Free Cain's Salvation (Passion in Paradise - The Men of the McKinnon Sisters) by Sarah O'Rourke Page B

changes a soldier.  It messes with his
mind.  That’s not an excuse.  It’s a fact of life,” she noted,
tucking strands of her chin-length blonde hair behind her ears.
    “But to blow up our
life together?” Faith breathed, looking at her oldest sister with tear-filled
eyes.  “Because he was confused?  I was arranging our wedding ,
Harmony.”
    “It happens,” Harmony
replied gently.  “I’m not saying to forgive him.  That’s up to
you.  I do think you should at least give him a chance to explain to you
where his mind was at when he wrote that letter, though.  If nothing else,
you deserve to know how it all came to this.”
    “What about you?” Faith
asked, looking at Patience.  If there was one sister in the room that could
hold a grudge, it was Patience.  Maybe the middle child would stand up for
her.  “I know you’ve got an opinion, Patience.”
    “I don’t know. 
I’m not saying that Honor was right to do what she did, but I do know her heart
was in the right place,” Patience returned slowly after a pregnant pause. 
“I guess it all comes down to one thing.  Are you still in love with him?”
    Faith felt her throat
swell with emotion.  What kind of question was that?  How was she
supposed to answer it?  Of course, she loved him.  He’d hurt
her.  Hell, he’d butchered her heart, but, yes, she still loved him. 
    “Faith?” Harmony
questioned gently as she watched her sister’s face dissolve into tears.
    “Of course I love him,”
she admitted, choking on a sob.  “I don’t want to.  I’ve tried to
hate him.  I just can’t!”  Her shoulders heaved as she fell
apart.  She felt someone’s arms slip around her and she leaned against
them. 
    “It’s okay, Faith,”
Honor murmured against Faith’s ear.  “Cry it out, honey,” she encouraged
softly, rocking her sister back and forth in her arms while she wept.
    Faith pulled back when
the emotional storm passed.  Taking the napkin that Honor pressed into her
hand with numb fingers, she wiped her nose.  “I’m still pissed at you,”
she mumbled to the woman kneeling beside her. 
    “I know,” Honor
acknowledged quietly.  “You have to believe that I’m not trying to hurt
you, Faith.  At some point, you knew you’d have to face him.”
    Faith pushed a shaky
hand through her hair.  “Yeah.  On my terms.  In my time. 
I didn’t think my baby sister would hand him a company t-shirt and invite him
to join our family business.”
    “Would you rather he
stayed out at the Turner place and drank himself to death?  Because that’s
what was going to happen if somebody didn’t do something .  I hate
how much he’s hurt you, Faith, but that man saved my life.  Literally
saved my life,” Honor stressed, squeezing her sister’s hand. 
    “I know,” Faith
responded, her voice cracking.  “You’ll never know how grateful I am to
him for that.  It was one of the reasons I fell in love with him.  I
watched him with you.  He was so determined that you’d live.  No
matter how hard you tried to leave us, he hung onto you for us.”
    “So, do you see, maybe
just a little, why I felt obligated to try and help him?” Honor asked
hopefully.
    And in that moment,
there was a minor break in the dam that surrounded Faith’s heart. Closing her
eyes, Faith nodded stiffly.  “I do.  No matter what happens in the
future between Cain and me, I don’t want anything bad to happen to him,
either.”
    Patience sighed as she
patted her sister’s shoulder.  “Faith, I’m pissed at him, too.  I
just think that if you still love him – and you just admitted that you did –
that you owe it to yourself to hear him out.  You don’t want to look back
on your life years from now and regret not giving him a chance to explain
things.”  Twirling a highlighted pink strand of hair around her finger
thoughtfully, Patience continued, “Even if you don’t work things out, this
would at least give you some