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I nod, and just as I’m about to say something, a black Acura pulls up in the parking spot closest to us.

Indigo’s arm lands on my shoulder when I tense. “That’s her?”

“Yeah.”

“She should be the one nervous to see you,” she says lowly. “Don’t stress over this. It’s just a conversation. Then we’re getting strawberry pound cake after this.”

Right. Exactly. Just a conversation.

My fingers find the bracelet Adonis gifted me last week, toying with the white gold links.

“Delilah.” Elodie stands in front of me, eyes glassy. “It’s so good to see you.”

“I’m Indigo.” My best friend offers her hand as I find my voice. “Delilah and I are roommates.”

A warm smile spreads on Elodie’s face. “Nice to meet you.”

“Hi, Elodie.” Her name scratches my throat.

I’m trying to make sense of the woman in front of me in comparison to memories of the tattered photo in my father’s office. The woman in those photos bore a resemblance to me.

But even though Elodie looks different in this light, I still don’t look like her. And that’s…comforting. It’s less of a mindfuck than knowing someone out there looked like me for all these years and was just a few hours up the highway.

“Thank you for showing up.” Elodie’s attention doesn’t sway from me. “It means a lot.”

We decidedon a walk through the park adjacent to thelibrary. Indigo hangs back at a picnic table, reading her Kindle under the shade of a sycamore tree.

Now that we’re at the beginning of September and the worst of the summer heat is behind us, the walk is bearable.

“There’s so much I want to say to you, Delilah. All I ask is that you listen. Let me get it out and I’ll explain whatever you want.”

Nodding, I keep my gaze on the worn path in front of us. The flowers planted along the trail remind me of Ms. Agnes. And that reminds me of home.

“I won’t get into the details of our relationship, but things between your father and I hadn’t been good for a while before I left.” Her next breath leaves her in a heavy sigh. “I knew it wouldn’t get better. But he was all I had in Wildwood, so I had to be smart about how I did it. It took me a year after you were born, but I finally had a plan.”

As we walk, her arm swipes my shoulder, causing my attention to catch on her profile.

“I left with you in the middle of the night. While Marcellus was sleeping. But before I could make it to the motel I booked in the next city over, he was waiting for me.” She kisses her teeth.

My heart tries to escape through my ass. I’m nervous like I don’t know we both end up okay in the end.

“We walked to my room in silence. You were asleep in your carrier, and I was so damn scared, Delilah.” I can still hear it in her voice. “As soon as we got in the room, he backhanded me so hard, I lost my hold on you.”

My father’s cruelty doesn’t surprise me. But her bravery does. The way my father and brother told me this story made it seem like Elodie up and disappeared in the middle of the night because she didn’t want the responsibility ofbeing a mother anymore. “He beat me until I couldn’t recognize myself in the mirror. Then he told me I could leave. But I wasn’t going anywhere with his child.” There’s anguish in her pause so I look over at her again to find her lips turned down and shoulders rigid. “I don’t remember much after that. I woke up alone in that motel room the next morning with my head pounding. He took you while I was knocked out.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Honey, you have nothing to be sorry about. You were a baby. You deserved so much better.”

“So did you.”

Elodie stops to study me. “I don’t mean to trash talk your father. He might have turned out to be a great father to you. But I just wanted you to know my side.”

Sympathy expands in my heart. He’d been so far from great to me, but I don’t need to tell her that right now. “It’s not trash talking if it’s the truth.”

She exhales then, lip trembling. “I tried to get you back, Delilah. I sent two private investigators to try and get a location on you, but your father had them both killed. I couldn’t take the blood of a third person on my conscience. Especially when it wasn’t getting me any closer to answers.”

“He…what?”