“His name was David. He was a mechanic. He could fix pretty much anything.” But that wasn’t who he was to Ashley. To her he was the man who taught her to change a tire and grow tomatoes in the backyard. He’d been obsessed with the outdoors and taken her hiking every weekend. They’d hiked long distances, and she’d sometimes struggled to keep up with him. Whenever she thought she couldn’t do something he’d pushed her harder. “Don’t you quit, Ashley Blake,” he’d yelled when she’d sat down on the edge of the trail, too tired to carry on. “Don’t you ever give up. Even if your feet are tired and your legs are aching, you keep going. One step at a time.” She wondered now if he’d really been talking about hiking or if he’d been showing her a way forward through the tough parts of life.

One step at a time.

He’d also taught her to always tell the truth, and never borrow money.

What he hadn’t taught her was what to do when her back was against the wall. What happened to morality when you were desperate? What would he say if he could see her now? If he’d seen her climbing into the car with Cliff?

I’m sorry, Dad.

“Do you have any other family?”

“No.” So that was it. Joanna wanted to get rid of her. “Don’t worry. As soon as I can, I’ll be out of your hair.”

“You shouldn’t rush anywhere. Let the interest in you die down.”

Would that happen?

“I still don’t know how those photographers found out I was pregnant. Do you think they’ll come here?”

Joanna slid a bookmark into the book and closed it carefully. “Almost certainly,” she said. “But hopefully it will take them a little while to figure out where you are.”

Because the last place anyone would look for her was with Joanna Whitman.

“So you grew up here, and then you built this amazing place, but you never came back until now?”

“That’s right.”

“If I owned it, I’d never leave.” She tilted her head and felt the hot sun on her face. “All you can hear is the sea and the birds. And it’s private. From the road, you wouldn’t even guess there was a beach house here.”

She’d never been to a place like this before. It was as if they were removed from the world outside, which, given everything that had happened, was a good thing.

She should have felt relaxed, but she wasn’t. There were too many issues unresolved, too many problems and no solutions. And the biggest mystery of all was Joanna herself.