But Kaden shook his head. “The family reserve is good. But it’s not the honey barrels. Mom bottles those special, and she doesn’t sell them.”

Irene had a gleam in her eye. “Do you happen to know where she keeps the ones from the summer of 1997?”

Chapter 29

Addison

Addison knew she should’ve followed her family when they’d walked out of the Bonners’ dining room, but something compelled her to stay. She sat frozen at the table, heart hammering and hands cold with despair. If she’d listened to her grandmother’s warning, maybe she could’ve avoided all of this. Now her family might lose the garden completely. She pushed up from her chair, limbs heavy, mind thick with the bourbon she’d helped herself to throughout dinner.

Too bad the memory harvest had already happened—she would’ve given anything to forget this night altogether.

Sylvia reached up and clasped bony fingers around her wrist. “Wait,” she said. “Please.”

Addison didn’t have the energy to shake her off. “My grams was right. I never should’ve agreed to sell you that rosemary.”

“This is all a big misunderstanding,” Sylvia said.

River pushed back from the table as well. “I can’t keep working at the distillery if this is how your family does business.” His eyes met Addison’s. “This is wrong.”

“I hate to see you go,” Nate said. “But that’s your decision.”

“I’ll clear out my things.” Then, River was gone, too.

“I should leave,” Addison said.

“Of course.” Sylvia’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Mom—” Nate started, but she shook her head.

Addison allowed Sylvia to guide her to the front door.

As she reached for the doorknob, Sylvia placed a hand on the crook of Addison’s arm. “I must tell you that I didn’t want any of this. I’d hoped tonight’s dinner was going to be a chance to bring our families closer together, not tear them further apart.”

“My grams will never see it that way,” Addison said. Maybe her family had been right about the Bonners, but that still didn’t explain why the leaves had led her here. Over and over again.

“I’d planned to share a glass of our family reserve with all of you tonight,” Sylvia said. “It was supposed to be a way of thanking you for making this dinner happen. Will you stay long enough to have one with me now? We can make a pact—that together we will find a way to stop my son.”

“Do you even think that’s possible at this point?” Addison said.

“I’m sure the council will listen to me,” Sylvia said. “And if there really is something wrong with your family’s garden, I just know that you’ll be the one to find a way to fix it.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Addison said.