Raven looked at Jonah. His smile came off too weak to inspire confidence.

“This is your family,” her aunt said. “You need time to get to know them.”

Raven had a desperate feeling she knew well, her raven spirit wanting to fly away. But then she remembered she had no raven spirit. She felt as she had in the hotel bed, cold and sick and empty.

“Jonah has talked to a psychologist who will help you get accustomed to your new home,” Aunt Sondra said.

“You’re leaving me here?” Raven said. “You lied to me at the hotel?”

“You have a family that’s been missing you for sixteen years, and you have nowhere else to go. This is a reality I can’t change.”

“I’m never going back to Washington?”

“You’ll go back, but I don’t know when. I’ll have anything you want sent over. I promise the movers will be careful with your belongings.”

She didn’t want to cry in front of them, but she couldn’t hold it back. “This is why she didn’t like you, isn’t it? You lied to her and bullied her and never did what she wanted. No wonder she didn’t trust you!”

She saw guilt glaze her aunt’s eyes.

“I bet you’re lying about leaving her body where she wanted it. I bet you already had police look for it!”

“I haven’t,” her aunt said.

“Not yet. But you’ll do it when you go back there. You’ll leave me here and ignore everything she asked in her letter. She wanted me to live there. With her spirit. She wanted me to have a guardian and stay on that land.”

Her aunt looked at Jonah, pleading for help.

“Raven,” he said, “what Audrey Lind wanted for you is based on a lie. She took you from us. All these years, you were supposed to be here.”

“I’m glad I wasn’t!” Raven said. “Who would want to live in this family?”

“Ha!” River said, holding up his glass to toast her.

Everyone ignored him.

“I’m sorry you don’t like it here,” Jonah said. “That’s completely understandable when you’re used to another way of living. But I can tell you’re a strong person who will get through this rough time. Your aunt knows that, too. The psychologist you’ll see is very good. What you’ve been through is her specialty.”

“What I’ve been through? What I’ve been through is my life. You’re trying to take away my whole life!”

He and Aunt Sondra had no reply. Raven could see by the grim looks on their faces that they would not allow her to return to Washington. But she couldn’t live with these odd people in this ugly house in the suburbs.

She turned to River. “Where is Ellis?”

He glanced at his father but said nothing.

“I know you know where she is. Tell me.”

Jonah said, “When she left, she made me sign a legal document that said I wouldn’t try to find her or contact her.”

“Why?” Raven asked.

“Because she was a very disturbed person,” Gram Bauhammer said. “She left you in a parking lot—that was why you were stolen. Has anyone told you that yet? Then she left her sons and never spoke to them again. Believe me when I say you want nothing to do with that woman.”

Jasper and River looked upset by her harsh words.

“Ellis Rosa Abbey lives in Florida,” River said abruptly. “She owns a business called Wild Wood Natives.”

“How do you know that?” Jonah asked.

“Well, Dad, it’s this thing called the internet.” He laughed at his father’s fury. “What, are you pissed that I found out for free? How much did you spend on private detectives to find her?”

“You knew where Mom was and never told me?” Jasper said.

“Dude, internet,” River said.

“I didn’t know her name to look her up,” Jasper said.

“And why is that?” River said. “Why didn’t we even know her name? Why did I have to dig through Dad’s papers in secret to find it? What bullshit is that?”

“She specified that she didn’t want contact,” Jonah said. “I was honoring her wishes.”

“But you knew?” Jasper asked his father. “Even those times I asked?”

Jonah looked haggard. “I didn’t at first. She completely disappeared for a long time. As River says, I had a private detective try to find her. Because I was afraid for her. You may not remember how she was when she left . . .”

“I do, and good riddance,” Gram Bauhammer muttered.

“Enough, Mom!” Jonah said. He said to Jasper, “When she bought property and started a business, she showed up in public records again.”

Raven didn’t like the constant tension and anger she felt in these people. She couldn’t live with them. And she had no interest in being with Aunt Sondra, who had caused so much pain in Mama’s life. Her only hope for an acceptable living situation was Ellis. A slim hope but better than none.

“I want to talk to Ellis,” Raven said.

“I can’t contact her to arrange that,” Jonah said. “Though I’m bound by my agreement to leave her alone, I’ve tried in recent years. I have a financial matter to discuss with her. But she has no email and doesn’t answer calls to the phone listed for her business. I tried sending something through the mail and never heard back.”