Page 54 of 15 Summers Later

The words stunned her into speechlessness. She blinked several times, soaking them in. “You...you can’t honestly say that’s what you took away from readingGhost Lake,” she protested.

“I can and I do.”

Ava shook her head, still trying to process her words. “You lost your husband because of the Coalition, simply because Dan and your children happened to be the unlucky campers we stumbled onto in our most desperate hour. He was an innocent victim who did nothing but try to help two terrified girls. And he paid the ultimate price for his kindness.”

To her dismay, her voice cracked on the last word. Despite her best efforts at control, a tear slid out, trickling down her cheek, followed by another and another.

Before she quite realized what was happening, Tilly stepped away from the dessert tray and wrapped her arms around Ava, pulling her close.

“Oh, darling,” she murmured. “You cannot carry the weight of Dan’s death. He chose to help you girls because hewantedto help you. That’s the man I loved. The very best of men. I’m truly sorry you never had the chance to know him, except for that last horrible day.”

“I hate that you lost your husband,” she whispered, her voice muffled. “I wish we had never found their campsite.”

“If you hadn’t, those men would have found you. They would have beaten you, starved you, forced you to stay married to that horrible man. You would have been raped by him, again and again, and your sister eventually would have faced the same fate, married off to one of the other men, even though she was only fourteen years old.”

She closed her eyes, hating the memory of sloppy kisses and fumbling hands after Roger Boyle, the camp leader, had informed her she was to marry his brother, James, though she was barely sixteen.

She would bear him many children, James had said with that disgustingly lascivious light in his pale blue eyes as he confirmed his brother’s plan. It was for the good of the Coalition. Their children would be strong and valiant, would be taught correct principles so they could carry on the fight.

She had escaped on her wedding night.

Would she have left, if she hadn’t been compelled to protect her younger sister? It was a question that haunted her. She had dreamed of escaping every moment of every day, but she wasn’t as courageous as Madi. If not for her sister, Ava wasn’t sure she would have found the strength to flee on her own.

She had held on to the hope that someone would save them. Surely someone had noticed they had been missing for the past six months. Leona had to have been looking for them. Their school teachers and administrators in Oregon. Their friends back home, their parents, her mother’s friends.

Madi had wanted to flee every single day.

We can go over the mountains and make our way to Grandma’s house. It’s only twenty miles.

Ava had been the one to urge caution, frozen with indecision whenever she thought about all the risks that awaited them outside the camp.

She had urged that they wait until the time was right to give authorities as much space as possible to launch a rescue.

The only problem was, nobody had been launching any rescues. Their grandmother had gone to the authorities when her son-in-law and granddaughters broke off contact with her but hadn’t been able to convince them to listen to her.

The girls were with their father, she had been told. As their sole surviving parent, he had full custody and could move Ava and Madi where he wanted.

Because of Ava’s cowardice, she had been married in a ludicrous ceremony in the mountains to a man thirty years her senior, a disgusting human who had been divorced three times, who had long, straggly facial hair and a missing front tooth where a shotgun had misfired and knocked it out. The marriage hadn’t been legally valid, of course. It had been legitimate in no one else’s mind but James and Roger Boyle’s and their acolytes at the camp.

On what would have been her wedding night, she had finally been backed so far into the corner, she had nothing else to do, nowhere else to turn. Only then had she agreed to Madi’s outlandish plan to escape.

They had succeeded, but the cost had been so very great.

Ava pushed away the dark memories and found Tilly watching her with an expression of grave concern.

“You look so pale, my dear,” she said gently. “Is it your blood sugar? Here. Have some water and maybe a brownie.”

The stricture sounded so much like something her mother might have said that Ava had to smile.

“I’m okay. Thank you.”

“You should try a brownie, anyway. I don’t know anybody who makes brownies as yummy as your grandmother Leona’s.”

Mainly to appease the other woman, Ava took the small paper plate Tilly offered and selected a small brownie from the platter. She nibbled a corner, letting her tastebuds savor the rich fudge for this brief instant when she didn’t feel like hurling everything up.

Tilly handed her a water and Ava dutifully sipped at it. Maybe she was right. Ava did feel better from both the hydration and the sugar rush.

When the other woman seemed satisfied she wasn’t about to topple over in the kitchen, she reached again for Ava’s hand.

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