Chapter 2

It was the same face, three years old. Even with my nose as dull as it had gotten on the island, I could smell who he belonged to.

I crouched down.

"What's your name, sweetheart? How old are you?"

"Noah." He held up some fingers. "I'm three. My birthday is August sixteenth."

I stopped breathing.

August sixteenth was my birthday.

Three years ago that day, Dominic called to say something had come up and he couldn't make it. I got on the boat to go to him. I drifted for three days, and I was nearly dead of thirst by the time he came.

He'd been at the hospital with Felicity, watching his son get born.

"Noah!"

Felicity came running and snatched him up, clutching him to her chest like I might bite.

I looked at her and started to laugh.

"All these years, Felicity. When you looked at me, did you see the dumbest girl alive?"

She was the only Thorne who'd stayed in touch with me on the island. She called every week. She listened to me complain about how bored I was, how little I saw Dominic, how I couldn't get pregnant and didn't know why.

"When you were lying next to him, telling me it would all work out, what were you thinking?"

"When you asked me how often he came, and what we did, and what he said, what were you thinking then?"

The color went out of her face. The tears came right on cue.

"It's not like that. Mercy, I never—"

"Never what?" I stepped closer. "Never slept with my fiancé at a party? Never lied to me? Never took him and sat back to enjoy the show?"

"Enough."

Dominic moved in front of her with his jaw set. "Mer, Felicity's done nothing wrong here. Don't take this out on her."

"Nothing wrong?" My voice cracked. "Six years, Dominic. Which one of you did nothing wrong?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Felicity sobbed into Noah's hair. "It's my fault. I wanted too much. Please, just don't scare the baby."

Noah started wailing.

"Are you done?"

Julian had come out onto the path, and his eyes were flat.

"Mercy, do you have to wreck everything for everyone?"

My mother was right behind him. She wrapped both arms around Felicity, then looked at me like I'd tracked something in on my shoes.

"Why did you come back here to ruin her life? Why couldn't you just stay on your island?"

My father folded his arms.

"When are you going to grow up? We're family. There's nothing here worth making a scene about. Apologize to your sister."

All of them stood on Felicity's side of the path.

They'd spent six years lying to me. They'd just been caught. Not one of them looked ashamed.

I was the one who was supposed to say sorry.

My eyes were burning, and then my face was wet.

Julian frowned.

"There she goes. Two sentences, and you're playing the victim, like everyone on earth has wronged you."

"This is exactly why we all went to so much trouble to keep it from you," my mother said.

So that was my fault too. They'd had to work so hard at deceiving me.

Dominic looked at me. His face cracked a little, and he took one step toward me.

"Don't blame her," Felicity said, in that small wet voice. "I'm the greedy one. I'll give Dominic back. I'll go right now."

She turned away.

His hand shot out and caught her arm.

"Don't go."

He pulled her into his chest and held on.

"You've done nothing wrong, Felicity. This is your home. Where would you go?"

I watched them.

And I was eighteen again.

I'd booked a private room at a hotel for my birthday, because no one else was going to. I sat there for three hours in a pink dress while the sky went dark outside. The call finally came. They'd forgotten. They were at the amusement park with Felicity.

I went and sat on the curb outside in the rain.

Dominic found me. He carried me on his back to his parents' house, soaked as I was, and he stood me in front of it and held on to me.

"When you graduate, you'll be my mate. This'll be your home, Mer. No one's ever going to make you feel like this again."

This was that house.

It was Felicity's home now.

I smiled. I couldn't stop it, even with the tears running into my mouth.

"You're right. None of you did anything wrong."

I was the one who'd done wrong.

I'd kept hoping for a family.

I'd believed Dominic Cross.

I turned and walked away from all of them.

Two steps. Three.

The garden tipped sideways. The lights smeared, and the gravel came up at me.

The last thing I saw was Dominic letting go of her and running.

"Mer!"