiting to hear
about Phillip.
“Go on, officer,” Adagio says.
“It looks like Ms. Baker has been holed up in Dublin,
Georgia with Phillip. She turned up on this young woman’s
door step and told her Phillip was her grandson, only his name
was Michael. Then she fed the woman some sob story about
losing everything and having nowhere else to go. The woman
believed her and took her in. Her house is a good ways from
town and I’m guessing that’s why Gladys picked her in the first
place.”
Adagio closes his eyes as tears fall down his face, and
tightens his arm around Cisely. Their son is alive. They have
waited so long to hear those words, to know for sure.
When Cisely is finally able to get hold of her emotions
she asks, “Is Phillip all right?”
“Well, truthfully right now we don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you do not know?” Adagio says, his
heart dropping a little. “Does Gladys still have him?”
“Yes, she does, but they are no longer in Dublin. It
appears that Miss Roberts, the woman Gladys was staying with,
was finally able to get Phillip to talk last night after two months
of silence and managed to get him to open up about who he
really is and what happened to him. Gladys walked in on them
and immediately became suspicious. Last night Miss Roberts
tried to get Phillip out of the house. She was about to take him
to the police when Gladys attacked her from behind and
knocked her unconscious.”
“Good
heavens,”
Cisely
says,
her
voice
full
of
compassion for the woman. “Is she all right?”
“She’s in the hospital. She has a concussion and a fair
amount of stitches, but she will be fine. She was pretty brave,
though. Because Gladys took her car, Miss Roberts had no
choice but to try and walk to town. She had barely made it two
miles when someone saw her sitting at a bus stop. She couldn’t
make it any farther with the shape she was in. She asked the
woman to bring her in to the police station and collapsed right
after walking in.”
Adagio sighs. While he feels terrible about what Sadie has
gone through, he is grateful for what she tried to do. “So, now
what?” he asks the officer.
“We are keeping a lookout for Miss Roberts’ car, and
we’ve begun a search of Dublin and surrounding areas. We’re
doing everything we can to find your son. We will keep you
posted and notify you the minute we find out anything else.”
“Officer, is there any way we can contact Miss Roberts?”
Cisely asks. “I would like to tell her how much we appreciate
her efforts to help Phillip.”
“I think that would be a good thing. She is worried sick
over him. She’s feeling pretty down right now and believes this
is all her fault.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Adagio says.
“I agree, and I’m sure hearing it from you two will make
all the difference in the world right now.” He gives Cisely
Sadie’s full name and the hospital and room number she can be
reached at. Before hanging up, he again assures them the
department will do everything they can to track Gladys down
and get Phillip back to them.
Adagio continues to hold Cisely as he fills Jessica in on
what happened. Jessica sheds tears of her own, for both Phillip
and Sadie. A little while later when their emotions are under
control, Adagio and Cisely sit with Ingo, and without going into
too much detail, tell him about Phillip. He cries a little, but they
do what they can to assure him everything will be okay.
Cisely tells Adagio she feels a need to talk with Sadie.
Adagio agrees and sits with her as she dials Sadie’s hospital
room number. He gets on the other extension.

The ringing of the phone startles Sadie. She hesitantly
picks it up, wondering who would know she is there.
Maybe it’s a wrong number.
“Hello.”
“Hello, is this Sadie Roberts?”
“Yes,” she answers, taken off guard by the silky voice on
the other end.

I somehow manage to steady the emotion in my voice.
Adagio squeezes my hand in support. “My name is Cisely St.
John. I’m Phillip’s mother.”

When I am answered with silence, I know Sadie is
probably struggling with her emotions just as much. “My
husband is here as well. We just wanted to tell you how much
we appreciate what you tried to do for our son, and how
grateful we are that you were there for him.” When I am unable
to speak anymore. Adagio holds me close and takes over.

“Our children mean the world to us, and we have been in
constant agony over Phillip. We are truly grateful you were
there to watch out for him.”

“I didn’t do too good a job. Gladys managed to get away
with him anyway. I should have known she was lying about
everything.”

