“Can’t you think of a reason?” Maria asked softly.
Of course Win could. “My father’s reelection campaign,” she said slowly. Neither of her parents had made any bones about the way her participation in Base Camp was offending her father’s financial backers.
Had her mother faked this whole thing to force her off Base Camp and get her home, where they could control her? She remembered the strain in her father’s voice when he’d called to report her mother’s illness. The way it had cracked when he spoke of losing his wife.
Both of them had lied to her.
“I can’t believe this!”
“I’m sorry,” Rosa said. “We weren’t sure if we should tell you.” She and Maria braced themselves as if afraid she could explode.
Win thought she might. Her hands were shaking. Her head pounded as she tried to understand. All those months—all those prayers for her mother’s health. “I’m glad you told me. I gave… I gave up Angus for her.” Her voice rose.
“I never wanted to create bad feelings between you and your parents,” Rosa rushed to say. “Your family has been through so much. But you were in my care for years. You are the child of my heart even if not of my body. I couldn’t let you lose a man you so obviously loved. I couldn’t let them hurt you like that.”
Win gripped the armrests of her chair. She’d already lost Angus. And for what? For her father’s political career?
“Your mother loves you,” Rosa began again.
“She loves manipulating me!” Win exclaimed. Shame at how easy she’d been to fool washed over her, leaving her cheeks burning.
“No one can manipulate you unless you let them,” Lenore said, coming around the corner into the living room sheepishly, hands clasped in front of her.
Maria gave a gasp. “I thought you left,” she accused.
“I forgot my purse out back,” Lenore said unhappily. “I didn’t mean to listen in.”
“But you did,” Win’s shock at the young woman’s reappearance quickly turned to anger. “And you’ll use what you heard against my family.” She hadn’t let herself be manipulated; she’d believed her parents. Like any daughter would.
“I want to win on my own merits, thank you very much, not tell tales out of school to get my opponent in trouble,” Lenore said.
Win wasn’t listening to her anymore. She was thinking of the hours she’d spent waiting for news from her mother, the long days she’d spent running Manners Corp in her mother’s place. The nights she’d lain awake wondering what Angus was doing, missing him so badly—
“Win.” The pity in Rosa’s voice nearly broke her. Win dropped her face into her hands. “How could my parents do that? How could they lie?” she asked through her fingers.
Rosa came to sit beside her and rubbed her back.
“Now what?” Win’s head hurt. Her eyes stung. She’d given up Base Camp and Angus for this? “If I leave, they’ll disown me. I’ll have nothing.”
“Mija! You’re a strong, smart woman. You’ve got two hands, a brain and a strong back. You can work,” Rosa pointed out. “And you’ve got Angus. That man loves you.”
“Who cares about love?” Win caught herself as her voice spun wildly upward again. She’d loved her parents—look what that had gotten her.
“You do,” Rosa said firmly. “And you’ll get plenty of it if you return to Base Camp. Real love, not the manipulating kind.”
Win thought of bustling, friendly Base Camp with its sweet little houses, its cramped bunkhouse, the chickens, goats, horses and bison. The singalongs and dances. The B and B. Angus. Her friends. All the other babies that would soon be born—
Rosa was right. At Base Camp she had the family and community she’d always longed for and never found at home. But would she have the protection she needed—for herself or her child? Just because she turned her back on her family wouldn’t mean she’d stop being a target.
“I’m pregnant. If I leave, they’ll cut me off. What will I do then?” she began. Could she survive without her parents’ safety net? She never had to consider it before.
“Winifred Octavia Lisle,” Rosa said firmly, as if reading her mind. “You really think if you go to Montana, your parents will stand by and watch you or your child suffer? They’ll cut off that big allowance of yours, sure, which will be good for you,” she admonished, “but they’d step in if the situation involved a hospital. Just you wait and see. Besides, you have friends. You have a billionaire behind that community of yours. You think every single one of them will let you down in a crisis?”
Win shook her head. No. Of course not. She was the one who’d let them down. Why was she seeing that only now?
Shame flooded her all over again. Rosa was right; she hadn’t trusted herself or Angus or anyone else she’d been building Base Camp with. Instead, she’d trusted people who’d lied.
“This is what independence feels like,” Lenore said approvingly. “Standing on your own. Knowing who your friends are. Ask yourself: What do you want to do? When you support yourself, you get to do exactly as you please.”
“I want… to go home. To Base Camp.” Tears pricked her eyes. Would Angus take her back?
Rosa leaned forward and patted Win’s knee again. “That sounds like the right choice for you and your baby.”
Win nodded again, grateful for Rosa’s presence as her world disintegrated. “I’ve missed you,” she said honestly.
“I missed you, too.”
Chapter Four
‡
“Tomorrow’s the big day, huh?” Angus’s stepmother, Maureen, asked late that afternoon. “You’ll draw straws before Greg marries Renata?
“That’s right.” Angus could picture her in her cozy farmhouse kitchen in upstate New York. His father would still be at work, lectures over by now, probably seeing students in his cramped office on the Cornell campus. “What’s for dinner tonight?” He’d always loved Maureen’s cooking. Loved everything about his stepmother, actually. He’d been crushed when his father had first brought a strange woman home when he’d just turned thirteen. A
