Page 108 of 15 Summers Later

“Where exactly would you like me to go?” she asked, her voice low. “Back to Portland? I can’t do that right now. More to the point, I won’t. I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer my presence for another few weeks. After that, I’ll be gone, though. You won’t have to worry about me being around and ruining your perfect town.”

Out of nowhere, Madi was hit by a sneaker wave of sorrow washing over her. She didn’t want her sister to leave. How mixed-up was that?

She couldn’t tell Ava. She would sound ridiculous, especially after she had just yelled at her sister for something completely out of her control.

“What am I supposed to do when the next reporter comes along?” she pressed.

Ava sighed. “You are under no obligation to speak with anyone. You can decide whether you want to give any interviews. I will talk to my publicity team. They can arrange interviews for you as well, if you’d like.”

“I don’t want to talk to anyone. I want everything to go back to the way it used to be, before the book came out.”

“I’m afraid I left my time machine back at my Portland apartment.”

“Go ahead. Make a joke. I don’t find any of this particularly funny.” Madi knew she was acting like a petulant child, behavior she hated, but she felt powerless to stop it.

“I don’t, either,” Ava answered quietly. “I’m sorry they bothered you. I’ll see what I can do about keeping them away but I can’t make any promises. I’m sorry.”

If she were really sorry, Madi thought as she stalked back to the animal rescue tent, Ava wouldn’t have written the book in the first place.

29

We were just teenagers when our father led us into the depths of the Coalition, promising a utopia forged in self-sufficiency and communal living. Little did we know that the idyllic vision masked a sinister reality. Life within the compound was a twisted dance of obedience, isolation and the constant fear of the charismatic leaders who wielded power like a weapon.

—Ghost Lakeby Ava Howell Brooks

Ava

As Madi turned and walked away, Ava tried to breathe through the pain in her chest at the unbreachable distance between her and her sister.

Everything she did when it came to Madi was wrong. Misstep after blunder after miscalculation.

She thought they were making progress, especially after Madi helped her go into the mountains to speak with Cullen. For a while, her sister had seemed to warm a little more. Each time Ava visited the animal shelter, Madi would stop and talk to her about the baby, about their grandmother, about Gracie and Beau and the other animals at the shelter that Ava was coming to care about.

She had hoped they were slowly repairing their cracked relationship, bit by bit.

Now it felt as if all that progress was for nothing, as if a huge, jagged fissure had spread between them in an instant.

She wasn’t sure which was worse, the ache in her heart or the steady, dull ache in her abdomen that had been bothering her since she awoke that morning.

She pressed a hand there.Easy, little one, she murmured in her head, which she knew intellectually made no sense. The baby didn’t have ears yet to hear actual words, forget about reading her mind to catch all the unspoken sentiments.

Another cramp rippled across her abdomen and Ava inhaled sharply, grabbing for her ever-present water bottle.

Her grandmother was beside her instantly. “Are you all right, my dear?”

“I... Yes.” The cramp subsided and she drank more from her water bottle. More than likely, she was simply dehydrated. She always forgot to drink enough during these Saturday markets.

“You should sit down while you have a minute. I can handle any customers.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted.

Her grandmother gave her a stern look that brooked no argument and Ava obediently subsided into one of the camp chairs.

She sat quietly, willing the last of her discomfort to ease, until Leona called her over to help with a problem charging a customer’s debit card.

The rest of the market passed uneventfully, with no more reporters or angry sisters accosting her. Again, Leona sold out of all her baked goods, most of her vegetables and fruit and all but two of her bouquets.

They were back in her grandmother’s kitchen, enjoying a sandwich and some lemonade while all three dogs flopped on the floor, when Leona set down her lemonade and gave Ava a long, solemn look.

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