Old insecurities flared up. He remembered his ex-wife and his traitorous friend. His mind raced to the worst-case scenario: maybe her ex-husband was back, and she was hiding him out of some misplaced sense of duty. Burning with jealousy and suspicion, Steve parked his truck and followed her on foot.
He threw open the creaky door of the shed, expecting a confrontation. Instead, he froze. Sarah was sitting on a hay bale, opening cans of wet food. Around her were dozens of cats—the very ones banished from the main barns. She had quietly relocated them here to keep them safe.
Sarah looked up, startled. “What are you doing here, Steve? Did you think I was meeting someone?” She saw the look on his face and shook her head. Steve felt about two inches tall. He admitted he thought the cats had been dumped in the woods or taken to the pound.
Sarah looked disappointed. “I didn’t think you could be that heartless, Steve.” The tension broke, and Steve let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He smiled, feeling foolish but relieved. “Okay,” he said. “We can’t keep them in a shed. Let’s do this right. We’ll renovate this place, make it a proper shelter. I’ll get Mike on the construction, we’ll use company funds for feed, and we’ll set up an adoption page.”
A few months later, the “Barn Cat Sanctuary” was officially open, and volunteers were helping rehome the animals. Sarah left her other part-time jobs to run the charity arm of the business. And thirty days after that, the woman who had sworn off marriage finally said “yes.”
