“Tiff, do you know how serious the rule is about keeping the secret?”

“Mom said I could never tell anyone about anything special I could do.”

“Did she tell you that there are people who will come and kill you if you do tell anyone? Anyone at all, even your Dad?”

From the silence on the other end, I guessed Justine hadn’t been that explicit. Maybe she didn’t know it herself. She seemed pretty out of it.

“I understand,” Tiff finally said in a shaky voice.

“Okay. The good news is that I did find your mother. She’s not hurt, and she’s staying someplace I think is safe for her. The bad news is that she’s not going to be able to come home right now, and there’s no way you can visit her or speak to her.”

“Why?”

“Honey, that’s in the can’t-talk-about-it category. I’m sorry.”

“Are you with her?”

“I’m staying at the same place she is. I’ll try to see her as often as I can.” I paused. “I’m sorry I can’t give you better news. You know, I didn’t find out about the special stuff until just the last couple weeks. It’s all new to me, and I don’t understand a lot of it. I don’t know what I can do for your Mom, but I’ll try my best to help her and keep her safe.”

Tiffany took that in. Finally she said, “Okay,” in a small voice. She sniffled, then cleared her throat. “Can I call you?”

“Absolutely. If I don’t answer when you call, leave a message telling me when I should call you back and at what number, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, sounding marginally better. “I love you, Aunt Beth. I want you to come home.”

“Oh, sweetie, I love you too, so much. I hope I’ll be able to come home soon.”

There was a big sniffle, then, “Bye.”

I set down the phone.

Damn.

I took a long, hot shower, trying to rinse away the aftertaste of having lied to and disappointed everyone I cared about.

When I was done, I put on the same clothes I’d been wearing when Williams, Kara, and Callie grabbed me at the mall, days back. The house staff had been laundering them each night, but I was getting pretty tired of them.

I opened my phone’s address book. It was programmed with numbers for all the Nolanders I knew so far, and quite a few I hadn’t met yet. I called Gwen and told her I’d like to use the afternoon to find some of the clothes on my list. She said she’d check with Cordus, and that if it was all right with him, someone would take me shopping. Half an hour later, Kara and I were on our way in a generic black sedan.