Vera leaped up the stairs, then ran all the way home. She packed a single suitcase, kissed her mother’s cheek and said, “Tell Kelly goodbye for me.” Vera left the house before Nella could say a word.

Adam answered the phone at his house and listened. When Kelly came into the room, he held out the receiver to her. “It’s your mother and I can’t understand what she’s saying, but something bad has happened.”

“Tell her I’ll be there in minutes.”

Adam drove her there.

Nella was outside, waiting for them. She fell onto Kelly, crying hard. She was incoherent. Forey was standing in the doorway.

“What happened?” Adam asked.

“Miguel,” Forey said. “He...”

“What?”

“He was in bed with Gabby and Vera saw them.” Forey lowered her voice. “Vera packed a bag and left. Nella said she’s gone to Thailand.”

“Tibet,” Adam said. “Has anyone talked to Miguel?”

“No. He’s disappeared. Gabby is...” Forey looked up. “She’s very happy.”

“I bet she is.”

“I don’t understand this,” Forey said. “Miguel never liked Gabby.”

He turned to see Kelly and her mother. Nella was still crying. She left her daughter and went to Forey, and they went into the house.

“You heard?” Adam asked Kelly.

“Enough. He gave her freedom,” Kelly said. “He let her go.” There were tears running down her cheeks. “I think we just saw what true love really means.”

“Poor Vera,” Adam said.

“And poor, poor Miguel,” Kelly added. They went into the house together.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Mason, Kansas
1996

Kelly sent Vera an email.

Miguel is in a bad way. He needs you. Come home immediately.

Others might be in awe of her famous sister, but Kelly wasn’t. Eighteen months ago, something bad had happened to Miguel and his beloved daughter, Caitlyn, but no one knew what.

Whatever the reason, Caitlyn had abruptly broken up with Adam and Kelly’s oldest child, Jared.

He’d begged Cait to tell him why but she refused to even talk to him, much less see him. The next morning Caitlyn was on a plane to Florida to stay with her mother, Gabrielle. When she returned a year later, she was a different person: subdued and quiet. She didn’t go out much.

Since she returned, her home—the old clinic, as people in Mason called it—had become as quiet as a monastery. Miguel, Paul, Seth and Caitlyn ran their business, Heritage Harvests, from the building that used to be the vet office.

Miguel wined and dined clients and traveled when necessary, while Paul and Seth stayed in Kansas and took care of the trees. They’d always called Caitlyn their “satellite hub.” From an early age she’d coordinated everyone. She knew what Seth was doing in the office, what Paul was doing with the trees and where her dad was as he sold their products.