crutches–”
Sidney turned green and quickly reached for the towel. She held it
against her mouth, got up and raced out of the room. Sawyer stood up
but didn’t follow. He sat back down. In a couple of minutes she had
rejoined him. “I’m sorry, I must have caught a bug.”
“How long have you known you were pregnant?” Sawyer asked.
She sat back, stunned. “I’ve got four kids, Sidney. Believe me, I know
morning sickness when I see it.”
Sidney’s voice was strained. “About two weeks. The morning Jason
left…” She started to rock back and forth, one hand pressed across her
face. “God, I can’t believe this. Why did he do it? Why didn’t he
tell me? He shouldn’t be dead. Dammit! He shouldn’t!”
Sawyer looked down at the cup in his hands. “He tried to do the right
thing, Sidney. He could’ve just ignored what he’d found, like most
people would have. But he decided to do something about it instead. A
real hero. He took a lot of risks, but I know he did it for you and
Amy. I never had the opportunity to meet him, but I know he loved you.”
Sawyer was not about to disclose to Sidney that the hopes of a
government reward had played a prominent role in Jason Archer’s decision
to gather evidence against Triton.
She looked at him through tear-filled eyes. “If he loved us so much,
why did he choose to do something that was so dangerous, so… It
doesn’t make any sense. God, it’s like I lost him twice. Do you know
how that feels?”
Sawyer considered this for a minute, cleared his throat and started
speaking very quietly. “I have this friend who’s kind of contradictory.
He loved his wife and kids so much he would’ve done anything for them. I
mean anything.”
“Lee–”
He held up a hand. “Please, Sidney, let me finish. Believe me, it took
a lot to get to this point.” She sat back as Sawyer continued.
“He loved them so much he spent all his time trying to make the world a
safer place for them. So much time, in fact, that he ended up hurting
terribly the very people he loved so much. And he didn’t see it until
it was too late.” He took a sip of the cider as a massive lump formed in
his throat. “So you see, sometimes people do the dumbest things for the
very best reasons.” His eyes shimmered. “Jason loved you, Sidney. Hell,
at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.
That’s the only memory you ever have to keep.”
Neither broke the silence for several minutes as they both stared into
the flames.
Finally Sawyer looked at her. “So what’re you going ‘to do now?”
Sidney shrugged. “Tyler, Stone lost its two biggest clients, Triton and
RTG. However, Henry Wharton was very nice; he said I could come back,
but I don’t know if I’m up to it.” She covered her mouth with the towel
and then her hand dropped to her lap. “I probably don’t have a choice,
though. Jason didn’t have much life insurance.
We’ve pretty much run through our savings. With the new baby on the
way…” She shook her head in misery.
Sawyer waited for a moment and then reached in his suit pocket and
slowly took out an envelope. “Maybe this’ll help.”
She dabbed at her eyes. “What is it?”
“Open it.”
She pulled out the slip of paper inside. She finally looked up at
Sawyer. “What is this?”
“It’s a check made out to you for two million dollars. I don’t think
it’ll bounce, considering it was issued by the United States Treasury.”
“I don’t understand, Lee.”
“There was a two-million-dollar reward from the government for
information leading to the capture of the person or persons responsible
for the plane bombing.”
“But I didn’t do anything. I haven’t done anything to earn this.”
“Actually, I’m absolutely certain it will be the only time in my life
that I’ll give anyone a check for that much money and then tell them
what I’m about to tell you.”
“What’s that?”
“That it doesn’t even come close to being enough. That there’s not