“I don’t remember it that way,” she tried to say but Mary continued talking over her.

  “I truly believe you were hoping my baby would die, so that you wouldn’t have to live with the constant reminder of what your husband was doing to me the whole time, that you’d been stupid enough to fall for his lies when he claimed he wanted your help to kidnap a girl so you wouldn’t have to be the one to scrub the toilets in the mansion his family’s money provided you both.”

  Nora winced. “Look at me. I have nothing, no one. I’ve paid the price for what I’ve done,” she said, falling back on that argument since Mary wasn’t willing to accept her lies.

  “As far as I’m concerned, you haven’t paid nearly enough,” Mary said and whirled around so fast she nearly bumped into Laurie. “Let’s go.”

  “No, don’t go,” Nora said. “Please. Allow me to apologize. I’m sorry for what I did. Truly. You were more than a slave to me. I remember you fondly.”

  Mary could feel her fingernails cutting into her palms. “You’re lying again, Nora,” she said over her shoulder. “You just want your daughter to allow you into her life. But there’s no way you’re going to use me to accomplish that. Don’t ever contact me again.”

  Mary expected Laurie to fall in step with her, but she didn’t. She lingered behind, yelling at Nora, telling her that she’d have to answer to Laurie if she ever attempted to speak to Mary again. There was more. They were both screaming before it was over. But at some point, Mary quit listening. Her ears were ringing so loudly she couldn’t hear, anyway.

  Eventually, Laurie marched over, got behind the wheel and tore out of the drive, leaving Nora standing in her yard in the rain looking after them. “I can’t believe that just happened,” she said.

  Mary didn’t respond. She was still trying to process it herself. She was sweating and shaking and couldn’t seem to stop.

  “Mary?” Laurie said once they were well away. “Are you okay?”

  Mary nodded. “Just keep driving. Get me out of this state. I want to go home.”

  * * *

  Quinn checked his phone at every opportunity. He was hoping to hear from Autumn. They typically texted each other several times a day. Sometimes it was only a heart emoji, but he didn’t care what she sent today as long as it indicated she’d be able to forgive him at some point.

  When he didn’t hear from her, he thought she might stop by instead. Occasionally, she’d bring him a treat from another restaurant or cookies she’d baked with her kids. Or he’d take a break and walk over to the bookstore to say hello. Sometimes he’d even buy a book, just so it wasn’t quite so obvious how badly he wanted to see her.

  The bookstore was closed on Mondays, but he was tempted to go over to her house. He wanted to plead his case, convince her that he was in a difficult position and couldn’t betray her daughter’s trust any more than he could betray hers, and that he’d only agreed because he knew she would be finding out in a matter of weeks. But after what he’d been through with Sarah, he needed a relationship in which his partner was capable, as Sarah never was, of flexibility and forgiveness.

  Although he was determined not to recreate the situation he’d had with his ex-wife, it wasn’t easy to hold back. It felt ominous not to hear from her. He knew it couldn’t mean anything good. But...was it enough to break them up?

  As the day turned into night and the restaurant got busy, he tried to focus on work, but Autumn was always on his mind—her and the fact that he hadn’t received a single text or phone call from her all day.

  “What’s wrong?” his father asked once everyone else had left and they were getting ready to lock up.

  Quinn hadn’t realized his father was watching him. “Nothing,” he said, immediately improving his expression. He didn’t need to bring his father in on the fact that he and Autumn weren’t getting along. Mike would only tell Beth, and Quinn didn’t want her to hear about it.

  “You going over to see your girl?”

  Quinn pretended to be preoccupied with gathering up the towels and cleaning rags, which he took home and washed each night. “I don’t think so. She’s got something going with her kids,” he said and figured that was probably true, although he didn’t know for sure.

  “So I’ll see you at home?”

  “I’ve got a pair of shorts in my car. I’m going to throw them on and go for a run on the beach, since I didn’t get to go this morning.”

  His father paused before stepping outside. “You go to the beach whenever you’re upset,” he pointed out.

  Because he had to go somewhere. He didn’t have a lot of privacy now that he was living with his parents. “I also go there to work out,” Quinn said, “so stop worrying.”

  His father gave him a tired smile, even though it was only ten o’clock. “Okay. I’m exhausted. If you won’t be home until late, I won’t see you until tomorrow.”

  “You’ll probably beat me to the restaurant, like most days, but I’ll be here.”

  With a nod, Mike left and, once the door closed, Quinn sighed and checked his phone one last time.

  Nothing.

  “Damn it.” After wiping down the grill, he grabbed the laundry bag and went out and checked to make sure the door was locked before starting across the lot to his car.

  He didn’t see her until he was about ten feet away. Then he realized there was a tall girl leaning against his car.

  As he got closer, he could tell it was Taylor. “Hey,” he said.

  She was wearing cutoffs and a tank top with sandals and had her hair pulled into a ponytail. “Hey.”

  “How’d you get here?” He looked around, hoping to see Autumn but didn’t spot her car.

  “Sierra brought me over on the motorcycle. I told her you’d give me a ride home, if that’s okay. If not, I can call my mom. She’s just over at the bookstore, taking care of something for my grandma.”

