Sanctuary Found (Pelican Bay 2)

“Granted,” the judge said, then he was banging his gavel. I automatically jumped, but fortunately he just slammed it down once, then he was up and leaving the bench. Sawyer slapped me on the back and pulled out his phone.

“I’ll tell Dallas and Nolan,” he said, then he was walking out of the courtroom.

“Is that it?” Isaac quietly asked his lawyer. I got up and went to him. He leaned into me when I put my arm around him.

“You’re officially still charged,” the woman said. “But my guess is the charges will be dropped within a matter of hours.” She held up the folder. “This is some pretty damning stuff, and the prosecutor is going to look like a fool for not having done his homework before filing the charges.”

“And I can see Newt?” he asked hopefully.

“Absolutely,” she said. “And the protective order against Gary is still in place so he can’t come anywhere near Newt. My next stop is to file one against him on your behalf.”

I glanced over and saw Gary being ushered out of the courtroom by the prosecutor.

Isaac let out a rush of air and then he was hugging me. I shook the lawyer’s hand and then wrapped both my arms around Isaac as she left. My eyes caught on Sheridan’s face. His lawyer was talking to him on one side of the courtroom, but he didn’t seem to really be listening to her. When Isaac made eye contact with him, the man said something to his lawyer, then came toward us.

Isaac tensed a bit and straightened. His hand dropped down to search out mine.

“Hi, Isaac,” the man said. “My name is Aaron Sheridan.” He hesitated, then stuck out his hand.

But I figured Isaac was caught on the same thing as me.

Aaron.

As in Isaac’s middle name.

“She named me after you,” he whispered. “I mean, Isaac Newton and you,” he corrected.

“She did?” Sheridan asked.

“My middle name is Aaron. Newt’s is too.”

Sheridan laughed and then let out what sounded like the smallest of whimpers. He discreetly dashed at his eyes. “She was the oddest girl,” he murmured.

“She was,” Isaac agreed. Both men had made the comment with the same level of affection. “She never talked about you,” Isaac said. “She never even told me your name.”

Sheridan nodded and smiled sadly. “That doesn’t surprise me. She was very stubborn. Once she made up her mind about something, it was hard to change it.”

“She said you kicked her out when she got pregnant with me,” Isaac accused.

The older man sighed. “I said some terrible things to her when she told me she was pregnant,” he admitted. “Her mother died when she was six, so it had only been her and me for the longest time. When she started showing signs of being sick, I foolishly thought if she just had structure and goals, it would help keep her on track. I didn’t really understand her disease–that was something her mother had always been good at, but not me. Jilly naturally rebelled, but when she was off her meds, she was impossible to get through to. When she said she was pregnant, I just saw her entire life, all the plans we made, get derailed and I said some things to her that I shouldn’t have and that I regretted.”

Sheridan wiped at his head as if he had a headache and I had no doubt bringing up his daughter and the way they’d parted must have been hard on him.

“She was gone the next morning. I thought she would come back. When she didn’t, I tried to find her. But it was like she’d disappeared into thin air. Then nearly twenty-two years later I get this call out of the blue from this complete stranger telling me he had information about her. He… he didn’t even tell me she was dead until I went to Boston to meet him.”

“How did he even know how to find you?” I asked.

“Jilly told him about me. He made it sound like he needed my help to get Newton back, but looking back, I realized he had a bigger goal in mind.”

“What?” I asked.

“The same thing that drove him from the moment he met my daughter. Money.” He looked at Isaac and said, “I’ve been very successful in the oil industry in Texas. That’s where I’m from… Houston. All Gary would have had to do was check my name on the internet and he would have seen how much I was worth. Your mother may have left Newton a good deal of money, but it would have seemed like nothing compared to the inheritance he would have gotten from me. He figured out pretty quickly how desperate I was to be a part of my grandson’s life because he even offered to move to Houston with Newton after he got him back.” He paused and said, “I’m sorry, Isaac. I shouldn’t have believed him but when he called, it was like Jillian herself was reaching out to me and I finally had the chance to make things right.”