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 he could have you arrested for assault.” She laughed. “When I told Dad about the man following me, he suggested that he might be a nice man who just didn’t know how to ask me out.”
“Is yours handsome? I don’t think mine is. I only got a glimpse, but it would be just like you to get the handsome reporter.”
“Actually, he is. I don’t think he’s a reporter, though. I almost suspect he might have been hired to keep an eye on me.”
“Dad’s doing?” Kat asked suspiciously. “You think that’s what this is?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him. He wouldn’t tell us because he knows we would demand he call them off.”
“That does sound like Dad, now that you mention it. I wonder if I’ve had one tailing me for months as well and I just didn’t notice.” Kat thought about contacting her father to verify it.
“Don’t bother Dad with this,” her sister said as if reading her mind. “He’s got a lot on his plate right now with the primary only months away. Also, if he didn’t hire the men, then he’s going to be upset that reporters are tailing us. If Dad had his way, he’d lock us up until all this blows over.”
“As if that’s going to happen.” Their father was headed for the White House. They would never be free of the press. But Kat knew her sister was right. “Okay. Have you talked to Harper or Cassidy?”
“They’re both fine. They have been running around Europe, pretending to continue their educations, but Harper called to say they were flying back to spend a few days in New York City. Neither has mentioned anyone following them. Oh, it’s finally starting to snow up here in the cold north. Gotta go.”
Kat looked down the street again as she disconnected and wondered if her father had hired someone to tail her and...what? Keep her out of trouble? Or keep the press away from her?
I feel as if I live in an aquarium full of bottom feeders, Kat thought as she headed down the street toward the art gallery. She hated it, wishing she was invisible. But she was one of the “Hamilton Girls,” as they had been known as far back as she could remember. With her father in politics, she’d done her best to stay out of the limelight. Now with him running for president, a mother whom the press had dubbed unstable and with Angelina Broadwater Hamilton, their stepmother, caught in what the press liked to call a hopeless love triangle, Kat feared all of this was never going to end.
* * *
MAX COULDN’T WAIT to get to a computer and upload the shots he’d taken. He’d looked at what he had on his camera, heart pounding with excitement. He might have the only recent photo of the senator’s first wife.
But the really good shots were the ones of Sarah and the senator together. He’d managed to capture the chemistry between them. Lovers’ triangle indeed.
While most of the media were making her out to be mentally unstable, Max thought she looked normal. True, he told himself as he drove back to town, looks could be deceiving. The senator hadn’t spent a whole lot of time with her at the creek. Max would have given anything to