The realization made Emersyn feel suddenly dizzy. She got to her feet, stunned by her mom's words as the truth hit her like a Mack Truck. Makayla could see something was amiss, because her brow furrowed as her daughter's body began to shake. "Emmy," she said as she placed her hands on Emersyn's shoulders. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" But Emersyn couldn't speak. She couldn't believe it. Zeke's mother had lied to him about his father his whole life. Had told him he was dead when he wasn't. And what killed her even more was the fact that she was probably the woman Kiel had been talking about when he'd told her she should go to Zeke and talk to him. The one who got away.

Zeke. Her heart was racing as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and found his name in her contacts. Ignoring her mom's questions, she pressed the call button and held the phone up to her ear, silently praying she wasn't too late. That he would answer her. But the call went straight to voicemail. She tried again, hoping for a different result. But the call just wouldn't go through. Kiel told her Zeke was leaving that night. Going back home. She checked the time on her phone. Maybe it wasn't too late. If he was still at the house, then maybe she could catch him before he left.

"Mom," she said as she turned to look at her mother for the first time since the realization hit her. "Did you drive here?"

Still clearly worried about her daughter, Makayla nodded her head. "Yes. My car it right outside the gates. Emersyn, what is going on?"

But Emersyn shook her head. There wasn't enough time to explain. They had to go. "Take me to Kiel's place. Please. I... I have to find Zeke. He's supposed to leave tonight, and I have to catch him before he does."

Her mom seemed to know better than to ask any more questions. Instead, she led Emersyn to her car, and the two of them began making their way to Kiel's house. Emersyn closed her eyes as they passed through the small town, praying silently it wasn't too late. That he hadn't left yet. Her leg bounced up and down anxiously, and she remembered the day she'd taken Zeke to meet Sal for the first time. How nervous he'd been. And as her leg shook, she was suddenly thankful she wasn't the one driving this time. She seriously doubted she'd be able to focus on the road with how nervous she felt.

A few minutes later, they pulled into Kiel's driveway, and Emersyn jumped out of the car before it had come to a full stop. She stumbled a bit as she ran up the few wooden steps to Kiel's house. Not bothering to knock, she threw the front door open. Her chest was heaving, and she could barely breathe with how much adrenaline was racing through her veins at the moment. She thought for sure her heart would burst if she didn't find him, and she had no idea what she was going to do if she was too late. God, please don't let her be too late.

"Zeke!" she called as she continued to pant, cupping her hands around her mouth to make her voice louder. "Zeke!" She ran through the living room and into the kitchen, but he wasn't there. The memories of all the dinners they'd had together in that room filled her mind, and she fought back tears. She had to find him. He had to know. "Zeke!" She screamed his name again and again, her heart dropping further and further into the pit of her stomach with each unanswered call. She felt sick with worry, and she was beginning to fear he'd left them. Left her. Not that she would blame him, after the way she acted in the hospital. All she needed was one more chance. Five more minutes with him to make everything right again.

"Emersyn?" a voice said from down the hall, and she perked up, thinking it might be Zeke. But her face fell when she saw Kiel enter the living room, his puffy red eyes clouded with concern. He looked like he'd been crying, and her heart ached at seeing him so hurt. It was all her fault. She should've listened to him sooner. Talked to Zeke while she still had the chance. "What's going on?"

"Where is he?" she asked frantically, and her worst fear was realized when her uncle's face fell. "Kiel, where is Zeke?"

He sighed and ran his fingers through his thick blond hair. Hair that matched the color of Zeke's. And as she looked at Kiel, she suddenly felt so stupid. The resemblance was uncanny now that she knew the truth. They had the same hair color. The same eyes. The same face shape. Honestly, she didn't know how she had missed it for so long. They were practically identical if you really paid attention. And she remembered how she'd thought, during that first meeting with Zeke in the graveyard, how familiar he'd looked. Because he looked like his father. Like Kiel. "Honey, Zeke left for the ferry about twenty minutes ago." He said it like it was over. Like there was no hope left. And Emersyn felt herself sinking deeper into the pits of despair. She knew it. She was too late. It was over now. She leaned against the wall between the kitchen and the living room, fighting back tears as she tried to think of what to do next.

Wait. Twenty minutes ago. He'd only left twenty minutes ago. There was still time. If they could just get to the ferry quickly, then maybe she could catch him before he got on. Her chest began beating faster as she realized all hope was not yet lost. They just had to act fast.