“Oh, Sadie,” I say softly, “how could you have known?
Gladys is my aunt and I know her well. She can make anybody
believe anything to get her way. She’s evil and vindictive and
you did what you could. You are not responsible for any of
this. It’s not your fault. I know in my heart Phillip is okay and
will be found soon. I know it as surely as I know God used you
to look out for him.”

Sadie begins to cry. We listen quietly, shedding more tears
of our own. When she is finally quiet, I ask, “Would you tell us
about Phillip?”

“I would be happy to.” For the next half hour Sadie
answers our questions, then she tells us how Phillip had been,
starting with the day Gladys brought him to her house.

I cry silently as I listen to Sadie describing how Gladys
treated Phillip. And when she tells us about finding Phillip on
his knees the previous day praying, Adagio has to move the
phone away from his ear as emotion overtakes him. He had
been there the day I talked to the children about praying when
they were afraid. As he cries silently, I hold him close, pressing
my lips into his hair, and continue to listen to Sadie. After a few
minutes, he is able to pull himself together.

When Sadie has told us everything she can, I begin asking
her questions about herself and her life. She tells us about her
mother dying of cancer and her father being shot years ago
while robbing a liquor store.

Sadie
is
about
to
say
more,
but
stops
as
a
sudden
realization dawns on her.
“I can’t believe it,” she says softly.
“You can’t believe what?” Cisely asks.
“You said that Gladys is your aunt?”
“Yes, I did, though we’ve never been even remotely close.
Her hatred of me is the reason she took Phillip in the first
place. She wanted to get back at me for reasons that don’t make
sense to anyone but her. She wanted to hurt me in the worse
way, and she did. Why do you ask?”
“Well, you’re not going to believe this. I’m having a hard
time believing it myself.” Sadie laughs, then figures she had
better explain.
“I’m sorry, but this is pretty amazing. You see, Gladys’
husband had an affair a little over nineteen years ago.”
“I’m not
surprised,”
Cisely
said.
“But
how
do
you
know?”
Sadie smiles sadly. “I know because it was with my
mother. I’m the product of that affair.”

When I look at Adagio, I'm not surprised to see him
wearing one of his, '
God moves in mysterious ways'
smiles
.
“Well, I
guess that means we are cousins in a way.” My mind is reeling.
“And that means I was looking out for a member of my
family and didn’t know it.” There is fresh emotion in Sadie's
voice.
After a moment of contemplative silence between us, a
whole new conversation begins. We talk about our family ties,
each of us asking the other questions. I tell her about her half
sister, Velma, and Sadie eagerly looks forward to meeting her.
Though there is a ten year difference between us, it seems
Sadie and I have a great deal in common, and I want to meet
her more than I can say.
Adagio breaks in. “Ladies, excuse me for interrupting, but
I was just wondering how long Sadie had to stay in the
hospital.”
“My doctor said I could be released in the morning.”
He smiles at me and I grin in return, knowing exactly
what he is thinking and loving him for it. “Sadie, I think my
husband just had another of his many genius moments.” He
makes a face and I laugh.
“Sadie,” he continues, “I know you are recuperating, but
how would you feel about coming and spending Thanksgiving
with us?” I squeeze his hand, grateful he’d thought of it.
“I . . . I don’t know what to say. To actually have family
to spend the holidays with would be a dream come true for me.
And being with you would also help me feel closer to Phillip
somehow. I would love to spend Thanksgiving with you. But I
don’t know if I can get arrangements made in time.”
“Just let us worry about that,” Adagio says. “We will take
care of everything. And we will call you back as soon as
everything is arranged.”
“I can’t believe how kind you are being to me.” Sadie’s
voice cracks. “Thank you.”
I wipe a tear away. “There’s no need to thank us. You’re
family and we are excited to have you come.”
“I’m excited, too.”
After talking a few more moments, I ask Sadie if there is
anything else we can do for her. She tells us no and thanks us
again for inviting her to come up.
After hanging up, Adagio quickly makes the arrangements
while I fill Jessica in on everything. I count Sadie as another
blessing that has come to us through this trial.