Read Sanctuary Island for Free Online Page B

seeing Jo Ellen Hollister.
    Merry’s voice trailed off uncertainly in the middle of a sentence about the way she could tell from Voyager’s teeth that he was at least six years old, and Ella thought maybe her sister was doing the exact same thing—fixating on something, anything, to avoid hyperventilating and passing out from stress and nerves.
    The car bounced over a deep rut and Merry put one hand on the dashboard to brace herself as she peered through the windshield. Ella pressed her lips together and tightened her grip around the steering wheel, easing her foot off the gas and letting the car roll to a stop.
    A canopy of budding branches stretched overhead, turning the thin spring sunlight into dapples of green dancing across the hood of the car. It was quiet, almost eerily so, with none of the ambient street and car noises Ella had grown so used to in the city. The silence was broken only by the low hum of the rental car’s idling engine and the too fast, almost panicky breathing coming from the passenger seat.
    “It’s okay,” Ella said, giving Merry a reassuring smile. “Everything’s going to be fine.” Except she wasn’t at all sure it would be.
    “I just … I was only eight when Dad took us away. I barely remember her.” Merry’s voice, usually so vibrant and full of life, was a fraying thread. “What if she thinks I’m a giant slut for getting knocked up and then dumped?”
    “She won’t.” And if she did, Ella vowed, she’d make sure Jo Ellen kept her mouth shut about it.
    Merry hesitated. Then, in a small voice, she asked, “What if she doesn’t like me?”
    It’s not too late to back out of this, Ella yearned to say. We could leave right now, make a seven-point turn on this ridiculous, narrow path that passes for a driveway, and head straight back to civilization.
    But that wasn’t what Merry needed right now. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. You have everyone you meet eating out of your hand within minutes! And anyway, you know how much Jo Ellen wants to see us.”
    Merry nodded slowly, her breathing beginning to even out. “All those letters asking to be allowed to visit.” Ducking her head so that her purple hair swung forward and obscured her face, she asked, “Do you think Dad’s going to be mad that we’re here? I know he was glad when we asked her to stay away.”
    Ella swallowed, emotion burning behind her eyes. “Oh, kiddo. Dad loves you no matter what, you know that. He just doesn’t want you to get hurt.”
    That wasn’t strictly true. Not the part about Dad loving them, but the implication that he wouldn’t be angry when he found out about this impromptu visit … and Neil Preston knew how to hold a grudge.
    Not that he wasn’t justified when it came to his ex-wife, Ella thought.
    “Every time she floated the idea of coming to visit, I wanted to say yes,” Merry confessed. She gave Ella a sidelong glance. “I know you didn’t.”
    Ella struggled with how to respond. She didn’t want to make Merry feel bad or wrong about trying for a relationship with Jo. It was natural, especially now that Merry was having a baby of her own, to wonder what it would be like to have the support and comfort that supposedly came from the mother/daughter bond.
    But unlike Merry, Ella had been old enough to be very aware of what was happening during those final tempestuous years of their parents’ marriage. The drinking, arguing, drinking, crying, and more drinking.
    She remembered Jo Ellen Hollister, and no matter how penitent the woman seemed in her letters, no matter how many times she’d begged for the chance to make it up to them, Ella wasn’t interested in adding that much chaos and unpredictability to her nicely ordered life.
    Now, if only this trip could help Merry finally move on and put a stop to all the what if s …
    “It’s okay that we have different needs,” Ella said gently, determined to be supportive. “Are you ready?”
    Merry pulled in a