Mara turned toward her. "Then tell him now."
Darla waited. "Are you sure?"
"No," Mara said. "I'm not sure of anything. I don't know what I'll say. I don't know whether I'll want to embrace him or scream at him or walk outside and leave him alone."
"But I've spent eight years making decisions without the truth. I want at least one decision that belongs to me. Tell him to come."
Darla nodded. She dialed a number and stepped into the hallway. Cole watched her go, then looked back at Mara. The old photograph of Evan laughing still lay on the table. Mara picked it up, traced the white crease in the corner, and held it in both hands.
"I used to tell Eli his father was gone because he couldn't stay," she said quietly. "I didn't say dead. I didn't say alive. I was afraid to commit to either. I thought I was protecting him from being disappointed twice."
"You were trying to raise him with what you knew."
"He asked whether Evan loved us. He asked it so many times I stopped hearing the question properly. I'd give him whatever answer got us through bedtime. I never realized he was asking me to explain something I didn't understand."
Cole had no answer that would make her burden smaller. He remained beside the table, allowing her to speak without arranging her grief into something neat.
"What do we do if he comes and Eli loves him immediately?" Mara asked. "What do I do if I don't?"
"You don't have to feel the same thing as your son," Cole said. "And he doesn't have to feel the same thing as you. Eight years happened. Nobody walks through the door and gets them back just because we finally know why they were lost."
Mara looked at him for the first time with something other than suspicion. "You're not very good at comforting people."
"No," he agreed. "Evan used to tell me that."
"You might be better at telling the truth."
"I'm trying."
Voss entered from the yard as Darla came back into the main room. The rider's wet jacket smelled of road dust and cold air. She approached the table and spoke quietly. "We've seen unfamiliar vehicles checking roads near the property. Nothing immediate, but somebody is looking for the turnoff."
Darla's expression tightened. "How long?"
"Hard to tell. They passed once, then came back. We're keeping everyone inside for now."
Cole looked at the maps on the wall. He studied the unfamiliar roads, then the route to Haramman, where Cain expected him the next morning. The board president had a meeting planned; the people behind him had begun moving; Evan was traveling toward his wife and son. All of it was happening at once, in a narrow stretch of hours when the wrong decision could undo years of patient work.
"We need to keep the documents in the hands of someone who can act on them," he said. "Not just here."