"My mom is outside," she said firmly, and Kiel's eyes widened in surprise. "Come on. If we hurry, we might be able to catch him."

"What are you talking about?" he asked nervously. He was looking at her like she'd finally snapped. And she couldn't blame him. Her eyes were bugged out of her skull, and her hair had to be sticking up with the number of times she'd run her fingers through it. There was a thin sheen of sweat coating her forehead, and before any could drip into her eyes, she wiped it away furiously. "Emersyn, what's going on? You're scaring me."

"I will explain everything to you on the way!" she shouted, startling him. "But we don't have a lot of time. We have to catch him before he leaves town! Let's go!"

She'd never felt so out of control before. So frantic. And Kiel must've known better than to ask questions. He just followed her to the car, where her mother was still sitting in the driver's seat, watching awkwardly as the two of them ran out of the house together. She was a little uncomfortable when Kiel got in the backseat, and she gave Emersyn an anxious glance. "Em, what's going on?" she asked, averting her eyes from Kiel's. She knew that there were still some hurt feelings between the two of them. Especially on Kiel's end. But now was not the time to discuss it.

"We need to go to the ferry," she answered as she stretched her seatbelt over her body, listening for the click sound that indicted she was strapped in safely. "And we need to get there fast. Can you do that?" Makayla didn't ask anymore questions. She just nodded and put the car in reverse, pulling out of the driveway before turning in the direction of the ferry terminal.

"What the hell is going on?" Kiel asked as his eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. Makayla shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. He looked at Emersyn, and she shook her head too, unsure how to tell him everything she'd just discovered. "Emersyn, God damnit! Talk to me!"

Kiel never swore at her. Ever. And his anger seemed to unlock something inside of her, because it all started spilling out of her mouth so quickly that she couldn't stop it even if she'd wanted to. "I found an old journal in the garage when I first got home a few months ago. I thought it was my mom's. In it, she talked about meeting a man named Ed and having an affair with him."

This shocked Kiel, and his eyes turned to slits as he glared at Makayla, who was weaving in and out of traffic, tongue between her teeth in concentration, in her attempts to get to the ferry terminal quickly. "What the hell, Makayla?" he half-shouted, his fury evident in his voice. "You cheated on Cader?" He was livid, and Emersyn understood. Cader had been his best friend, so the idea of Makayla cheating on him probably didn't sit well.

Makayla shook her head, opening her mouth to speak. But Emersyn cut her off, not yet finished with her story. "It wasn't her journal. I thought it was because she kept signing the entries with the initials MT. But the initials didn't stand for Makayla Townsend like I initially thought. They stood for Mona Thatcher."

She watched as all the blood drained out of Kiel's face and he leaned back against the backseat headrest, as if just the mere mention of Mona's name caused him great pain. "What... Mona? I don't understand."

Emersyn nodded her head. She was still trying to wrap her mind around it too. "And I was wrong about Ed too. She wasn't writing down a name. It was ED. More initials. And then my mom told me they stood for Ezekiel Daniels. I didn't know that was your full name. I've never heard anyone call you Ezekiel before."

He made a face, and she couldn't help but think of Zeke making the same expression that day in the hospital. The day she saw his name on his bracelet, and he'd told her how much he disliked it. "Because I hate it. It never fit me. The only person to ever call me that was... well, was Mona."

It was time for Kiel to come clean. "Okay, so tell me about this Mona. Who was she?"

Kiel sighed and locked eyes with Emersyn through the rearview mirror. "Mona was a friend of your mom's I met many years ago. We had an incredible summer together, and I fell crazy in love with her. I was twenty-one at the time, and I honestly believed in my heart that she was the one. There was just something about her. I don't know. I can't explain it." But Emersyn understood, because Zeke had that same something about him. It was something that couldn't be explained because it was pure magic. He must've inherited it from his mother.

"So what happened?" she asked, trying to stay on topic. "If you loved her so much, then why didn't you stay with her?"

A flash of hurt crossed his face. "I found out she lied to me. She told me, when she got to the island, that she was eighteen years old. But she was actually a sixteen-year-old runaway. Had been in and out of foster care her whole life and was running away from a particularly bad foster home. When I found out she'd lied to me about her age, I was furious. I mean, I was twenty-one, Emersyn. And I'd unknowingly slept with a minor. It could've ruined my life. We had a huge argument about it. Well, it was less of an argument and more of me just yelling at her. And then she left. I tried to find her the next day, after I'd cooled down. Went to all our places, thinking she might be at one of them. I was going to tell her I would wait for her. That I loved her, and wanted to be with her, but we had to do things right. But when I went to look for her, I couldn't find her. And I never saw her again."

