She would never see him again. She was certain of it. She’d expected it to happen long ago.

“Before you leave . . . I want to tell you the rest. When she was a baby, I left her in a parking lot. I was upset because . . . well, it doesn’t matter why. I forgot her and drove away. By the time I remembered, she was gone.”

“Were you stoned?”

“That didn’t start until after it happened. Her abduction was why it happened.”

“Jesus, Ellis, this is a hell of a lot to have kept from me.”

Tears burned. “It’s worse.”

“How can it be worse?”

“I have two boys. I walked away from them. I don’t know why. I don’t know what was wrong with me. And then I couldn’t fix it. Or tell you. I’m just not right. I never have been. I always thought you’d figure that out and leave. I didn’t see the point of telling you when you’d leave soon anyway.”

“You have three children?”

She nodded, wiping her hands down her cheeks.

“All this time . . . this is why you wouldn’t have a baby with me?”

“Yes.”

“Why you refused to marry me?”

The tears fell faster.

“I moved in with you ten years ago, Ellis. Ten years. And we’ve been together longer than that.”

“I tried to warn you that first night you came here.”

“I was supposed to see all of this in those jokes you made that night? Caveat emptor?”

“That wasn’t a joke.”

“I’m the only joke in all of this. How could I have trusted you?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t you see how ridiculous it is for you to say that? I’ve wasted years on your lies!”

He got in the car and slammed the door. He drove away and disappeared into the trees.

Gravel crunched behind her. Her daughter and Sondra. Ellis wasn’t sure how much they’d heard.

“I’m sorry,” Sondra said.

I’m sorry. Keith was right. What stupid words those were. The woman’s sister had wrecked her whole life, and that was all she could say?

Ellis looked at her daughter. “Do you live with Jonah now?”

“I want to live with you.”

“Is she serious?” Ellis asked Sondra.

“She refuses to live with her father. She didn’t like it there.”

“Please let me live with you,” her daughter said.

“You have to go to your father’s.”

Again, the willful tilt of her head. “I won’t.”

“Did you hear any of that conversation? I left you in a parking lot and drove away.”

“I know,” she said.

“I left my boys.”

“I know.”

“You don’t want to be with me. I have no ability to be a mother.”

“I don’t want a mother. I have one.”

Ellis was glad her heart had been ripped out long ago. Those words would have done her in if she still had any maternal urges left.

“I thought the woman who raised you was dead?”

An odd look surfaced in her eyes. “She’s still with me in spirit.”

Sondra reacted with an uneasy stare at the girl.

“I only want to live here for a while,” the girl said. “When they let me go back to my house, I’ll leave.”

Ellis looked to Sondra for an explanation.

“My sister left the Washington house to her,” Sondra said. “But it won’t be legally hers until many issues are settled. And Jonah, as her legal guardian, doesn’t want her living alone out there at sixteen.”

“She can inherit the house when she isn’t related to your sister?”

“I could contest it, but I won’t. My sister tore apart many lives. I saw that at Jonah’s, and I see it here. I know the estate my sister left to your daughter can’t repair your lives, but it’s a start.”

The girl opened the rear door of the rental car. She slung a backpack over her shoulder and pulled out a large suitcase.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Ellis said.

“She has nowhere else to go,” Sondra said.

“What about school?”

“I talked to her school. They know the situation, and they’ll let her finish this semester remotely. She may be able to finish all of high school that way.”

Ellis gestured toward the woods around her. “Look at how isolated this place is. A teenager won’t want to live here.”

Sondra smiled slightly. “This one will. And this is the ideal place to be if her reappearance triggers a media frenzy.”

“Do you expect that?”

“I don’t know what to expect. Jonah and I plan to keep it as quiet as possible.”

“Do the police know yet?”

“Raven, Jonah, and I have spoken to detectives in New York.”

“Can I see inside the house?” the girl asked.

“Why don’t we all go inside?” Sondra said to Ellis. “I’m sure you have many questions.”

Two questions came to mind: How can you possibly do this, Ellis? How will you not damage this girl more than she already is?