Divided heart, p.1
Divided Heart, page 1
Table of Contents
Divided Heart
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
A word about the author…
Thank you for purchasing
Divided Heart
by
K. M. Daughters
Copyright Notice
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Divided Heart
COPYRIGHT © 2025 by K. M. Daughters
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies in accordance with Article 4(3) of the Digital Single Market Directive 2019/790, The Wild Rose Press expressly reserves this work from the text and data mining exception. Only brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews may be allowed.
Contact Information: info@thewildrosepress.com
Cover Art by Lisa Dawn MacDonald
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
PO Box 708
Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708
Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com
Publishing History
First Edition, 2025
Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-5092-6213-7
Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-6222-9
Published in the United States of America
Dedication
For Daddy.
Thank you for writing our treasured children's books.
Especially A Kitten Called Frances
Acknowledgments
Our parents, Kay and Mickey, the K and M in K.M. Daughters, raised us to be grateful for all of life’s abundant blessings. As we continue our journey creating books together our gratitude grows. For each other and the exhilaration of reaching Happily Ever Afters together. For the amazing professionals at The Wild Rose Press who continue to bring our stories to bookshelves. And for all the kind comments and reviews from our beloved readers.
Thank you to Ally Robertson our loving, lovely, kind and diplomatic, razor-sharp Editor. You are so much more than a champion of our work. You are a treasured friend. Speaking of treasured friends, thank you to Joelle Walker, our Fairy God-Editor and sister of the heart, and Nicola Martinez and Kay Lamb, our Christian books Editors and sisters in Christ.
Our deepest and personal gratitude to the angels at Northwestern Medicine and Eisenhower Healthcare for helping us navigate one of our most challenging journeys.
Thank you to our darling children and grandchildren for your love and encouragement and the tremendous fun we have together. Thank you to Tom and Nick for our personal happily-ever-afters.
And most of all, thank YOU for choosing to read K.M. Daughters.
Chapter 1
The soft brush on the back of her hand brought Cassidy out of the dream where she and Sawyer walked the streets of Chicago holding hands and laughing. In her dreams, Sawyer wasn’t dead. Neither was Mom.
“Hi, Charlie.” She turned on her side in bed to pet her Basset hound’s soft head.
Cass ignored the drool cooling on the back of her hand from his nuzzles and smiled into his doleful eyes. Why did she choose a perpetually sad looking dog when she had moved to Redbird after her mother’s death? Wasn’t dog ownership supposed to elevate her spirits?
Despite Charlie’s droopy demeanor, his sweet devotion to his mistress and his ecstatic tail wagging at the slightest scrap of attention helped drag Cass out of the bog of grief every morning. Plus, he was a clever little scamp, making it easy for her to train him and entertaining her no end.
She yawned widely and then gave the AI command. “What’s the weather?”
“Currently it’s sixty degrees and sunny. Sunny for the rest of the day with a high of seventy-five and a low of fifty-nine.”
“Okay. Sounds good,” she said in reaction to the electronic forecast. “Ready for your walk, Charlie?”
The dog bolted through her open bedroom door with impressive speed considering his stubby legs and low-lying belly. With a lot less oomph than her energetic pup, Cassidy followed behind him clad in her pajamas, a fleece-lined hoody, and sneaker socks.
Downstairs, she grabbed Charlie’s leash off a wall hook by the back door and stooped to fasten it to his harness while he sat obediently, knowing the drill. She slipped into her running shoes, opened the door ahead of the dog and let him bound out onto the deck and trundle down the wooden stairs untethered, trailing his leash. Cassidy caught up with him where he sat on a patch of lawn at the bottom of the stairs as she had trained him. Scooping the leash up off the ground, she set out on their morning walk across her back lawn onto the wood chip lined trail that circled Redbird Lake.
Charlie snuffled and ambled making frequent stops to do his business and sniff the trunks of trees lining the path. Cassidy used the daily pre-dawn routine as a positivity meditation. Or at least, she tried to achieve daily positivity there since Mom had died six months ago. Inheriting her childhood home and deciding to sell her Chicago condo and move to Redbird returned her to the comfort of the familiar——her first and only home before adulthood.
Cassidy had always loved Redbird with its close-knit, small-town community, stunning natural beauty, and legions of cardinals roosting in the loblolly pines that ringed Redbird Lake. She cherished the memories of growing up there. Cass was the popular blonde beauty all through school who earned a full ride to Northwestern University and was the daughter of one of Redbird’s favorite couples. Her dad was the town paint contractor who died of cancer when she was nineteen years old. Her mom was the owner of the local and only bookstore in Redbird, Cozy Nook Books.
But Mom wasn’t there to comfort her in the familiar and continue living their “us against the world” philosophy during all the years as a single mom. And Sawyer had died a year before Mom. No matter where Cassidy lived or worked, she was an orphan and a widow at age twenty-eight. She had yet to pull out of the mire of sadness and loneliness of loss.
