Page 114 of The Secrets She Keeps

“Which I found particularly painful, to be honest. I had lost a daughter around their age less than a year and a half earlier. And therethreeof them were,” Norm said, cupping Hope’s head and kissing her on the forehead quickly. “You three about drove me insane back then. For a multitude of reasons. I wasn’t going to leave you girls to face the world alone. Any of you. I walked in and found my…home. Just like that.”

“But you did leave,” Marcia told him. “You ran like your pants were on fire. I still haven’t quite forgiven you for that, Norman Jonathan Halson.”

“Hey, I came back,” Norm said. “And never left you again.”

“Six months later,” Bonnie said. “Ihad to get her through the morning sickness myself.”

“You have never let me forget it.” He reached out, ruffled his daughter’s hair. Megan just grinned at her father.

“Other than a few mentions through the years, usually around the time the checks arrived, we didn’t really talk about Timothy after that. At leastweas a family didn’t,” Bonnie added.

“We did. Eden and I did. And we told Summer,” Samia said, holding Miguel’s baby close. Gunnar could see the resemblance between Samia and Emilia now—the shape of their heads, chins, noses. The hairline. That was Grundenman’s baby. He’d bet on it. “Occasionally. Especially when Sum had questions later. I always felt a little bad that wedidn’twant to go with him when he called. But we had friends here, and all of you, and after losing mom and…”

“He pulled away from us while she was sick. He’d get so angry. And it would be scary. Trey was lashing out at us constantly too. Especially Summer, who was so little. We wanted to be with the rest of our family where we felt safe,” Eden added. “At peace; moving forward.”

“I’m sure he probably saw that as a betrayal. But is that strong enough incentive to go after Heather eighteen years later?” Gunnar asked. “Something more is going on here. But what?”

“I think that is something you are going to have to ask my father,” Samia said quietly. She shot Gunnar a look from big, dark eyes. She reminded him of Powell in so many ways. “Apparently, he’s been around here or something. That’s complete news to us.”

“He has to know we are all living here, too,” Eden said. “We haven’t spoken to him since Summer graduated from high school at sixteen. So…eleven years? As far as I know, he doesn’t even know about Iagan. Has he really been holding a grudge against Heather this long? She was just a kid.”

“I was there that day, too,” Samia pointed out. “Marcia was the only adult. He attacked her, and then Norm came out ofnowhere and beat him up—shouldn’t he be angrier at Norm and Marcia?”

“Human motivations can be convoluted,” Miguel said. “He could have just fixated on Heather.”

The Colesons—except Heather—all groaned at that.

“Gee. A man fixating onHeather,” Hope said. “Like that hasn’t ever happened before. How many fixated-on-Heather dudes are we up to now, ladies?”

“What?” Mac asked.

“We are keeping count of the guys who get fixated on Auntie Heather,” Crispin said seriously. “I may need to start a new page soon at this rate.”

“Are we up to triple digits yet?” Cashlyn asked equally as seriously.

Gunnar really hoped they were joking.

“Ha-ha,” Heather said and winced. “Everyone is so funny in this family.”

They talked for another half hour or so. Gunnar was trying to make it make sense, but he couldn’t. Not yet.

“Our next step is finding Grundenman and getting our answers,” Gunnar finally said. Powell was practically wilting against him. He shifted her, pulled her closer. He dropped a kiss on her hair without thinking about it. No one in the room even blinked.

“Probably a good place to start,” Zoey said quietly. “For now, I think we’ve overstayed our welcome.”

“Zoey, you are always welcome here. No matter what,” Bonnie told her, equally as quietly. “You, Penelope, the kids. Please, come by any time.”

“They are all asleep,” Cara said quietly. “Heather probably needs to sleep for a long time to get better, right?”

Gunnar looked at the couch. Hope and Heather were sound asleep, slumped toward each other now.

“Something like that,” Cashlyn said. “It wouldn’t hurt Hope either. I don’t think she’s slept much in a few days. None of us really have.”

There was so much pain in that demon girl’s voice ithurtGunnar to hear it. This family had been through enough.

“We have her back,” Eden said. “We’ll focus on that for now. No matter what Timothy is involved in. We have Heather back.”

“That’s what matters most. Powell and Heather are safe,” Samia added. She cuddled Miguel’s toddler closer. The baby had been cruising from person to person for half an hour, just babbling and beautiful. “Should we leave them here? I’m worried that as much as Hope squirms in her sleep?—”

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