Lois Richer - Healing Tides

At first Glory thought it was some kind of crude joke, but Leilani’s frown was deadly serious. “What happened?”

“I don’t know if you remember—a few years back there was an uprising by rebels in Russia. They took some hostages, did some damage. It took armed forces to quell it.”

“I recall something about that.”

“A school was bombed, and a little boy who was badly injured was flown here for treatment. His name was Sam.” Leilani’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I was here the day they brought him in with his father, Viktor. Sam’s mother had been a teacher at the school, his siblings were students there. An entire family was gone—except for Sam and his dad.”

A pang of loss for this man she’d never met rippled deep. Glory knew too well what it was like to lose loved ones.

“Diana, Dr. Steele’s wife, felt Sam should be taken elsewhere, that he was too damaged for the grafting procedure.”

“She was a doctor?”

“A pediatrician. Dr. Steele is the boss, but she was the oil that kept everything running smoothly.” Leilani smiled. “In fact, you’re doing her job.”

Glory almost groaned. That explained Jared’s attitude. She’d waltzed in and begun changing everything his dead wife had organized.

“Anyway, Diana wanted to transfer Sam somewhere else, but by then Dr. Steele had done the procedure many times with great success and felt he could help. He’d heard their story, you see, and it touched him. He understood Viktor was going through a father’s worst nightmare. Jared desperately wanted to give Viktor back his son.”

“So he did the procedure.” A sense of dread hung in the air.

“It went perfectly. Two days later, Sam died.”

“Oh, no.”

“It was horrible.” Leilani’s voice dropped. “Jared couldn’t understand it. There was no warning, no sign that the boy was in trouble. Even the autopsy couldn’t explain why, only that his little heart had stopped.”

“The father was devastated,” she guessed.

“And furious.”

“Oh?”

“Viktor agreed to bring Sam to Agapé because a doctor in Moscow had told him of our success. Viktor wasn’t a religious man himself, but he thought his son would do better among those who believe in the power of God.” Leilani pursed her lips. “You know how people are—get God on your side and you’ll get a double benefit—less risk of anything going wrong if God’s involved.”

“I’m familiar with that line of thinking.” Glory pieced together the sad story. “I’m guessing his view changed with Sam’s death?”

“Yes. Viktor claimed Jared had talked him into it, said he would never have allowed his son to undergo the treatment if he’d known it was so dangerous.” Leilani shook her head. “He’d been told all the risks. I was there, I heard it.”

“The poor man. To lose that last link—” Sadness overwhelmed her.

“After the autopsy Viktor took Sam’s body back to Russia to be buried. Before he left he threatened to make Jared pay for killing his son. It was an awful time. We’d all fallen for the little sprite, you see. Sam was a heartbreaker. We prayed so hard for him to be whole again.” A tear trembled on her lashes.

“It’s hard to understand sometimes, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Leilani sighed. “But nobody took it harder than Jared. He locked himself in his office, reviewed the tapes of the surgery over and over, searching for something he’d done wrong. Only there wasn’t anything. I should know—I assisted him. It was a straightforward surgery. It was difficult, yes, but no more so than others we’d done.”

“Those are the hardest cases to deal with—the ones where you can’t figure out how you could have prevented it. Or accept that you couldn’t.”

Leilani’s sad eyes brimmed with tears.

“Diana and Nicholas were traveling home from a visit with her parents a month later. Have you met Kahlia and Pono yet?”

Glory shook her head.

“Lovely people. They adored Diana and the baby. And Jared. Typical Hawaiian family, lots of hugging, plenty of celebrations. They always included our staff in any party they threw. We’d become part of their family.” Leilani blew her nose. “Diana’s car went over the edge of a cliff. She and Nicholas were killed. After the funerals, Jared got a card. An eye for an eye. It was Viktor.”

“How horrible!” Glory shuddered. “This Viktor—he’s in jail now, right?”

“Yes.” Leilani sighed. “Not that it makes any difference. They’re still gone. I think Jared would have left Agapé, moved on and built a new life.”

“Why can’t he do that now?”

“If you haven’t met them, I guess you couldn’t understand.” Leilani’s troubled gaze met hers. “Pono and Kahlia won’t let go. They cling to Jared as if he’s their son. He finds it terribly difficult to say no to them, to add to the pain they’ve already endured. I think he feels guilty about little Sam’s death, but he refuses to discuss it with anyone.”

“But you said it wasn’t his fault.” Glory frowned. “This was when?”

“Coming up on three years.”

“Her parents must be over the worst of it. He could leave now, couldn’t he?”

“It would break their hearts, but I guess he could, if he made up his mind.”

“You don’t sound sure.” Something wasn’t quite right. “Why?”

“You should really talk to him.”

“Dredge up his past without all the facts? How would that help?”

Leilani tucked her water bottle back into her bag, pulled down her sunglasses and rose. “We’d better get back.”

“Wait.” Glory held the woman’s arm to stop her from leaving. “What aren’t you saying?”

Leilani kept her mouth clamped closed, but a battle raged in her dark-brown eyes.

“You can’t tell me this much and not the rest. It’s not fair,” GloryAnn pleaded.

“If I tell you, you’ll leave.” Like the others was the implication.

“No way. I’m not going anywhere. I promised Elizabeth Wisdom six months and that’s how long I’m here for. So you might as well tell me. I’ll find out, anyway.”

“I guess you will.” Leilani scuffled her toes against the dirt. Finally she lifted her head. “I think Jared doesn’t leave because he can’t. He often goes to Honolulu and visits the Halawa Correctional Facility to make sure Viktor’s still there.”

“Why?”

“I think he wants to make sure his wife and son’s killer serves every bit of the time he was sentenced, be certain Viktor doesn’t get early parole or something.” Leilani shook her head. “Look, you really should talk to Jared about this. It’s his private business, after all.” She began walking quickly back to the mission.

GloryAnn remained still, the sun beating down on her head as she struggled to reconcile what she’d learned. An inkling of understanding seeped through.

Jared Steele kept a close check on Agapé to ensure nothing bad happened again. But why didn’t he walk away, leave it to someone else, find a place where he could forget the horror that had happened here and move on?

If it took her entire six months, Glory was going to answer that question.

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