  He used the clicker on his key fob to unlock the doors. “I can give you a ride, no problem,” he said as he tossed the laundry in his trunk.

  She got into the passenger side while he climbed behind the wheel. “Everything okay?”

  “I told my mom about the baby,” she said.

  He started the engine. “How’d that go?”

  “She took it pretty well. She’s not happy. What mother would be? But she wasn’t mean about it or anything.”

  “Does your mother ever get mean?”

  “Not really. But...this is a pretty big deal. I knew it would upset her.”

  “Fortunately, a baby isn’t the end of the world.”

  “It seems like the end of mine,” she grumbled.

  “You’ll get through it. I’m glad it’s out in the open.”

  “So am I. I just thought you should know that it’s not a secret anymore, in case Mom hasn’t already told you about it.”

  He turned down the radio that had come on when he started the car. “Actually, she did tell me, Taylor. This morning on the phone. And I admitted to her that I already knew.”

  “You did?” she asked, her eyes round.

  “I did. I kept my word to you, but I didn’t want to lie to her. Pretending not to know felt too dishonest.”

  She tucked a few stray wisps of hair behind her ears. “How’d she react?”

  “Not so well.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “She got mad?”

  “I haven’t heard from her all day, so... I don’t know what to think.”

  “I haven’t been at the house. I’ve been with Sierra, so I don’t know how she’s been feeling. I’m sorry if it’s my fault.”

  “I’m not placing any blame,” he said. “Just...wanted to be up-front with both of you.”

  She nibbled on her bottom lip while he finished navigating the last few blocks to Mary Langford’s beach house. “You really care about my mom, don’t you?” she said once he pulled into the driveway.

  He gazed up at the window over the garage. “I’m in love with her,” he said, and in that moment, he realized it was true. He didn’t care if they’d been dating only a short time. He’d fallen hard.

  Taylor’s smile was sympathetic. “Don’t worry. My mom’s not the type to stay mad for long.”

  He grinned. “Glad to hear it. Put in a good word for me,” he joked, and she surprised him by squeezing his arm before climbing out.

  “I will.”

  30

  Autumn paced the narrow aisles of the bookstore, too filled with anxiety to stand in one place. She would’ve made herself stop and get some work done while she was waiting, but there wasn’t much to do. With three of them manning the store these days, they’d been able to keep up. She’d only come here because she was looking for some privacy. The conversation she was hoping to have with her mother couldn’t be had at the house or even in the apartment over the garage, not without the risk of her children interrupting or overhearing. And she wasn’t ready to include Caden and Taylor. There were too many things she needed to learn first.

  Maybe she’d never tell them about the Skinners. Maybe her mother wouldn’t want them to know. If that was the case, Autumn could certainly understand. It was hard for rape survivors to open up and talk about what they’d been through. She could only imagine what it must be like for her mother—to be that one in a million who’d been held hostage and victimized for years.

  Not only had Mary been victimized, she’d also been impregnated by her abuser. At last, Autumn had the answers she’d been looking for where her father was concerned, but they weren’t anything she could be happy about. That was why her mother hadn’t told her. Jeff Skinner was a psychopath without empathy or regard for others, who was currently in prison. He couldn’t add anything to her life or anyone else’s.

  Everything made sense now. Why her father had never tried to track her down. Why Mary had been so vague about him. Why Mary often had trouble sleeping, refused to venture farther than a couple of hours from Sable Beach and never married or even dated.

  Mary had been a twelve-year-old girl lured into a car by a young mother—Nora Skinner—who had taken her prize home to her handsome, wealthy husband. Autumn could understand why a child would feel safe approaching a vehicle with a woman in it who was asking for directions, especially a woman like Nora Skinner. Nora hadn’t been disheveled and unkempt, strung out on drugs or driving a rattletrap car. She’d been young, well-dressed and behind the wheel of a BMW with her own daughter in the backseat. Who wouldn’t trust that?

  Unbelievable. She’d spent the past several hours reading everything she could find on her mother’s case. She’d also spent some time thinking about the various people named in those articles, and featured in the accompanying pictures, and how they fit in with what she knew—or had been told. Mary’s mother, for instance, couldn’t be Nana. Several of the articles named someone else. And yet, Laurie was most certainly connected to Nana. They looked just alike. Did that mean that Laurie wasn’t really her aunt? Chris not her uncle? Jacob not her cousin? How much of her life was a lie?

  The entire landscape of Autumn’s past had changed in an instant. So where had Mary’s real mother gone? Why hadn’t she been around after Mary had escaped the Skinners? For that matter, where were Mary’s other relatives?

  Autumn recalled the conversation she’d had, not too long ago, with Laurie when she’d asked if Laurie could offer any information on who Autumn’s father might be. What she’d learned today explained even that interaction. Laurie knew the truth, obviously. She knew but she’d kept Mary’s secret, because she was Mary’s best friend if not her true sister.

  A rattle at the back door suggested her mother was back—finally—and had received her text to come to the store.

  “There you are!” Autumn said, rushing into the back room to meet her. “What took you so long?”