It all tracked. Everything. Emersyn nodded her head, unsure how to tell her uncle about the last part of the journal. Because she was absolutely sure he didn't know. She sucked in a breath before asking, "Did you know she was pregnant?"

She watched him carefully through the rearview mirror, and saw a wave of different emotions cross his face. Surprise. Sadness. Anger. Hurt. Everything she imagined she would feel if she'd been in that same position. "Mona was pregnant?" he asked breathlessly, and Emersyn nodded her head in response. "No. I... she never said... how do you even know that?"

"It was in the journal," she answered simply. "She came to your place to tell you that she was pregnant, and how you were furious with her. You'd somehow discovered her secret, and you said she could've ruined your life. And so, after the argument, she decided to have an abortion." Kiel's face drained of any color it had left, and his eyes filled with shame. He slid his fingers into his hair as he soaked in everything she'd told him. "But here's the thing. I don't think she went through with the abortion."

Beside her, Makayla gasped as she slammed on the brakes, forcing them all to lurch forward violently in their seats. Emersyn was thankful she'd thought to wear her seatbelt, but she was silently pleased to see her mother stretch her arm out in front of her in an act of protection. Such a small act, and yet it was so maternal that Emersyn suddenly thought she would cry. She swallowed the lump down and tried to stay focused on all the things that were going on. Makayla swore under her breath and looked at her daughter and Kiel with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry! Asshole cut me off."

But Kiel didn't care about that. He was still clinging to Emersyn's words. "What do you mean you don't think she went through with the abortion?"

"I think she had the baby, and named him after his dad," Emersyn replied, tears welling up in her eyes despite her best efforts to keep her cool. And so she began to tell Kiel the most important part of the story. "And I think she raised him in the south, where she was originally from. And I think he grew up to be so much like you. In looks and personality. He hates his name too. But his mom loves it, and she's the only one in the world who calls him Ezekiel. Everyone else in the world calls him... Zeke."

Kiel's mouth fell open, and he gripped his hair with shaking fingers, his knuckles slowly turning white. "No, that's not... Zeke said his dad was dead. He said...."

Emersyn gave him a sad smile as she shook her head. "I know. But I think that's what his mom told him. I don't know why she would lie about that. Seems like such a horrible thing to lie about. But it would explain so much. Why she never wanted to talk about his dad with him. Why she would lock herself away for days any time he'd bring up the subject of his father to her. She feels so guilty about everything. About lying to the one person she loves most in the world."

A sob escaped Kiel's throat, and it pained Emersyn to hear him cry like that. "I didn't know. I had no idea. I would've been there, Emersyn. I swear I would've. When she left, I was so broken. I started drinking. And for a couple years I tried to find her. I only gave up when your dad died, and I started helping your grandparents take care of you. But I never wanted to be with anyone else. God, I would've been there!" He screamed furiously as he buried his face in his hands. "Where is Mona now?" he asked, his voice muffled by his palms.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea. My guess is she's still in Tulsa. Zeke told me he stopped talking to her after he was diagnosed. That learning he was deathly ill would destroy her, and he couldn't stand it."

Kiel laughed darkly and shook his head, sliding his hands across his tear-stained face. "I guess secrets run in the family."

She nodded. Like mother like son, she thought to herself. "So that's what we're doing. We are going to find him and tell him everything. Because he cannot leave this island without knowing who his father is. Not after everything he's gone through. I've tried calling his phone, but it just goes straight to voicemail."

"He left it at the house," Kiel said, shaking his head. "It was one of those pay-as-you-go phones anyway. And he said he didn't really have any need for it anymore. You said you hated him, so he didn't think he'd ever hear from you again. And I think I was just something that reminded him too much of what he'd lost. Plus, I think he was afraid of hurting us anymore. So he decided to leave it all behind to protect us."

That explained a lot, but it also made their situation that much more critical. If they didn't find him before he got off that ferry, then it was over. He'd be gone forever, and he'd probably never learn the truth about his real father. And worse still, his cancer would probably kill him, because he'd never get the transplant he needed. This was a life-or-death situation, and she closed her eyes again, muttering a silent prayer that they'd find him. Because despite what she'd told everyone before, she cared very much about him. Loved him with everything she had in her heart. And now that she'd found a way to possibly save his life, she had to find him. She just hoped she wasn't too late.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

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