She thought it might take some time to get a response. For all she knew, he didn’t even have his phone with him. He left it at the house a lot; he had little need of it out on the farm. That was how Rachel had contacted her so often. But he surprised her when he messaged right away.

How would I do that? First of all, I don’t know where you are. I’ve heard Rachel say the name of the place, but it has no meaning to me. It’s somewhere in California. That’s all I know. And even if I wanted to contact a paparazzi person, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t know where to look for one.

A paparazzi person. She chuckled because his gaffe actually lent him some credibility.

But you’re the only one with the desire to hurt me, she wrote.

I won’t lie. I don’t appreciate the worldly influence you’ve had on my wife. It’s hard not to hold that against you. But I would never try to hurt anyone. I’m a pacifist. All Mennonites are pacifists. The Bible teaches against that kind of evil. Or have you forgotten?

She could feel the umbrage in that response. She’d accused him of something he considered beneath him, and maybe it was. Perhaps she thought worse of him than he deserved. After all, he was a product of how he’d been raised and what he’d been taught. In the Mennonite world, the man was the head of the house, and his word was law. The woman was supposed to support him and obey him as her master. No matter how that clashed with her modern principles, she’d been part of the community once. She understood how strongly they believed the patriarchal system to be ordained by God.

Do you have any idea how the paparazzi found me?

Come on, Tia. You know what it’s like here. We don’t take our problems to outsiders. We handle everything among ourselves.

That was true. And as she’d realized last night, if Kouretas knew about her background, he would’ve said something. He was the type of person to strike back.

Then I owe you an apology, she wrote to Abram.

You owe Rachel and your parents one, too, he wrote back.

She didn’t believe that was true. She’d never meant to hurt any of them—and with Rachel she’d only been trying to help. For what? she wrote. All I’ve ever done is live my life according to my own conscience.

When she didn’t get anything back from him, she thought that was the end of the conversation. But just as she was climbing out of bed, she felt her phone vibrate.

You’ll never come back here—not to stay—will you?