Somehow, my arm found its way around Bella, like human contact was my native language instead of one I’d struggled with for years. “She’s fine,” I said. “A scratch on her leg, but no other noticeable injuries. I found her farther upriver—a mile or two. I think she was waiting.”

For you. I couldn’t say those words to Cady—not in front of an audience.

“Any sign of her kidnapper?” Mac drew my attention from Cady.

I shook my head. “I tried to radio for help. I thought it went through, but I couldn’t get a clear response, so I decided to bring Bella in myself.”

One of the rangers took out a first aid kit. Another had a blanket to wrap around Bella’s shoulders, but when they stepped forward, the little girl stepped back.

“She just wants to go home,” I said, wishing I couldn’t hear an echo of that desire, an ache in my own tone. “She wants her family.”

Cady stood, bringing her face from Bella’s eye level to mine. “Are you okay?”

Finding Bella was supposed to fix whatever had broken inside me. It was supposed to give me the magical ability to step back and see that Cady and Jude had only ever tried to protect me. It was supposed to tell me how to fix things with Free.

It was supposed to make me worthy and good and whole.

“I’m fine,” I said, but what I was thinking was, You lied to me my whole life. Worse than that, I was thinking that the reason Cady had lied was that she thought I couldn’t handle the truth—and she was right.

Cady knew I wasn’t strong enough. She knew the only way I could ever be normal was to pretend.

Cady tucked a strand of stray hair gently behind my right ear, and then she looked down at Bella. “Let’s get you girls home.”

Chapter 49

Bella sat next to me on the ride to the sheriff’s office. She didn’t say a word. Even once we’d arrived, and a pair of FBI agents came in with a child advocate, she refused to answer their questions—about where she’d been, about the person who’d taken her.

They thought she was traumatized. They let me stay because Bella had attached herself firmly to my side, and they let Cady stay because she was my guardian. What no one but me realized was that Bella wasn’t keeping quiet because of trauma. I’d tried to tell the FBI what Bella had told me, I’d tried to make them listen, but each time someone spoke over me, the words got a little harder to find.