Evelyn—Gloria—rubbed her hands together slowly, the same way she did when her palms were dusted inflour.
“Before he left, he got me new papers. I became Evelyn Monroe. I lived with his great aunt for many years, and during all those years, Frank visited only once. For her funeral.” She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep sigh. “Frank allowed me to live there, in his house, many more years. I cleaned stores and offices but never made enough money to pay him back for all he had done forme.
“He came back into my life six years ago. I thought he was bringing me news of my husband. That he had finally died.” She looked up at me. “But it was not that. He came for a favor, which I agreed to. I would do anything for thisman.”
My ribs trembled from the rapid drumming of myheart.
I knew what wascoming.
“He asked me to move to Los Angeles to watch over you and your mother. He knew that if he sent anyone else to care for you, your mother would have made you move. He did not want to lose sight of you. He did not tell me why you were important. Not that he needed to explain himself to me. Especially not after tellingme…”
Silence as thick as my duvet settled betweenus.
“What did he tell you?” Iwhispered.
She raised her eyes to mine. Like moonlit ponds, their black depths shivered. “That it was my husband’s fault you had to leaveBoulder.”
My mind whirred with rapid calculations. None of them made sense, and yet I asked, “You were Heath’s wife?” Had he had a secondwife?
“No,querida. I was married to anothermonster.”
There was a more monstrous man than HeathKolane?
She pursed her lips in shame. “I was married to the man who shot yourfather.”
I swallowed, and my throat smarted as though I had consumed shards of glass, then I sputtered as though the glass had embedded itself into mylungs.
“Eldiablo.”
I couldn’t draw a full breath. “Y-You were married t-to AidanMichaels?”
“Keep away from him, you hearme?”
I gave a sharp nod. The dinner I’d sat through made me want to throw up. “Is that why you don’t leave theinn?”
She squeezed her lips. “Sí.”
“You shouldn’t have come back here, Evel— I mean,Gloria.”
“Do not call me Gloria. I am not her anymore.” She stood, walked toward me, then took a seat again, this time in front of me. She held her hands out, palms up. When I didn’t touch them, she said, “I might have found you for the wrong reasons, but please do not doubt how much I love you. You are like a granddaughter to me,Ness.”
My throatclenched.
“Please,querida, do not hate me for my lies. I cannot lose you.Te quierotanto…”
My heart bounded in time with my hands that landed on Evelyn’s. She closed her fingers around mine as though afraid I might change my mind, but I wouldn’t. I could never change my mind. It didn’t matter how she got into my life. What mattered was what she’d done since she’d been in it, and all she’d done was love me. As deeply and fiercely as my parentshad.
I had so many more questions, but one took precedent over the others. “You really didn’t know what Iwas?”
A slow smile curved her lips. “No. I did not know that men or women could change intowolves.”
“Frank never toldyou?”
“No. After the night he saved me, I never dared ask him. I think part of me did not want to know the truth.” Her mouth stayed curved a while longer. But slowly, her lips settled back into a soft line. “He came by to check on you a few hours ago.” Her thumbs traced the tops of my hands. “He asked me to convince you to join the…pack.”
I inhaled so sharply the air seared my nostrils. Was this a possibilitynow?
“I told him I would do no such thing. That it had to be your decision. But…” She tapped her thumbs on the back of my rigidhands.
