He stood listening to the pounding of his heart and realized he could no longer hear Finnegan Amherst sinking the metal pipes. Glancing at the sky, he saw nothing but blue sky. Not a cloud in sight. “Dulcie—”

“It makes sense now, doesn’t it,” she said with a bitter laugh. “Me inheriting the property. I knew there had to be a connection, but I never dreamed...”

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way. John told me that Laura wore a locket around her neck with your picture in it. She would never take it off. He said losing you broke her heart.”

Dulcie’s eyes welled with tears. She quickly turned away.

He started to go to her, but stopped himself, giving her the space he knew she needed. “John said Laura feared they would come back for Angel as well. He thinks it was the reason she wanted to remarry, but only someone she could love as much as your father. I’m so sorry you had to find out this way.”

“So they left Angel and then Laura was murdered and Angel...” She turned around. “What happened to Angel?”

“She died, Dulcie. You were the child everyone was trying to protect.”

Dulcie shook her head. “That can’t be right.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to go.”

“Go? Dulcie—”

“I’ll be all right.” She stepped to him to lay her palm against his cheek. “Thank you for telling me. I know how hard it was for you. I knew it was going to be something like this. I thought I must be Angel...” She shook her head and turned to go down the porch steps as if she had somewhere she had to get in a hurry.

Russell wanted to call her back, afraid for her.

She stopped at her car, looked back at him and smiled. “I want to ride a horse before I leave Montana. Promise?”

He nodded as she ducked into her car and stood watching her go, telling himself she needed time alone to digest all of this.

But as he watched her drive off, he knew that nothing would stop her from looking for the killer now.

Dulcie told herself that nothing had changed. She was still the same person she’d believed herself to be all these years. But she was lying—just as everyone had lied to her.

She didn’t know who she was, wasn’t sure she could get past this. Her entire life had been built on the facade of a solid foundation that had now crumbled to dust and she felt herself sinking into the mire of lies.

Her mind whirled as she drove. A mother and father she’d never known. Her parents...grandparents, the two people she trusted the most. She could see their faces, the worry in them from the time she could remember. So much older than all her classmates’ parents.