Marisa shook her head. "Nobody even knew she existed. She came with nothing but a piece of paper tucked beneath her bottom that said her name was Marifer Ana Elbertina."

"Elbertina—that's her last name?" Sam asked. "Could you not find her family—?"

"That's a given name." Marisa laughed at Sam's grimace. "Not the prettiest first name in the world. And maybe it's a last name, too. I don't know. Didn't matter, though. Her family didn't want her. Probably couldn't feed her. They left her at the orphanage for a reason."

"Did you ever fear they'd come back for her?"

"It's a small village. Whoever left her wasn't from there. If she had been, we would have known, you know? Somebody's pregnant one day, not pregnant the next, and there's no child... You just know. But that didn't happen to anybody in our village. Whoever it was had probably heard of Carlita's kindness and dropped her off. I never worried her mother would come back to claim her, and even if she did"—Marisa shrugged—"she didn't really have any claim on the child, did she? At the orphanage, we have a lot of children whose parents brought them because they can't feed them. We care for the kids, make sure they go to school, but their parents are still involved. Ana's mother clearly didn't care about keeping in contact." Marisa sighed. "Truth is, I never worried, because from that first moment, Ana felt like my child. I hardly ever think about her birth parents. Now, I wonder what they'd think of me, putting their child in danger—"

"This isn't your fault." Nate leaned forward and faced her. "You didn't do this."

She wanted to believe him. Marisa had thought they were safe in Mexico. And they had been. Until Leslie had drawn her out.

She looked at Brady, who looked at the phone on the table in front of him.

Marisa stared at it, too. Willed it to ring.

A minute passed with no sounds but little Johnny's cooing.

She couldn't stand it any longer. She leaned forward. "Why haven't they called?"

"It's only been a few minutes," Brady said.

Nate wrapped his arm around her back, and she settled against him.

The clock ticked, the baby cooed, and the phone remained silent.

A hundred years passed.

And then, it rang.

Chapter 26

NATE WANTED TO HOLD Marisa close, to shield her from whatever bad news might come through that ringing telephone. But Marisa pulled away and stood.

Brady handed Johnny to Rae and snatched the phone. "Brady Thomas." A pause. "Okay."

Marisa scooted past Nate and paced in front of the breakfast bar while Brady listened. Her gaze kept darting to his face.

Brady gave no thumbs up. No smile. No reaction at all.

Aside from Brady's occasional cryptic words, the room was silent. Even Johnny seemed to be holding his breath.