Campbell took the seat on my left. “You’re not happy to see her,” she murmured. “I get it. Believe me, I do, Sawyer. But you have to talk to your mama.”

Campbell Ames was the last person in the world I expected to be brokering parent-child reunions—especially given that she knew my mom had lied to me.

And then Campbell made her reasoning apparent. “See if she knows anything about Ana.”

There’s no logical reason to think that the Lady of the Lake is Ana Gutierrez. I got why Campbell had gone there—Ana had been pregnant with Sterling Ames’s child, and we all knew Cam’s dad wasn’t exactly a trustworthy guy. The fact that his teenage mistress had seemingly disappeared didn’t look particularly good.

But the past year had taught me to look before I leaped.

“I don’t know how Boone broke his pinkie finger!” Sadie-Grace’s perky statement snapped me back into the moment. She appeared to be addressing Boone’s mother. “I’m sure whatever he was doing at the time, it was totally PG.”

“Sawyer.” My mom cleared her throat. “Could I borrow you for a minute?”

Brunch was just being served. Mini muffins, mini cinnamon rolls, mini quiches, and mini cucumber sandwiches. So many tiny foods, so many reasons not to talk to my mother.

“Please.”

A flash of vulnerability crossed her face, and my chest tightened. Campbell gave me a look, and I stood. I couldn’t undo a lifetime of loving the only parent I’d ever had—and for better or worse, I couldn’t ignore her forever.

CHAPTER 15

“Well?” I said. I’d gone outside. My mom had followed. Now the two of us were standing in the backyard. The only sound, other than my question, was the tinkling of water over the infinity edge in the pool. “Why are you here?” I asked.

My mom caught my gaze and held it. “You’re not allowed to hate me.” She softened the declaration with a small, lopsided smile. “I’ve thought about it, and I’ve decided. I love you too much. You’re not allowed to hate me.”

She’d never had any trouble telling me that she loved me. Even when she was barely more than a kid herself, even when our little family was struggling—I had always known that I was loved.

“Am I allowed to be upset that you lied to me?” I asked. I didn’t want to feel like my throat had turned to sandpaper. I didn’t trust the sting in my eyes.

“You could be,” my mom offered. “You could be extremely upset with me—or you could forget about that for a minute and tell me what happened at Regal Lake.”

That brought me up short, and for a moment, I let myself really wonder if Campbell was onto something. If the body was Ana.

“You heard about the body?” I asked.