“And,” Ava said, “the pregnancy was difficult, very touch and go. The doctor said I might lose it. If I came there and told you I was pregnant, and then I lost it? I kept thinking about how that would affect you.” She sighed, rubbed her face. “I thought breaking it off, it would hurt, yes—God knows I knew it would hurt you, because it destroyed me. I don’t expect you to believe that, given what I did, but my thinking was, if I broke it off, then you could hate me, and I thought hating me would make things easier for you.”

“And you.”

“Maybe.”

“No, not maybe,” Sebastian said, some steel finding his voice. “You got engaged pretty quickly.”

“I did.”

“Accident or planned?”

“A bit of both. I met Charles when I was out with a few of my girlfriends. Charles was nice. A gentleman. He was stable, and he had a good job, and he was and still is a very kind man. And when he took an interest in me, I felt . . . it was like I had an opportunity to have a huge burden lifted from me. I wouldn’t have to raise the baby alone. We wouldn’t be poor. I felt relieved—and grateful. I don’t regret my choice.”

That was the thing he loved the most—and hated the most—about Ava, her ability to never look back, because the past was the past, and the future was the future, and there was no point in discussing either, because the only thing life guaranteed you was the present.

“Charles,” Sebastian said. “He knows Grace isn’t his.”

Ava nodded.

“But he doesn’t know about me,” Sebastian said.

“No. I never told him who the father was. I wanted to keep that— I know this isn’t going to make sense, and I don’t expect you to believe me, but not telling him—not telling anyone—that was my way of holding on to you. To keep a part of you to myself.” Ava swallowed. Rubbed at her face, swallowed again. “I’m not doing a good job explaining this.”

“Grace?” Sebastian asked, his voice pinched tight. “Does she know the truth?”

Sebastian saw her pained look and knew the answer.

He said, “And you’re telling me this now . . . why? To give me an incentive to give you money to help find her, in case I turned you down?”

Ava shot him a look that said he was above such pettiness.

She said, “You mentioned earlier that the police focus their investigations on the families. They’re going to find out Charlie isn’t Grace’s biological father. They’re going to ask me questions. If I tell them about you, they’re going to come here and ask you questions. Given your . . . background, they might make your life a living hell. That didn’t seem fair, or right. And you deserved to hear the truth from me, not them. That’s why I came. To tell you the truth. I don’t want your money.”