Leelo felt her mother’s legs trembling beneath her, and she sat up to find her weeping. “It’s all right,” Leelo said, sitting on the bed beside her and wrapping her mother’s thin frame in her arms. “It’s all right, Mama.”

After a few minutes, her tears subsided. “I’m sorry. I know this must be a lot for you to take in.”

“Will you tell me about him?” Leelo asked.

“About Nigel? Are you sure?”

She nodded. “He was Tate’s father. Of course I want to know about him.”

“Well, he was tall. He had dark hair and eyes, like your brother.”

Leelo smiled to herself. So much for those traits being inherited from their grandfather.

“It’s hard to remember much, to be honest. I just have those stolen moments together over one brief winter. In the end, I suppose it didn’t amount to very much time. But it felt momentous.”

“I understand,” Leelo whispered.

“He was kind,” Mama said finally. “That’s what I remember most. He wasn’t at all like I’d been told about outsiders.”

Hot tears seeped from the corners of Leelo’s eyes. “Is Tate with him?”

“I hope so, my darling. I hope so.”

Leelo believed that her mother hadn’t meant to hurt anyone by her affair, but she wasn’t sure she could understand betraying Kellan. By all accounts, he had been a good husband and father. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Did you really love my father?”

“I did. Very much.”

Leelo released her breath. “But differently than Nigel?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? Were you ashamed?”

Fiona was quiet for a long time. “Was I ashamed of my infidelity? Yes, of course. I made a vow to your father, and I broke that vow. Shame is a very powerful emotion. It eats at you like poison, killing you slowly from the inside out. But if you’re asking me if I regret it, then the answer is no. Nigel gave me Tate, and he showed me a different kind of love, the kind we choose rather than the kind we are given. I did love your father, but I don’t know how much he ever really loved me. He stood by me, even when he knew what I’d done. But sometimes I wonder if not standing by me would have meant he truly cared.”

Leelo tried to imagine marrying someone she loved as a friend. She knew that marriage provided security and companionship, but after being with Jaren, to marry for convenience would feel like a betrayal of her own heart. She realized now that she had taken it for granted that her parents had always been in love, the way most children probably did. But she didn’t actually know anything about their relationship, other than the little bit she could remember.

“You never told me how you and Father knew each other.”