Mercy turned away slightly, staring out over the water for a moment before answering. "When they made me leave Aspen Creek - sent me back to my mother... Well, when I turned up on her doorstep, I found out that she was married with two kids. The oldest was only a couple years younger than me. She'd been coming to see me for 16 years and somehow forgotten to tell me she had a whole family back home?"

She sighed and turned back toward him. "The kicker is that they had no idea I even existed either till I showed up that day."