set locations in Montana for film companies. Apparently, Ainsley’s shadow had been tracking her from town to town.
The thought gave Kat the creeps. She did everything possible to blend into her surroundings. The last thing she’d ever wanted was this. Her father’s political career had never been this much of a problem—until it became clear he was looking at the presidency. The fact that he had six daughters he’d raised alone for years before marrying Angelina Broadwater had made the press interested in them.
Kat searched the street. She had decided that if she caught him following her again today, she was going to confront him. The thought terrified her. The last time she’d confronted a man... She pushed the thought away as she had in the years since, telling herself she was stronger now.
Just when she was starting to doubt her own sanity, she spotted him.
There, across Main. He’d been standing in front of the bank, looking in this direction, but when she’d seen him, he’d quickly stepped behind a group of women coming out of the quilt store and had now disappeared around the corner.
She hadn’t imagined it. The man was following her. So why didn’t he try to corner her like all the other reporters who’d gotten in to her face demanding answers? As if she had any answers. She didn’t know any more about her mother than the general public since she’d been eight when her mother had allegedly died. She’d been a difficult child—at least that’s what she’d been told. So her memories of Sarah, as she now thought of her, were clouded.
Kat considered confronting him. There was too much traffic this time of day to get across Main since it was the main highway through town. She waited until there was a break in the traffic and ran across the street, telling herself she would be safe in public, but he was gone. Had she really been ready to confront him? She could feel herself trembling at the thought. For years, she’d told herself she’d put the past behind her, but at moments like this, she knew it was a lie.
More than likely, the man had been following her, hoping she’d get together with her mother. She and three of her sisters had met with their mother when she’d first returned. Since then, she’d talked with Sarah a couple of times on the phone, but that was it.
No one wanted to lead the press to Buckmaster Hamilton’s first wife. Russell Murdock hadn’t just saved their mother that day he’d found her months ago. He’d given her a place to stay, since Sarah Hamilton couldn’t return to the ranch and the husband who’d remarried fifteen years ago.
It was a mess, not that Kat hadn’t seen her friends go through their parents’ divorces and affairs and financial problems. But none of them had believed their mother dead for twenty-two years to have her suddenly return.
“Why are you so angry with Mother?” Livie had wanted to know the few times she and her sister had discussed Sarah. “It isn’t her fault that she can’t remember what happened.”
For Kat, it was complicated. She wanted to trust the woman who’d come back to them, but for some reason, she couldn’t. Maybe her mother had a good reason for leaving them. Or maybe she didn’t. That was the problem. No one knew—including her mother.
“We don’t know what would make her do what she did,” her sister Bo had said in their mother’s defense. “Maybe it was a bad case of postpartum depression. We really shouldn’t judge her until we know all the facts.”
“And when exactly are we going to get all these...facts? Mother says she doesn’t remember anything. Not one day of the past twenty-two years. Not to mention driving into the river, surviving that and calling someone to pick her up.” Kat had shaken her head. “It isn’t that I’m not compassionate and even understanding. But I’m sorry, I don’t...trust her. Maybe in time...”
Kat had often wondered if the reason she was thought to be difficult by her mother as a child was because she resembled her father with her dark hair and gray eyes. Or maybe her anger at her mother just wouldn’t let her believe Sarah Hamilton had loved her.
Ainsley, who was blond with blue eyes like her mother, had been ten, so she had the most memories of their mother. Their sister Bo had been five. Blonde with green eyes, Bo was always the cute one. Kat was sure her mother had adored the child. Same with Olivia, the blue-eyed brunette in the family. Livie had been three when their mother had left them.
The twins, Harper and Cassidy, had been only months old, so they had no memory of their mother. They both resembled Sarah. As far as Kat knew, neither of them had laid eyes on their mother yet, though. With the press dogging them all, they’d stayed away at their father’s request.
Kat pulled out her cell phone and called Ainsley. Her big sister had practically raised them all, so was it any wonder that they all went to her when they needed help?
“Have you had any more reporters following you?” she asked without preamble.
“Kat?”
“Has Sarah done something that I haven’t heard about?” She groaned, realizing she’d been out of touch for a while, camping in the woods while she shot more photos for her upcoming exhibit. “The press coverage was starting to die down. What has she done now?”
“I don’t believe Mother has done anything,” Ainsley said patiently. “At least not that I’ve heard. You sound strange. Are you all right?”
“I’ve had a man tailing me the past few days, so I just assumed something new had happened. I’ve been off the grid.”
“If it makes you feel any better, the man tailing me has been doing it for weeks now off and on.”
“He hasn’t tried to talk to you?”
“No. He just seems to show up in whatever town I’m in,” Ainsley said. She had dropped out of law school, breaking their father’s heart, to scout movie and commercial locations in the state.
“Where are you now?” Kat asked.
“East Glacier. They’re shooting a commercial here and hoping it snows, so we’re waiting. How about you?”
“Bozeman.”
“That’s right—you have your photograph exhibit coming up soon, don’t you?”
“Not until closer to Christmas. I wasn’t happy with the photos I had so I had the date extended. Dad is determined to fly back for it. I tried to talk him out of it.”
It would be her first exhibit. She wanted it to be good. What she didn’t want was a media circus. Maybe it was foolish, but she didn’t want that kind of exposure. She wanted her photographs to speak for themselves.
“I’ll be there, too. Just text me the date and time.”
Kat wanted to tell her sister it wasn’t necessary, but she hadn’t seen Ainsley in months and she missed her. “Thanks.”
“You could go to the police,” her sister suggested, steering their discussion back to the more concerning topic.
“And end up in the police reports? No, thanks.” Kat looked back up the street but didn’t see the man. “He’ll eventually corner me and want the whole story on Sarah, and I’ll kick him in the—”
“I would advise against that. I had enough law school to know that
