Page 192 of Sugarloaf Ridge Lies

A nervous laugh jumps from my mouth. “Bloody Len. He did it.” The son of a bitch came through.

I wrap my arms around the woman that gave me life. Tears spill down my face as she sobs into my shirt. Her small frame trembles. The connection that hums between this near perfect stranger and I has me awestruck, as if I’ve lived my whole life with a universe of heaviness in my heart, in my soul.

Lightness takes over like a lazy dream.

Were we always meant to be reunited?

“Where have you been?” I whisper and release her.

My biological mother swipes at her cheeks with her right hand. “Tofino, BC, Canada.”

“Since when?”

Her chin drops. “Since I had no choice but to run.”

Sweet Jesus.

I hook my finger beneath her chin, drawing her watery gaze. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

A tear rolls down her face. “I know that now.”

Whilst there’s no doubt from her voice she’s an Aussie, the hint of a Canadian accent is there.

She holds up her left hand revealing short nubs where her middle, ring, and pinky fingers should be.

What the fuck?

“Did he do this?” I snap.

Her throat bobs. “Nate hated me playing guitar. Made him jealous with rage because he couldn’t stand the way men looked at me when I did.”

My gut wrenches at the thought of him cutting her, taking away one of her greatest joys. What a fucking animal.

“When?” I bark.

“You were nearly eleven. I came back to Sugarloaf to watch you proudly march, as I did every year.”

“You came back?” Bernie says, her voice high.

Skylah nods. “I knew you’d worry, Bernie, and it was with good reason. He was there that year. Never in a million years did I think he’d find me. I swear, my poor heart stopped beating.” She shakes her head and blows out a breath through pursed lips. “I tried to get away, but he ran my car off the road. When I came to, he’d tied me up in some abandoned house. I wouldn’t talk, and he took it out on me. It was useless, though, because he had all the information he needed. He was going to Banridge to get back what was rightfully his and was determined to punish those who gave me and you safe haven.”

I scale my hand down the side of my face. “Holy shit.”

“I believed he’d do it. He thought he’d left me for dead, but by some miracle I found the strength to escape. I trudged through bush for miles until I stumbled across a service station. I rang Len. He told me he’d tried to abduct you before and that he’d warn you all. He told me to get out of the country and never tell a soul of my destination.”

A sob bursts from her mouth as she reaches out and trails her fingers down the side of my face once more. “Leaving you on the steps of the bakery was one of the most heartbreaking choices I’ve ever made, but leaving Australia, knowing I’d never lay eyes on you again, or hear of your life at Banridge through Bernie, I was destroyed. But I can’t regret it. Not when that baby is now the fine young man who stands before me.”

I cup her face with my hands and savour every fine line on her face, the freckles across her nose and eyes like my sister’s. “So you’re back? For good?”

She scoops up my hands and grips them tight. “No. I have a life in Tofino.” Her brows pull tight. “A family.”

I have other siblings?

“You do?”

“A husband who cares for me and two precious golden retrievers, Whitney and Dolly.” A soft smile curls at her lips. A music lover through and through.

I snort a laugh. “I can’t believe this is happening. I thought this day would never come.”

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