Chapter Four

      A time for truth...

      Falcon woke up at 5 a.m. and the morning seemed to drag. He had to call Eden three times before she got up. The late night had caught up with her. After all the craziness of the morning, one thought kept him focused: it was time to talk to Leah.

      Rebel Ranch was getting ready for the fall roundup and he really needed to be home. His brothers gave him a funny look when he said he would catch them later. Of course, they had questions. Falcon was always on top of everything that happened at the ranch, but today he wasn’t in the mood to tell them about Leah. That would come later. His mother must’ve sensed his mood, because she didn’t ask questions. He was grateful for that.

      At nine o’clock he was finally on his way to Temple. He called Leah to tell her he would be there early. She said she would order coffee and he started to tell her not to bother. But he might need something strong to get him through the morning.

      The hotel was one of the nicer ones in Temple. He walked to the elevator and went up to the third floor. It didn’t take him long to find her room. He knocked and it opened almost immediately.

      He paused at the sight of her in a slim-fitting black dress and a red belt circling her tiny waist. Her dark hair hung to her shoulders in a tousled style. On her feet were strappy high heels. This wasn’t the Leah he knew in jeans and sneakers. This woman was a stranger to him.

      She held the door wider. “Come in.”

      He followed her into what was obviously a suite with two rooms—a living area and a bedroom.

      “Have a seat.” She motioned to the sofa.

      The room was stylish with ornate furniture, and he’d guess it had cost a bundle to book. How could she afford this? Obviously her life had been good and for the first time, he realized that the young girl he had married had long been gone in more ways than one.

      He sat down and placed his hat beside him. She stood a few feet away, looking as beautiful as he’d ever seen her. If he didn’t know her so well he would think she was as cool as a winter breeze, but he recognized the tension in her body and the nervousness in the way she kept glancing toward the door.

      “Where have you been for over seventeen years?” He didn’t see any reason to postpone the inevitable. A knock at the door stalled her answer.

      A waiter brought in a carafe of coffee and a teapot. That puzzled him, but not for long. She poured a cup of tea for herself.

      “You drink tea now?”

      “Chamomile. It helps me to relax.” She handed him a cup of coffee and then she stirred her tea.

      He held the cup with both hands and forced himself to calm down so he wouldn’t break it into a million pieces. “Where have you been, Leah?”

      Taking a seat in a wingback chair, she replied, “It’s a long story.”

      “I’ve got time.”

      She took a sip of tea and placed the cup back on the tray. “I...I don’t know where to start.”

      “How about the day you left.”

      “Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I was up all night with Eden. I couldn’t get her to stop crying and I was so frustrated and felt helpless as a mother. When you held her, or Kate, she would stop, so there had to be something wrong with me. I thought I was hurting her in some way.”

      “That’s crazy.”

      She glared at him. “Are you going to make snide comments or are you going to listen?”

      “I’ll listen.”

      “I never told you about my mother. It was difficult for me to tell anyone.”

      “You said she died in an accident when you were twelve.”

      “Yes. A terrible accident. See, my mom was bipolar and she would go into these violent rages that were hard to deal with.” Leah reached for her cup and took a swallow. “When she was in these rages, she always wanted to hurt someone, and I was always around so it was usually me. She broke my arm, my ribs, my collarbone and gave me more bruises than I can remember. I finally learned to hide from her and that was probably the only thing that saved my life. My dad just worked more and more. One day a guy cut her off on the highway and she followed him to a gas station ranting and raving. He pulled a handgun from the glove compartment and shot her. She died at the scene.”

      Falcon was stunned and his heart ached for that little girl who grew up so afraid. He never knew she suffered like that. It was probably the reason she was so shy and quiet.

      “Why couldn’t you tell me that?”

      “I don’t know.” She placed the cup back on the tray. “I just wanted to forget it and start a new life in Horseshoe. You see, I didn’t want to remember I had that kind of mother. But when Eden wouldn’t stop crying I thought I was hurting my child like my mother had hurt me. That day when she cried and cried, I had this urge to put my hand over her mouth to stop the crying. As soon as the thought entered my head, I knew I had to get away. I just had to get out of the house for a couple of days to prove to myself that I wasn’t a terrible person.”

      “Leah...”

      “Eden finally went to sleep. I went downstairs and told your mother I was going out for a while and for her to listen for Eden. I got in my car and drove away.”

      “Where did you go?”

      Leah looked down at her clasped hands in her lap. “I was going to my cousin’s in Houston. I thought I could stay there until I got my head straight.”

      “I called Nancy and she said she hadn’t heard from you, in case you’re planning to lie. I called her for six solid months and every time she said the same thing—she didn’t know where you were.”

      “I never made it to her house.”

      “What happened?” A sense of dread came over him. He had the same feeling the day he’d heard his dad screaming for their mother. Falcon had been feeding the horses when his dad had raced toward the barn with a bloody Jude and Phoenix in his arms. Whatever Leah had to say, he knew it was as bad as what had happened that day. Instinctively, he tensed as he prepared himself to listen to the rest of her story.

      “I drove to Austin, to the bus station. I left my car about a block away. I’m not sure why I did that. It’s not clear in my head why I didn’t just drive to Nancy’s. But I think I was afraid you would come after me and make me go back when I wasn’t ready. I really needed some time.”

      “The police called the next week and I picked up the car. There was no trace of you and the police concluded that you just wanted to get out of an unhappy marriage.”

      “It wasn’t like that.”

      “What was it like?”

      “I loved you with all my heart, but I couldn’t deal with the baby and the crying and the fear that I was going to hurt her. Living with your family didn’t help, either. It was overwhelming.”

      He swallowed, knowing part of her problem was his fault. “What happened next?”

      “I took the bus to Houston fully