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They stood in front of Dad’s gravestone in the dark, yet Shane could see it all in his mind’s eye.

“How is it possible,” Mom said, in a low, hurt voice he hadn’t heard too often from his mother, “that, for all these years, you never told us what really happened?”

In all his exhaustion, he didn’t have it in him to wonder when Boone had told her or to find equivocations or anything other than the truth. “I felt responsible. I felt . . .” He wasn’t sure he’d been this close to crying since his father’s funeral. “You want me to explain something I did when I was twelve. I don’t know. I did what I thought was right. I thought it would be better if no one knew. Better if I protected you.”

“And yourself.”

“Maybe. God, I don’t know anymore. I just wanted to make it right.”

“Yes, you’ve spent quite a lot of time and effort trying to make things right, haven’t you?” Mom said, but it wasn’t in the way Boone said things. Not scathing, but something more like proud.

Mom slid her arm around his waist. “Between that and Gavin letting me in on what Micah told you guys, and Molly texting me a little bit of you and Cora’s fight, I’ve had quite a bit to think about all night. Trying to make sense of it all. You. Cora. I got to thinking, maybe you were afraid if people knew your father had died trying to help you, they might not just blame you, but they might stop loving you. Because all they’d be able to see was what had happened.”

“Maybe, and I get that you’re trying to make a correlation here, but I do love Cora, and I told her that. I told her what happened to her didn’t matter. It doesn’t. She might be afraid, but I didn’t stop loving her.”

“Yes, but . . . Do you remember your Aunt Sabrina?”

“No.”

“My sister. She was around when you were a baby, but she married a man who carefully and slowly cut her off from her family. From herself. We tried everything we could to get her to leave him, and I felt such guilt that I never could. I don’t know if he was physically abusive like Cora experienced, but it was abuse, nonetheless. Far too late, I realized I kept trying to change her circumstances, but I never tried to figure out why she felt that man’s awfulness to her was love.”

“That sounds . . . hard, Mom. And I’m sorry. But Cora told me a lot about how she grew up, and I can make a pretty easy jump to see how someone took advantage of her. It doesn’t change how I feel about her. It doesn’t change anything.” Why did everyone have to assume it did? He didn’t feel changed.

“But that’s howyoufeel, Shane. What I’m saying is she has to feel it. She has to believe it, and you can’tmakeher.”

“So, I should just give up?” he demanded incredulously.

“No. No. But I think you have to give her time and support rather than solutions. Sometimes people don’t want you to fix it for them. They want you to hold their hand while they fix it for themselves.”

“I’m not very good at that, am I?”

Mom laughed, pulling him closer, giving him a squeeze. “It’s not your strong suit, no, but I bet you could learn for that girl. I have faith that you will. You’ll give her some time, then you’ll let her know what you’re willing to do, then you give her some more time.”

“How much time we talking about here?” Shane asked wryly.

Mom chuckled. “Much as it takes, I’d say. You trust in that love and in that person, and it won’t be so very bad. After all, I trusted in you to do the right thing when it came to me and Ben, and look where we are. You’re practically best friends.”

“Ha. Ha.”

This time when she pulled, she pulled his face down and pressed her mouth to his cheek. “You are one of the five best things I’ve ever done, sweetheart. It has never been easy, but I would not change a second of it, because it has all brought you here, and I have never, ever seen you as happy as you are with Cora and Micah. Trust in that, Shane. Believe in it. Wait for it.”

Shane rested his cheek against his mother’s head. “If I manage to do all that, it’s because of you. Well, and maybe a little bit the fear of Grandma’s sword collection keeping me in line.”

Mom laughed, and that soothed a little bit. There were still so many ragged edges, so many things he didn’t understand, but Mom was right. It wasn’t really about him.

So, he had to wait.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Cora felt like she hadn’t been home in years instead of a few days. As she turned the key and pushed the door open, she tried not to think about everything that had changed.

Everything.

She let Micah walk inside on his own power, and tried very hard not to hover. She could tell Lilly was trying very hard not to do the same.

“Go home, Lil.”

“Don’t you need help?”