Page 58 of The Lovely and the Lost

“Smart girl,” Ness commented. She nodded toward the open cabinet. “If you’re the type for tea, help yourself.”

Cady let go of the sink and walked over to Ness. “He could have justtoldme.”

Ness fixed Cady with a look over her mug. “Your daddy’s been trying to get in touch with you for years, Cady. Letters. Calls. Emails. You never even responded.”

“You know what he did.” Cady didn’t just sound angry. She soundedgutted. “You were there, Ness. When I came to my father on bended knee, when I groveled, when Ibegged—”

“There was nothing he could do.” Ness slammed her tea down onto the counter.

“He had contacts,” Cady insisted quietly. “In South America. But calling them in was too dangerous. He wouldn’t—”

“Hecouldn’t,” Ness insisted. She shook her head and quietly got two more mugs down from the cabinet. “Not with the risks you’d already taken. Not when it was clear as day you’d take more.”

“That was my choice.”

“It was a suicide mission,” Ness countered, her mouth set into a grim line. “Do you think, even for a second, that’s what Ash would have wanted? My son loved you, Cady. He was in love with you. And you werepregnant.”

I saw Cady swallow. “Ash and I weren’t…” she started to say. “Jude isn’t…Ash isn’t his…”

Ness poured two more mugs of tea—one for Cady and one for me. “Whatever you were or weren’t,” Ness said, brushing off Cady’s words like they were nothing, “we’re family, Cadence Bennett, and if you’re half the woman I raised you to be, you’ll think long and hard about what that means.”

By daybreak, our car was packed. Four humans, five large dogs, and a metric ton of family secrets took the atmosphere right fromclaustrophobictosuffocating.

I felt like I’d left a part of myself—maybe the most important part—back in the park.

When Cady pulled off at a gas station on the way out of town, a niggling panic built inside me. She hadn’t given me a choice about being kicked off the search. She wasn’t giving me a choice about leaving now. She hadn’t told Jude the truth about Macorthe truth about Bales.

“I will admit that this is an unfortunate turn of events.” Jude turned in the front seat to look at me the moment Cady got out to pump the gas. “I had hoped for at least one family bonding moment before we left.” He swallowed. “And Bella…”

Hearing Jude’s voice break broke me.

“We did what we could.” Free set her jaw, but even I could see that she didn’t believe what she’d just said.

We should have done more.

“Darn our human limitations,” Jude said out loud.

Bales is dying,I thought in reply.Mac is your father, and Cady’s just running away.

“Don’t look now,” Free murmured, “but we’ve got company.”

I turned to look just in time to see Mackinnon Wade climb out of his car and stride toward Cady. The pendant he had given me was in my pocket. My fingers closed around it as Cady turned toward him. I searched Mac’s face for some resemblance to Jude’s.

“What do you think they’re saying?” my foster brother asked. “Do you think it’s dramatic? I bet it’s dramatic.”

“Whatever the Gentle Giant is saying,” Free interjected, “Cady doesnotlook happy about it.”

I could make out tension in Cady’s lips, an odd glint in her eyes.

“That’s not anger,” Jude said quietly. “It’s not sadness. It’shope.”

Hope? Hope for what?I didn’t risk asking that question aloud, in case he was wrong.

Cady opened the driver’s side door. “Something’s come up. Pad”—the dog’s ears twitched forward—“you’re with me.” Cady snapped her fingers, and the golden leapt from the car to stand beside her. “As for the rest of you…” Cady tossed her car keys to Jude. “Head back to the house. Tell Ness and Bales that preliminary analysis suggests that all five bodies we recovered yesterday were adults.”

Adults. My heart slammed against my rib cage.As in, not Bella.

She’s alive.