Free Surrender to Fate (Fate's Path Part One: A New Adult Romance Series) by Jacelyn Rye

and we are losing it to the bank. One of your father’s long-time friends has a ranch in California and offered your father a job to oversee all of the workers and maintain the equipment. The farming business is booming in California, and we should be thanking our stars that there is a job waiting for us there.”
    “How could you not tell me? How could you let me find out with the whole entire town that this was happening? How could you?” Sarah’s voice was as close to yelling as it had ever been, but she didn’t seem to care if there was a consequence to the tone she was taking with her mother.
    “Sweetie, your father and I didn’t know what to do. We thought about telling you ahead of time, but we knew that it would ruin the picnic for you. We wanted you to enjoy the—”
    “The last happy moment of my life?” Sarah interjected.
    “Sarah, please don’t be so dramatic! This is not about you. This is about what we have to do to survive as a family. And whether it suits you or not, we can no longer make it work here. What I need you to do is stop being selfish. This is hard enough for your father and me, without having you act like this. Don’t you see? We can’t…we just can’t do it anymore!”
    Her mother’s sobs wracked Sarah with guilt, but she was not ready to stop her insistence how this was most definitely going to ruin her life. “I can’t believe this,” she said quietly. “This is my home, Mama. This is where I want to stay.” Everything she thought was going to happen in her future with Will vanished in that one horrible moment when her father had started his awful speech. She had never known such contentment as she did when she was with William. And now, she was being yanked away from him, and there was not one thing that she could do about it. And as if that wasn’t horrific enough, the mere thought of Margaret “making sure he didn’t get lonely” was like adding salt and a searing branding iron to an already gaping wound.
    Sarah slumped into a chair. This, in fact, was happening. After it was all said and done, it was Margaret who got the last laugh this time, and, if she had anything to do with it, she’d have William, too.
    Over the next two weeks, Sarah’s life slowly was disassembled piece by piece. Edward sold off most of their farming equipment, the chickens, and the pig. They attempted to give Lulu to Tommy, but each day Sarah watched her amble up the drive back home. Sarah wished she could be a cat, too, and just keep coming back home no matter who tried to take her away from it.
    Anne, who was usually steadfast and calm in her daily chores, had become emotional at seemingly random tasks throughout the day, and despite Sarah’s complete discontentment with what was happening, she knew she just better do as she was told and stay out of her mother’s way. But for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why her mother was so insistent on leaving behind a nearly spotless house. A house that they would never step foot in again. A house that was no longer their home.
    To compound her already dismal outlook, it broke her heart that Matty didn’t know what to make of the disheveled life he was now living. One day, he was roaming the countryside and climbing trees, and the next, he was trying to fit his entire life into a small trunk. The Ellises were taking only their clothes and a few very special mementos. But what was really tearing Matty apart was that his parents had told him that under no circumstances could his dog, Riley, make the trip to California with them. Anne and Edward truly wished he could, especially because the whole family loved that Irish Setter, like he was one of the family. But when it came down to it, there was just no logical way they could justify it. The trip would be hard enough with the four of them squeezed into the cab of the farm truck and the bed of the truck packed from hell to breakfast with their belongings. There was no room for a dog. The