Page 2 of Sing with Me

So many years and two kids later, they were done with each other. They went through a bitter divorce and custody battle. Isobel’s lawyer dragged their family dirt all over court. She had recorded everything he had ever said about Brooks Investments and the transactions and mergers, and threatened to make them public.

Diehl had told her what he did because he wanted her to see how hard he worked to provide for the family, his billions in inheritance from Grandpa Brooks notwithstanding. He still put in effort to keep the money in the family.

It was all for the future of their children, he had told her.

She didn’t care, did she?

All Isobel wanted was to be free.

Their prenuptial agreement had all sorts of clauses in it, and at the end of the day, Isobel won. Diehl bought her a cliff house in Positano and another in Sorrento, as if one wasn’t enough.

And he bought her an Aston Martin Valkyrie.

And the Huayra.

Yep, Isobel liked her fast cars. And one took her over the cliff.

Flap! Flap!

“Go!” Diehl yelled at the sparrow. “Go already! I told you to fly out on your own, stupid bird!”

He watched the sparrow. Maybe it was afraid of something.

Somewhere at the back of his mind, a Bible verse wanted to pop up. But he had been away from the church for so long that he couldn’t remember much. Still, surely there was a verse about sparrows.

He felt an urge to google the verse, but he didn’t. He had left his Bible in Atlanta, but truth be told, he hadn’t opened that Bible in years. He had kept it only because Grandpa Brooks had gifted it to him when he graduated from high school twenty years ago. It was one of the precious things that reminded him of Grandpa.

Like this entire island. Whenever he was here, he felt an urge to change his life, be a better person, improve his perspective, and seek a higher learning.

And return to God?

Perhaps.

Brinley expected him to go to church with her family. Maybe he would. Maybe not.

Diehl had rarely been back to the small hundred-year-old church by the sea since Grandpa Brooks passed away. He could recall the two times he went to Seaside Chapel in the last twenty years. Once was for the wedding of his now-deceased older brother, Parker. The second time, it was for Parker’s funeral. How ridiculous it was for Parker to drown in a boating accident at sea, leaving behind a loving wife and two kids.

Same as him.

Diehl made himself a mental note to call his sister-in-law. Maybe Riley had some tips for him on parenting two kids after losing a spouse. What was the probability of both of them being widowed within ten years of each other?

Diehl had always liked Riley. She still had shares of Brooks Investments—whatever Parker left for her. But Riley never went to the Brooks building in downtown Atlanta. In fact, she rarely left her house, as far as Diehl knew.

At least Diehl made himself carry on and work after…after…

Why had God allowed this to happen?

Why?

Flap! Flap!

Diehl sighed. “I’m sorry, little sparrow. You’re not a stupid bird.”

Diehl crawled out of bed. He could see now that the whitewashed room with a few mirrors here and there to make the space look bigger, the curtains that framed the French doors, and whatever else Brinley put in the room, had confused the poor bird.

“Come here!” He said softly to the sparrow as he padded to the French doors. “Showing you the exit.”

The bird flew in circles and then out to freedom.

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