Page 23 of The Moment He Couldn’t Walk Away

But there are people close who love you as much as I did, my darling. Hold onto them now.

I need to apologize, too, Nina. I didn’t tell you the truth about your father, or about yourself, because I was a coward. Because I didn’t know how to answer the questions you would ask. But know this—I did what I did to keep you safe.

Your name wasn’t Nina Winters when you were born. You were born Christina Falcon. Winters was your grandmother’s maiden name, and I changed it legally after I ran away.

Nina’s hands went still. She read the sentence again, then a third time, as though it might rearrange itself into something that made sense. Ran from what?

Your father’s name is Dale Falcon, and he is in prison. It’s my hope he stays there until he draws his last breath, but there may come a day he gets out and looks for you. Only one person in Lyntacky knows your real name, and you must never use it, Nina. You will stay safe if you don’t.

This couldn’t be true—could it?

It was important that you lived a normal life, and I didn’t want you looking over your shoulder, wondering about your father, if you knew what he was capable of.

Had that been the case for her mother? Nina wondered. Had she spent every day of her life afraid he’d get out and find them? Just how bad was he?

Don’t go looking for that man, Nina. Her mother had underlined the words.

I fell in love with a young, handsome man who turned out to be nothing like I thought he was, but I didn’t realize that until the end, and then it was too late. They took him away one night, and I was suddenly alone with you, and two choices. Stay, which he believed I would do, or run. I ran because I couldn’t be sure we’d be safe if I stayed.

I truly thought we loved each other once, Nina. You must always believe that. And I will forever be grateful that he gave me you, but what he did was not something I could ever forgive.

Sheriff Dans is the only other person who knows the truth of it, all of it, more than I could ever bring myself to write in this letter. Talk to him now, Nina. He can tell you what you need to know, and he has something I asked him to give you when the time came. It’s all for you. I want you to follow your dreams with it.

Stay here in Lyntacky, my darling girl, where people will love and protect you always. Know that I love you very much.

Mom xx

Nina sat very still for a long moment, the paper trembling in her hands, the name Dale Falcon sitting in her chest like a stone. Her name had once been Christina Falcon.

Chapter 7

“This is not happening,” Nina whispered, looking around her but taking nothing in. The familiar setting did nothing to calm her.

Nina reread the letter slower this time, trying to process everything.

“Are you all right, Nina?” Nancy asked, reappearing with a mug of coffee in her hand. She placed it on the table in front of Nina.

There was no amount of coffee in the world that could help her through this shock. She understood why her mother kept this information from her as a child, but why had she not told her everything when she was older?

“You’ve lost all the color in your face. What was in the letter?”

Nancy deserved to know. She was the one person who was close to her mother and knew her better than most—but as it turned out, neither of them really had.

She pushed the letter across the table. “Read it.”

“Are you sure?”

“You and Hank should have known. She should have told us,” Nina said, stomping down the burning resentment over her mother’s betrayal.

Nancy sat slowly, as if the seat was covered with broken glass. She then read the letter from beginning to end, the only sign she was agitated was her other hand clenching on the table before her.

“Dear Lord.” She lowered the letter and set it down on the table.

“I can’t take it all in,” Nina said, wrapping both hands around the mug.

“It’s going to take time to work all this through in your head,” Nancy said. “I’m sorry that you lost your mom and now have to deal with this too. It was wrong of her. She should have told you herself.”

“It’s just so much,” Nina whispered.