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choose between taking responsibility for the mother of his child, or keeping a secret from his wife. It would have been a nightmare for all of them, so Jessie had done the only thing that would keep the situation from exploding.
    At the first doctor’s appointment, Jessie discovered the date of conception coincided with a certain tequila-marinated night at a honky-tonk that ended on the screened-in back porch of the rambling old house Ian shared with other lawstudents. But she never said a word. Luz loved this man, and Jessie would not be the cause of her heartbreak.
    The rest of the pregnancy was taken up with discussing the adoption arrangements, getting a passport, making plans to live overseas as an expatriate. She and Simon were going to photograph the world’s wonders. She was going to escape to the adventure of a lifetime. Ian was going to marry her sister, practice law, raise a family. It should have been so simple.
    But at twenty-one, alone and scared, she hadn’t understood that matters of the heart are never simple. She thought knowing the baby was with her natural father and Luz would dull the ache of loss. She thought sending all the money she could spare to help with the hospital bills would somehow exonerate her. But the hurt never quite faded.
    As Ian turned on the hot water heater in the cabin, his pager went off. He checked the tiny display with a frown.
    â€œProblems?” Jessie asked.
    â€œShoot. I was expecting this. I’ve got to get to Huntsville tonight.”
    He probably had to go file a last-minute appeal or something. Watching him, she could see he was already withdrawing, thinking about the case. Being a death row attorney in Texas was clearly a job with a number of built-in frustrations. “You’d better get a move on.”
    â€œYep. Anyway, I need to go say good-night to the family and get myself over to the airpark. Fellow there will take me to Huntsville tonight.” He offered her a brief hug. “You need anything, let Luz know.”
    â€œI will. And thanks, Ian. Good luck.” Standing at the door, she watched him head up to the house with a purposeful stride, a good man trying to keep a bad man from dying.
    After he was gone, she poured the rest of the wine into a glass and went out to the broken little dock in front of thecabin to savor the last of the daylight. The water was dark and flat, the air refreshed by the cooling breath of night. Exhaustion crept through her, and her eyelids drooped.
    But now she forced her eyes open; she had to look. Sixteen years ago, Jessie had left in a red haze of panic, before her premature infant’s survival was assured, before the baby even had a name. Now Jessie was back, driven by desperation to face up to what she had done, to fill in the blanks of those lost years, to somehow find atonement and maybe even redemption. And it had to start with Lila.
    She had to see her daughter, really see her. See the way the light fell on her hair in the morning, how her eyes looked when she smiled or wept, how her hands lay atop the covers when she slept at night, how her mouth puckered when she ate a slice of watermelon.
    Jessie wished for the one thing she wanted above all else, the one thing she couldn’t have—more time. She had consulted doctors and specialists from Taipei to Tokyo, but the prognosis was always the same. Her condition had no known cause…or cure. Once assured of the diagnosis, she’d done the only thing that seemed important. She had come back to see her child before the lights went out.

CHAPTER 5
    The woman from Texas Life magazine was definitely getting on his nerves, thought Dusty Matlock as he stabbed the off button of the phone. Christ, how many different ways did he have to say no before she got it?
    Blair LaBorde reminded him of his Jack Russell terrier, Pico de Gallo. Persistent as hell, immune to insult, didn’t know when to quit. Over-the-top human-interest stories were