Page 176 of Sing with Me

“Not really. Detective Jeong assured me that once he has more information he can share with us, he will. He also wants to talk to Elisa. Whatever she can remember might help convict Romina and Zeta.”

Dad shook his head. “Unbelievable. I can’t imagine what Zeta was thinking when she put her own biological granddaughter at risk just to meet a need.”

“This world is sinful.” It was all Diehl could say.

“Which station are you taking Elisa to tomorrow?”

“Not a police station. I think it’s at the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy, where a forensic interviewer will be talking to Elisa. I won’t be allowed in—I suppose they don’t want me to influence her responses—so I’ll bring a laptop to work.”

“How long is that going to take?”

“They told me it’d be a couple of days. I’m guessing I’ll be here until this weekend.”

Dad looked disappointed.

Somehow, Diehl had a feeling Dad didn’t like office work anymore, even though he had been CEO of Brooks Investments for many years.

“I’ll be praying for Elisa,” Dad said.

“Thank you.” Diehl watched Dad shuffle out of the office.

He waited until Dad was out of sight before he logged into his laptop. He wanted to write down the pros and cons of having his sister-in-law take over some of the workload.

Then he remembered how Skye prayed.

“Lord, if this is Your will for the family business, then let Riley be positive about being CEO for two of the subsidiaries. If she could do that, I would like to move Brooks Properties to St. Simon’s Island. If it’s Your will for me to be with Skye, I pray that it will all work out nicely. And please somehow get rid of Jared or keep him far away from Skye.”

He added a few more prayers for his children, especially Elisa with her harrowing experience, and for his parents, who were getting older too quickly for him to keep up with.

He then went back to praying for Skye. He hoped that his offer to buy out Skye’s majority share of Saffron on Jekyll was the right thing to do. He wouldn’t have to do it if Skye found a buyer first. Either way, she could go back to focusing on Skye’s the Limit—what she said she’d rather do.

And it would get Jared off her back.

Diehl told himself he would never again ask Skye if she would consider moving to Atlanta. She was happy partly because she was where she needed to be. If he persuaded her to leave the islands and the coast, she might lose her happiness.

Or could she?

Still, it was a big sacrifice to expect her to make.

Perhaps she didn’t have to do that if he made the sacrifice instead.

Diehl tried to keep his feelings in check, but he knew that he’d do whatever necessary to be with Skye, even giving up two-thirds of the company to his sister-in-law.

Was this true love?

Whether it was or not, it made sense to him.

He recalled something similar that Brinley had done a few years before. She lost interest in the corporate world and wanted to manage only Brooks Renovations, restoring historical properties on the Georgia coast. Even though the work was arduously long-term and the profits were nothing like the other Brooks subsidiaries, Brinley was happy.

I want to be happy too.

But not at Dad’s expense. Diehl would rather sell parts of the family business than to put Dad back to work again twenty-four-seven, knowing that was what Dad would do at the office.

Somehow Parker and Diehl had inherited the gene of workaholism.

It could kill them all.

Parker had coped by drinking his stress away, something that he had passed on to his brother.

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