“And the family arguments?”
She leans in slightly. “Mara and your mom… they were sisters, but they were also oil and fire. Mara wanted motion. Escape, excitement, anything that didn’t feel like being trapped. Bonnie wanted freedom too, but she wanted something solid to stand on. A plan. A real door out.”
“And my father?” I ask, and the word tastes strange now. More loaded than it did this morning.
Evelyn’s face tightens. “Elias was… complicated.”
My shoulders go rigid.
“He wasn’t a monster in the way the town liked to whisper,” she says carefully. “But he was controlling in a way that doesn’t leave bruises anyone can point at. He wanted things his way. Wanted your mom to fit inside the life he chose.”
My throat closes. “She didn’t.”
“No,” Evelyn says softly. “She didn’t.”
Silence hangs between us, filled with espresso machines and clinking spoons and the sound of my pulse trying to claw its way out.
“So they fought?”
Evelyn’s mouth twitches. “Mara hated Elias. Always did. Partly because she saw right through him, and partly because your mom marrying him felt like betrayal. Like Bonnie picked a cage.”
My jaw tightens. “Mara said a little about it, but she didn’t give me many details.”
“She wouldn’t,” Evelyn says, almost gently. “Mara deflects. It’s how she survives.”
That lands so cleanly it almost hurts.
Evelyn exhales. “And Mara was seeing Carl Benson back then.”
My stomach twists at the name. I’ve seen him in town. No one ever told me. “Carl?”
“Yes.” Evelyn’s gaze sharpens. “And Bonnie was married to Elias. Mara and Bonnie fought. Carl and Elias didn’t get along. So the town turned it into this big, dramatic rivalry because that’s what Colter Creek does. It turns private pain into public entertainment.”
I picture it like a movie I never got to watch: my mother young, Mara bright and sharp, two men circling them.
“So, in a way, the rivalry existed,” I say, “but it wasn’t… land disputes.”
“No,” Evelyn says firmly. “It wasn’t money. Not in the way people claimed.”
My breath catches. “So, what was it?”
“Your grandmother had an inheritance.”
I go still. “Grandma Mabel?”
Evelyn nods. “Not something she advertised, of course. And because this town can’t handle the idea of someone having something they can’t see, everyone assumed it was jewels.”
My pulse spikes. “Jewels.”
“Rumored,” Evelyn emphasizes. “Never confirmed. But once that rumor started, it stuck. Who knows where that even came from in Colter Creek.”
My hands are trembling again. “Mom knew.”
“She did,” Evelyn says. “And Abilene…” Her voice softens. “She wasn’t chasing it for greed. She was chasing it for you.”
My throat burns. “For me?”
Evelyn’s eyes hold mine, unwavering. “She wanted a way out. A home that was hers. A fresh start where she didn’t have to measure every breath against Elias’s moods.”