  “It’s been...quite a day,” she replied and slumped into the seat at the desk.

  “Where’s Laurie?” Autumn asked, expecting her “aunt” to walk in next.

  “At home. My car was at her place, so I picked it up and drove over alone. What’s going on? Did you get hold of Oliver’s parents?”

  Her mother assumed this was about the pregnancy. That Autumn was still upset about that. And she was. But for the time being, she’d shoved that problem into the back of her mind. She needed to deal with this first. “Not yet.”

  Mary’s eyebrows slid up. “Then...what’s wrong?”

  Autumn knelt before her mother and took her hands. “I know, Mom,” she said simply.

  Mary stiffened. She even withdrew her hands. “You know what?”

  “I know who you really are, what happened to you, who my father is.”

  Her mother’s mouth fell open. “Who told you?” she asked, her voice hoarse from the shock.

  “No one, really.”

  “Then how...”

  Autumn took a few minutes to explain. She figured her mother could use the time to come to grips with the fact that the secret she’d carried for so long, and guarded so fiercely, was no longer a secret at all.

  By the time she finished, Mary sat, silent, her head bowed.

  “Mom? Aren’t you going to say anything?”

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured without looking up. “Laurie has been after me to tell you the truth for years. I probably should have. I’ve been living a lie—my whole identity was...manufactured. But I chose protection over honesty. I didn’t want you to know the truth, didn’t want you to ever question my love for you or feel as though you might be less than what you are because of who your father is. I didn’t want Taylor and Caden to be burdened with the knowledge of that, either.” A tear dropped onto her lap as she added, “I wanted to stop the poison, to suck it all up and hold it within myself so that it could never touch you or your kids.”

  It was hard to learn her mother had been living a lie. Autumn had to ask herself—would she rather have known? There were so many ramifications that it was tough to say. Certainly not when she was a child. She wasn’t sure she’d feel comfortable telling Taylor and Caden even now, and they were further removed from it than she’d been. “You know what?” she said softly.

  Her mother looked pale and drawn—and seemed somewhat resigned—as she lifted her gaze. “What?”

  “You did the right thing.”

  Mary blinked more quickly. “I did?”

  “I would’ve done the same,” she admitted and knew it was true. Learning who her father was hadn’t changed her life in any positive way. Not knowing had driven her crazy at times, but was this any better? “Why did that private investigator come to town after so long? Who sent him?”

  “He told me it was the Skinners’ daughter.”

  “The child you had to watch whenever they went out.” Autumn had read about that in one of the articles.

  “Yes. Her name was Tammy. She was the only thing that made what I went through bearable. I loved her like a little sister, and she did what she could to help me, considering she was young and vulnerable, too.”

  Like a little sister. Those words stuck out. It hadn’t escaped Autumn that Tammy would actually be her sister.

  “But it wasn’t Tammy,” her mother continued. “It was Nora.”

  Autumn rocked back. “She’s out of prison?”

  “You didn’t find anything that mentioned her release?”

  “None of the articles I came across were recent enough. They were all from back when it happened—or later, once you were free and the trial started.”

  “Doesn’t surprise me,” she said. “I’ve looked on the internet myself, periodically, and found no mention of her. But then Owens showed up in town, and I knew something had changed.”

  Autumn listened quietly as her mother told her about Owens claiming it was Tammy, the texts and phone calls she’d unknowingly had with Nora since then, and her trip to Nashville today with Laurie.

  “If Nora is living in such a dump, how’d she have the money to hire Owens?” Autumn asked.

  “I have no idea. Someone in her family must’ve helped her. That’s all I can figure.”

  “And she wanted to contact you so she could apologize?” Autumn asked, trying to imagine the day as her mother had painted it.

  “That was what she said.”

  “But that doesn’t make any sense. Surely, even she would have realized it would only make you angry to pretend to be Tammy.”

  “Not in her twisted mind. If I know her, she thought that having the opportunity to talk to me, to try to convince me of her remorse, would get me to feel sorry for her and the high price she’s paid.”

  “That’s pretty ironic. That she would try to play on your empathy when she’s never had any.”

  “That’s what psychopaths do,” Mary answered dully. “She’s hoping I’ll forgive her so that she can hold me out as a carrot to get Tammy to forgive her, too.”

  “You’re not going to—you’re not going to have anything to do with any of them, are you?”

  She sighed as she smoothed Autumn’s hair off her forehead, like she used to do when Autumn was a little girl. “Not Nora, or Jeff, who’s still in prison and will probably spend the rest of his life there. But now that you know the truth, maybe we should reach out to Tammy. She did nothing wrong. And since we know that she’s not in contact with her mother, it might be nice to see who she turned out to be. What do you think? Would you be interested in meeting your half sister?”

  Autumn blew out a lungful of air. This morning she hadn’t even known she had a sibling. “I need some time to think about that,” she said. “I’m still trying to figure everything out.”

  “I’m sorry, Autumn.”

  Autumn forced a smile. Her mother had been through enough. No matter how shocked or upset she was by the implications of what she’d learned, she would not put her mother through anything else. “It’s okay. Really. Right now all I need is answers.”