She reached the turning point about a quarter of the way around the lake. “Time to go home, Charlie.” She gently tugged the leash to reverse his direction.
Slipping her phone out of the pocket of her hoody, she took a couple of sunrise photos of the lake mirroring the pastel lavender, rose, and peach streaked sky. The late June weather was mild and perfect for walking or hiking—her favorite pastimes. Cass inhaled the pine scented air. Her gaze lingered on a fire engine red cardinal flitting in the branches of a towering tree. She captured a photo of him mid-flight despite the bounty of cardinal images in her photo library already.
Reaching the steps off her deck, Cass dropped Charlie’s leash. He thumped up the stairs and sat in front of the door while she opened the door of a storage area and filled three bird feeders with seeds. After hanging the feeders in trees on the perimeter of her yard, she mounted the steps and ushered Charlie inside.
The roasted nut aroma of brewed coffee from her programmed pot greeted her in the sunny kitchen. The walls were painted pale lemon. Early morning sunshine poured through the lake-facing window over the sink. Even when the weather was cloudy or stormy, somehow Mom’s kitchen décor brightened the day.
She poured a mug full of coffee, added a splash of milk, filled Charlie’s food and water bowls, set them down on the floor and then settled on a bar stool at her kitchen counter in front of her laptop. Scanning her email messages drove home her daily reality: no one wrote to her, and she wrote to no one.
The rumble of a motor and a car door slam took her away from her robotic junk mail deleting and drew her to the front of the house. The white van stenciled with Corrigan’s Paint Contracting insignia was parked on her gravel driveway. Rina bounded toward her front door carrying a bakery box.
Cassidy preempted her best friend’s doorbell ring and swung open the front door.
“Yay, you’re up.” Rina breezed in front of Cass and marched toward the kitchen without breaking stride.
“Good morning to you, too, Katherine,” Cass muttered.
She closed the door and trailed Rina who had always treated Cassidy’s home as if it were her own. Rina ferreted inside kitchen cabinets for plates and a coffee mug and then slid open the utensils’ drawer.
“What did you bring us?” Cass pulled up a stool. She propped a crooked elbow on the countertop and cradled her chin in her cupped hand watching Rina “fix” breakfast.
“Varrelman’s crumb coffee cake fresh from the oven. Your fav.” Rina untied the string on the box and slid a knife out of the butcher block holder on the counter. Waving the knife in the air, she said, “I picked it up when they opened this morning.”
“Oh yum. A big slice, please.”
“Well, duh.” Rina wielded the knife and brought two plates over to the counter in front o
“How come you’re driving Mickey’s truck? Doesn’t he have work?” Cass said.
“Yes, he does, so I can only stay a few minutes. The truck was blocking my car in the driveway, so I nabbed it for my breakfast delivery. Mickey gave his blessing. Oh, and sends his love.”
“Back to him. How’s business going?” Cass said, her mouth full of buttery deliciousness.
“Good. Picking up now that the weather is nice. Your dad would be proud.”
“He was always proud of Mickey even as a high school kid apprenticing with him during the summers. That’s why he handed over the keys to his shop to Mickey when he learned he was sick.”
“I know. You have no idea what that meant to my husband. He was practically a kid himself when your dad died. Only twenty-one and still searching for a career. And he was able to walk into a well-run business doing something he was good at. Thanks to your dad’s mentoring him. He treated him like a son.”
“Well Daddy always wanted a boy. To carry on the Corrigan name.”
“Oh bull. Your father wouldn’t have traded you for the world. Besides, Mickey is carrying on the Corrigan name with the business.”
Rina licked her index finger, swept it over her plate to vacuum crumbs and then popped it in her mouth. “Yum. That was so worth the calories.”
She hopped off her stool. “Done with your plate, Cass?”
Cassidy held out her empty dish. “I am. That was so good. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Rina’s gaze locked on Cassidy’s left hand. “Oh my gosh, you took off your wedding ring!”
Instinctively Cassidy balled her hand into a fist and rested it in her lap out of view. “I…”
“I’m so proud of you. That’s a big step.” Rina circled her arms around Cass’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “So now maybe I can set something up with you and Mickey’s brother?”
Cassidy’s stomach clenched and anxiety shimmered through her at the thought of dating another man besides Sawyer. “No, no, Rina. Not yet. I just…”
She closed her eyes for a moment to blot out the worried expression on Rina’s pretty face. Then she plastered a smile on her face and regarded her lifelong friend. “It’s a baby step for me, sweetie. I just…I guess I just felt like it was time. I think I’ve grown stronger and more at peace with Sawyer’s death since I started working at the store.”
Inheriting and running the bookstore the past months was Cassidy’s saving grace. Cozy Nook Books was the only place where her deep-seated grief abated fully. She remembered her mom’s sweet presence there. Even more powerfully, it seemed that Sawyer was there with her every day like a heavenly hug. She had met him at Cozy Nook during an author book signing.
