The California sun felt different from how Valentina remembered—harsher, more glaring, lacking the soft edges of Riverdale's morning light. Or maybe it was just her perception that had changed, colored by all that had happened since she'd left.
"Nice place," Duke commented as they pulled up to her mother's Spanish-style home in Palm Desert. "Your mom live here long?"
"Since the divorce." Valentina stared at the manicured lawn, the carefully tended bougainvillea. "Dad paid for it. Guilt money, she always called it, though she never refused to spend it."
Duke squeezed her hand before killing the engine of their rental car. "Ready?"
Not really, but it was too late to turn back now. Valentina nodded, squaring her shoulders as they approached the front door.
Melanie answered on the first k
