‘What?’ Beth jumped to her feet.
Flo jolted, her frail hand flapping over her chest in fright, and Beth immediately regretted her outburst.
She pressed her lips together and sighed. ‘I’m sorry. I’m only trying to understand. Are you saying that my parents grew up here, too? In this town?’
‘Please, sit. You’re making me nervous.’
Beth complied, though she was ready to leap out of her skin.
‘Your mother didn’t grow up here, she was only in town for a short time,’ Flo explained, ‘but your father did. He was born and raised in Karlup.’ She paused, then added, ‘As were his parents and Pru, and their parents before them.’
Suddenly dizzy, Beth fell back in her seat and squeezed her eyes shut.Threegenerations? Her father, her grandparents and her great-grandparents—they’d all been born here. They’d lived and apparently thrived here. Her great-grandmother’s roses now grew in the garden across the street.
But there was something else …
She angled her body towards Flo. ‘Why did Pru want you to wait for me to ask about her, about my family?’
Flo smiled kindly. ‘As I was about to say earlier, if your parents had chosen to raise you here, the decision to stay or leave would’ve been yours in adulthood. By giving you the house and stipulating that you had to spend time here, Pru believed she was giving you that opportunity—the opportunity you should’ve had all along. She only wanted you to choose freely, without being influenced by anyone or anything.’
Seriously? Beth had heard enough. Pru had wanted her tochoose freely, yet she’d forced her to choose between the life she’d been living and claiming a life-changing inheritance. How was that giving her any sort of freedom?
This was all too much. She’d started this conversation in the hope of getting answers, but now she had even more questions than before and felt as if her head would explode.
She needed time. Time to process everything she’d just heard. Time to figure out what more she wanted—no,neededto know. Time to come to terms with the fact that Flo had been withholding this information from her, essentially telling her more lies.
Abandoning her barely touched cup of tea, Beth got to her feet again. ‘I’m sorry, Flo. I … I just need to think.’
And she fled, needing to be alone as desperately as she needed air to breathe.
* * *
Sitting in her car outside the B&B, Beth cried, though she barely knew why. There were simply too many reasons to count.
Flo had lied to her and Pru had manipulated her. Her father had grown up in this town and no one had thought to tell her until now.
Choking on her anguish, she let her tears fall. She’d never felt as alone as she did right now. She’d been lulled into a false sense of security. For god’s sake, she’d started to believe that she was making connections, developing friendships, but today’s discovery proved that she was completely and utterly alone in this world.
A knock on the window startled her.
Noah looked in, concern etched deep into his brow. He put his hands up, apologising for scaring her, but gestured for her to open the window.
Only she couldn’t right now. She was done. Overwhelmed and completely defeated. And the thought of Noah having to deal with her brewing emotions was too much.
Covering her face with her hands, she sobbed harder.
Noah, though, clearly wouldn’t take no for an answer. He opened the door and crouched beside her. ‘Hey.’ He spoke quietly, calmly, and when he reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, his touch was soft, gentle. She only wished it was enough to soothe her.
‘I can’t!’ she sobbed. ‘I can’t do this.’
‘Can’t do what?’ He waited a beat, then added, ‘Beth, let me help.’
‘You can’t, no one can.’
‘How do you know when you haven’t let me try?’ He moved his hand to her thigh and squeezed. ‘Please, let me try.’
A request like that, spoken so evenly, was impossible to deny. Reluctantly, she lowered her hands but couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes. Hers would be puffy, her face blotchy.
Whatever Noah saw was enough to make him stand and then, weirdly, remove his shirt. He held it out to her. ‘’Fraid I don’t have any tissues on me, so this is the best I can do.’
