Tracey hated what she had to say next, but Diesel dealt in truths, and she’d never lie to him. “We’ll never know if he might have changed. That sucks and it hurts a lot. But what we do know is that your mother loved you enough to protect you from the heartache she’d lived through. The heartache she’d run from. She kept you safe and built a good, happy life for you. She surrounded you with people who cared about you, and it sounds like, from what you’ve told me and from the little I’ve just read, she built her world around you.”

His expression softened, and she climbed onto his lap. “I wish I could turn back time for so many reasons, but the past is like a summer storm. It’s already done its damage and spread its light. It’s become a part of us, a part that we can’t change, but we can learn from it.” She touched his jaw, feeling the tension ease as he leaned into her hand. “Want to know what I think?”

He raised his brows.

“I think you have a lot of Axel in you. Everyone says he became a great man, even after all he’d lost, and so did you. That goodness must run in the genes.”

Diesel’s arms circled her, his lips tipping up at the edges. “How do you do that, baby girl?”

“What?”

“Flip things around? Take the anger out of me and turn it into something else?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve been the one who made the big mistakes, and I thought they were for good reasons. I’m just showing you the other side of it. Something good came out of this, Diesel, but you’re too close to see it. You have family. Real, true family, here, and in Peaceful Harbor. People who have been in your life and loved you without knowing you were blood related. I know your mom hurt you by lying, and that kind of hurt may take some time to heal, but she was protecting you, and I hope you won’t let this change how you feel about her.”

“It feels like a lie, even though it wasn’t. She never said she didn’t know who my father was. She said he was someone who believed in elfin magic, and he did.” He picked up pictures from the floor beside him and handed them to her. “That’s them. See the hat? I think he bought it for her at that store behind them.”