Page 109 of 15 Summers Later

“I think it’s time you tell Madi the truth.”

Ava set down her lemonade glass, pearled with condensation. “What truth? The baby? She knows all about that.”

Madi seemed excited about Ava’s pregnancy. She called the baby the Squiglet and talked about how she intended to be the fun aunt, even from long distance.

Their own relationship might be forever damaged because ofGhost Lake, but Ava held on to hope that at least they would be able to salvage something for the sake of her child.

“I’m not talking about the baby,” her grandmother said, a thread of impatience in her voice. “I think you should tell her that you’re the anonymous donor that helped her establish the animal rescue.”

Shock slammed into her like an avalanche roaring off the mountain. “I’m... What?”

Leona gave her an impatient look. “Contrary to popular belief, I’m not stupid. I also don’t believe in coincidences.” She shrugged. “You happen to get what I can only assume was a fairly healthy advance from your publisher for a book none of us knew you were even writing, and a short time later, Madi suddenly receives an anonymous donation to the animal rescue foundation, one large enough to make all her dreams come true. I’m smart enough to put two and two together.”

Ava inhaled sharply, trying to settle the panic that suddenly tasted like bile. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?” Leona studied her with eyes that seemed to see entirely too much.

“Yes! I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Leona sighed and reached for Ava’s hand. “I’m talking about a woman who loves her sister, who has spent fifteen years trying to take care of her, even when that sister continually insists she doesn’t need help from anyone. You should tell her.”

Ava could feel her fingers tremble inside her grandmother’s hand. Her emotions, always close to the surface these days, spilled over.

She couldn’t lie to her grandmother. What would be the point? Leona could always see right through her, anyway.

She gripped her grandmother’s hand. “I can’t tell her. And you can’t, either. Promise me.”

“Why?”

She squeezed those fingers that could ruthlessly yank weeds and deftly arrange flowers with the same inherent grace. “Madi already believes I think she’s incompetent because of her traumatic brain injury. She will be furious if she finds out I was her angel investor. I’m sure she will take that as further proof that I don’t believe she can do anything on her own.”

“Not if you explain you did it out of love.”

Ava was quite certain that nothing she said or did would convince her sister that her motives were anything but presumptive and dictatorial.

“Madi’s dream of an animal rescue is the reason you agreed to publish the book, isn’t it?”

She thought about denying it but knew there was no point.

“Not the only reason. But yes. A big part of it. I wanted to be able to help her. She’s my baby sister. I love her and want her to be happy.”

“You should tell her,” Leona said again. “She deserves to know the truth. You might think you’re protecting her. But which of you are you really protecting?”

Ava thought of all the harm she had caused by keeping secrets. She hadn’t told Cullen the truth about everything that had happened to them at Ghost Lake. He was the man she loved and trusted more than any other in her life, yet she had kept that part of herself and her history separate. It was purely for self-protection, because she had feared that if he knew the truth, he wouldn’t see her the same way. He would see her as damaged, scarred forever by all that had happened to her.

The same way she looked at Madi.

Ava scrubbed a hand over her face as the enormity of the realization sunk in. After Madi had been shot, Ava treated her as a victim. As she had watched her sister’s long road to recovery, all those hours of physical therapy, occupational therapy, she had come to consider Madi someone who needed to be protected at all costs.

Of course their relationship had suffered in the years since. Because they weren’t equals in her mind. She had survived and moved on while Madi would be forever scarred.

They were both victims.

Madi might have scars on the outside. The brace she wore on her leg, her hand that didn’t work as she might want.

Ava’s scars were all internal. She didn’t trust. She didn’t confide in others. She always protected part of herself to make sure she was never vulnerable again, as she had been at Ghost Lake.

“Tell her,” Leona said now, her eyes determined and wise. Ava knew her grandmother was right, as usual.

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