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That strange sense of foreboding that Nova hadn’t been able to shake yesterday when she met the woman from the AAG rose back up in her chest, a sort of clawing panic she couldn’t define. Was it really possible that was where her father had actually come from? Worse, was it possible that the AAG “lifestyle” and those people were a part of her heritage? Part of who she was?
Was that why she had reacted so badly?
Yes, that young woman had given her the creeps. But Nova’s reaction had been wholly disproportionate to the actual conversation. Even as she had known that, she had just felt so odd, staring up at that billboard and then speaking to the woman who acted as if she was in a cult.
“What did you find out?”
“Santiago and I posed as a couple going up there for counseling. Our intention was to see what we could find out.”
“Why do you think Micheline is connected to Ace?” Nikolas asked.
“The police have traced it back. She used to go by the name Luella Smith. Up until forty years ago,” Ainsley added. “She was a nurse in the hospital the night Ace was born. A nurse who was also pregnant at the same time and disappeared days after both Ace and her own baby were born.”
The shock at the news that her father was possibly related to the AAG founder was hard enough. But if she had been pregnant, too, what was the possible motive for making a switch? “But why would she do that? If she had her own baby, why would she give it away for another?”
Although it would be hard to process the story under any circumstance, being pregnant added a dimension that made it even harder to fathom the shocking news. “I mean, what you’re talking about is crazy. This woman had a baby of her own and then switched them? Why?”
As a recent mother, Marlowe obviously understood her distress and came around the table to sit beside her. “Nothing about it makes any sense. But we can only assume Luella or Micheline or whatever we want to call her had some sick, twisted reason to switch her baby with a Colton.”
“It really doesn’t end, does it?” Nova asked the question in a daze, the calloused cruelty of the idea cutting through her like a sharp knife. Was it really possible? If Ace was her biological father and Micheline was his biological mother, then that made that woman her grandmother. A woman who’d switched her own child at birth.
The realizations speared her, one after the other, one wound worse than the next.
What was she really a part of? And what sort of awful DNA was her child inheriting? A criminal father and a psycho grandmother.
“Nova?” Marlowe asked, her voice gentle. “Are you all right?”
Was she all right? “I can’t believe it. Any of it. The layers of betrayal. The ripple effects of such a long-ago act.”
Just as he had before dinner, when he had shared his sport coat, Nikolas reached for her again. “If you’d like to leave, I can take you home.”
“What home? I came to Mustang Valley thinking I would find one, but all I’m finding is lies.”
Nova fought at the tears that welled up and dashed them away. She would not cry. Not in the face of so much kindness. So much caring that these people had shown her.
But she also questioned how she could stay.
“I know this is hard to process. We’ve had some time and we’re still struggling with it,” Ainsley said from across the table, the concern written on her face as clear as the compassion that practically rolled off Marlowe in waves. “But you do have a home here. With us.”
“I appreciate that more than I can say. Truly I do. But none of you know what I’m running from.”
“Why don’t you tell us then? We’ll listen. We’re here for you.”
Nova let Ainsley’s words wash over her before turning to Nikolas. She didn’t need to say a word because he already knew the question. In the quiet nod of his head, she understood what she needed to do.
She would never be free of her life in New York—would never find a way to set her child free of it, either—if she didn’t trust these people.
Shifting her gaze from Nikolas, Nova looked around the table. At Marlowe beside her and her fiancé, Bowie, where he sat in solidarity across the table. Then on to Santiago and the kind understanding in his green eyes. And then on to Ainsley, the eager welcome she’d greeted her with at the door still there, only now it was layered with compassion and understanding.
How could she stand up to so much understanding and acceptance?
And suddenly, Nova realized it was pointless to try.
With a final nod back to Nikolas, she took a deep breath.
“I guess it’s time to tell you all, then. I have a story of my own.”
Chapter 13
