We led them to him, Karen.

The whole first day back, after telling Paula and swearing her to secrecy, Karen racked her brain for how that might be.

Led whom?

She hadn’t told anyone where they were going. She’d made the reservations herself. Sitting around trying to divert her thoughts from Charles, she backed through everything from the beginning.

The documentary. The horror of seeing his face on TV. Then the note sheet from his desk she’d been sent—with no return address. Which led to the passport and the money.

Then the men from Archer, the creep who terrified Sam in her car. The horrible things Karen had found in Charles’s desk—the Christmas card and the note about Sasha. Her mind kept unavoidably flicking back to him. On the beach. Then the boat.

What was anyone trying to find there, Charles?

“Who? Charlie, who? Tell me?” Who were you running from? Why would they want to keep after you now? She knew that Ty had gone into the office, come clean. They’d have to reopen the hit-and-runs. They’d be able to find out now who his investors were.

Tell me, Charlie. How did they know you were alive? They must have seen the fee account drawn down, he had said. Followed the bank trail. A year later, what did they need from him? What did they think he had? All that money?

Karen let her mind run as she gazed out the office window. She’d been answering a couple of e-mails she’d received from the kids. Which excited her, made things feel normal. They were having a fabulous time.

The garage doors were open. She noticed Charlie’s Mustang, parked in the far bay.

Suddenly it came back to her. Just what Charlie had said: The truth, it’s always been right inside my heart, Karen.

Something did happen to you, Charlie.

Why weren’t you able to tell me? Why did you have to hide it, Charlie, like everything else? What did he say when she pressed him? Don’t you understand, I don’t want you to know, Karen.

Don’t want me to know what, Charles?

She was about to sign off on her message to the kids when her mind wandered back once again.

This time her whole body seemed to rattle.

The truth…it’s always been right inside my heart.

Karen stood up. A sweat came over her. She looked out the window.

At Charlie’s car.

You still have the Mustang, don’t you, Karen?

She thought he was just babbling!

Oh, my God!

Karen ran out of the office, Tobey trailing after her, and out the front door to the open garage.

There it was. On the rear fender of the Mustang. Where it had always been. The bumper sticker. She had seen it, passed it by—every day for a year. The words written on it: LOVE OF MY LIFE.

Written on a bright red heart!

Karen’s whole body seemed to convulse. “Oh, Charlie,” she moaned out loud. “If you somehow didn’t mean it like this, please don’t think I’m the biggest fucking idiot in the world.”

Karen knelt beside the rear bumper. Curious, Tobey nuzzled up. Karen pushed him away. “Gimme a second, baby, please.” She crouched down, her back to the ground, reached up underneath the chrome bumper, and felt around.

Nothing. What did she expect? Just a bunch of dust and grime, her hand showing black streaks all over it. She pretended she wasn’t feeling like a total fool.

It’ll explain a lot of things, Karen.

Karen reached up again. This time farther. “I’m trying, Charlie,” she said. “I’m trying.”

She groped blindly just behind the “inside” of the heart.

Her fingers wrapped around something. Something small. Fastened to the inside of the fender.

Karen’s heart started to race. She pushed herself farther underneath and stripped the object away from the edges of the chrome.

Whatever it was peeled off.

It was a small bundle, tightly bound in bubble wrap.

Karen stared incredulously at Tobey. “Oh, my God.”