Page 139 of Cole

“Nature versus nurture,” Kiara mused. “Seems some things are just in the DNA.”

Her father set down his coffee cup. “Angela, I hope you understand that we never stopped looking for you. Not for a single day.”

The raw emotion in his voice silenced the room. Angela’s fingers twisted together in her lap.

“Jude explained some of what happened,” she said softly. “It’s still hard to process. All these years thinking I was someone else…”

“You’re still you,” Kiara said firmly. “Nothing changes who you are.”

Angela gave the other woman an affectionate smile. They clearly shared a bond as sisters, blood or not.

As the others engaged in careful conversation—Julian asking about Kentucky, Benji curious about the bakery where Angela worked—Annie found herself studying her twin.

The similarities were undeniable: the shape of their eyes, the curve of their mouths, the way they both tucked hair behind their ears when nervous.

Yet there were subtle differences too. Angela’s posture was slightly more relaxed, her smile quicker to form, her movements less measured than Annie’s carefully controlled ones.

“Would you tell us about your life?” Elizabeth asked gently. “Whatever you’re comfortable sharing.”

Angela looked at Kiara, who gave an encouraging nod.

“We lived on a homestead outside a small town in Kentucky,” Angela began. “It was… simple. Sandra homeschooled us for all our school years. Kiara is four years older than me.” She smiled at her sister. “She’s always looked out for me.”

“That’s what big sisters do,” Kiara said, bumping Angela’s shoulder affectionately.

“How did you come to be part of the family, Kiara?” her dad asked.

“They took me in when I was eight,” she said. “Jim said my parents couldn’t afford to raise me, so they offered to take mein. I’m not sure that I was legally adopted, to be honest. But I’ve never been able to find my parents.”

“Perhaps we can help you with that,” her dad offered.

“Actually, I remember my life before I ended up at Jim and Sandra’s, and it’s nothing I want to revisit.”

“So, life with them was better?”

Kiara and Angela exchanged another look. “In some ways.”

The cryptic answer had her dad looking at Jude again.

When a heavy silence fell over the room, Elizabeth once again stepped in to fill it. “Why don’t we show you to your rooms? Maybe you’d like to have some time to yourselves.”

Relief spread across Angela’s face. “That would be nice, actually.”

Everyone stood as they did, but only Annie and Elizabeth left the room with Angela and Kiara.

Once they’d settled them in their rooms, Annie made her excuses and left to go home. Elizabeth tried to get her to stay and talk, but that was the last thing Annie wanted to do.

Her level of excitement didn’t match anyone else’s, and she just needed some time to regroup and prepare for the next time they would interact. It didn’t feel like it was going to get easier to do, and she felt a huge amount of guilt over that.

~*~

Cole drove his car to the airport, where he’d rented a private plane to fly him to Serenity. He’d left straight from the arena where they’d played a rare Saturday afternoon game, following their return home from the three game road trip.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to be back for practice until Tuesday. He was going to make the most of those two days offbecause he absolutely had to see Annie. Something was going on, but he couldn’t seem to pin her down on it.

Every conversation they had, she told him she was fine. Her family was fine. Everything was fine. But the circles under her eyes were getting more pronounced, and she actually looked like she’d lost a bit of weight, which was concerning since she didn’t really have any to spare.

He’d talked with Duncan about how things were going, and he also said that things were going good. That Angela and her sister were fitting in well. They still hadn’t determined what their future might be, but they seemed open to staying in the area.

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