The gorgeous coffee table book of his breathtaking photographs throughout his celebrated career was a huge magnet for the community and a very lucrative signing event for Cassidy’s mother. Meeting Sawyer that day had Cass believing in love at first sight. With Sawyer, she was justified in that belief up until the day he died a year and a half ago.
“All right, Cass. I promise I’ll be patient.” Rina turned towards the sink, dishes in hand.
Patient? My firecracker Rina? No way. “Thanks. I promise I’ll keep trying.”
Rina yanked on the stainless-steel handle of the dishwasher and opened the door. Stooping to stack in the dishes, she held out her hand. “Can I have your fork, please?”
Cassidy got off her stool and put the fork in the utensils’ basket in the washer herself. “Still dropping by the Nook later to help with the author signing this afternoon?”
“Of course. Wouldn’t miss it. What time should I be there?”
“I’m leaving as soon as I shower and dress. So, any time before the one o’clock story hour is good. It’s such a cute book. I think the kids will love it.”
“I know I’ll love being there for a children’s book signing.” Rina dried her hands on a dish towel a shadow of sadness glimmering in her eyes.
Katherine aka Rina Lynch and Cassidy Corrigan had always adored kids. When they were small, they played “little mommies” bundling baby dolls into strollers, changing their water-wet diapers, feeding them with magic milk and juice disappearing bottles, and rocking blanket-wrapped dolls to “sleep.”
Cass had married Sawyer months after college graduation. They had planned on seeing the world for five years or so before starting a family. They’d only been married less than three years when Sawyer was diagnosed with ALS.
Rina had married Mickey shortly after she graduated college the same year as Cass. But she would have broken out the champagne had she conceived on her wedding night. Six years later she had suffered three miscarriages. It was a touchy subject that Cass never broached knowing that Rina would confide details in her when she was ready. Cass thought that Rina and Mickey were still hopeful and trying to conceive.
Cass prayed regularly that her treasured friend could have the boisterous, firecracker family of her dreams.
“So, kiddo, I’m out of here.” Rina pecked a kiss on Cassidy’s cheek. “See ya in an hour or two.”
“Bye, honey.”
Charlie snoozed on his fluffy cushion in a patch of sunlight streaming through the sliding glass doors between her breakfast nook and the deck. Cass admired the panorama of the pine tree-rimmed, sun dappled lake and then headed upstairs to get ready for the event at the store.
Fresh from a shower, she stood in her walk-in closet with a towel tucked around her deciding on what to wear. She chose a cornflower blue, silk midi dress. She might not wear Sawyer’s ring anymore. But she could wear his favorite dress.
Chapter 2
The sun crested the pine trees encircling the lake casting their deep green reflections on the water’s surface. Ty Martin swept the brush across the canvas capturing the changing light that filtered through the floor to ceiling glass windows in his studio creating patterns of yellow, red and lavender shimmers on the pure white walls.
Music blared from speakers hung from the ceiling. Ty tapped his foot in time with the heavy beat as he added the sun’s exploding colors across the lake to his painting and then stood back assessing his work with a critical eye.
Satisfied with his progress so far, he rubbed his back and turned away from his easel. Ty paced toward the red mini fridge in the corner of the room, passing by canvases propped against the walls. He opened the refrigerator door, grabbed a protein drink, unscrewed the top and chugged half of it before stopping to take a breath.
He returned to the easel and spent the next couple of hours adding tiny touches that made the lake come to life with almost photographic realism. His eyes blurred as he checked the clock on top of the fridge.
Seven o’clock? No wonder my stomach is growling.
Ty had painted through the night, missing meals and sleep to complete the piece on his easel, one of many included in his upcoming gallery show in Chicago. He needed a shower and ten hours uninterrupted rest. He wiped his hands on a damp towel hanging off the easel, chugged the rest of the shake and took a moment to gaze out the window drinking in the beautiful vista.
Buying his house and renovating it had taken a full year, but it was worth every minute and every dollar that it took to make his home move-in ready. The architect and building contractor had followed his specifications for his art studio precisely. He had left the rest of the house’s interior design to his mom and sister. Ty finally had a place he could call home.
Stretching his arms up over his head, he yawned widely and then ambled downstairs to the second floor into his spacious bedroom suite. Ty stripped and tossed his clothes into a heap on the bathroom tile floor next to a double-sized, walk-in shower. The muscles in his back started to relax under the pounding spray. He increased the water temperature until his skin reddened and steam filled the shower.
Turning off the nozzle, he dried off with a towel. Naked and only slightly invigorated, Ty dragged himself into his bedroom and fell face down on his king-sized bed. As exhaustion started to overtake him the landline phone on his bedside table rang. Since only his family had that number, he answered the call on the third ring.
“Yeah?” he growled.
“Pleasant and cheerful as usual, little brother,” came Kane’s sibling sarcasm.
