Kimani Cannon and Wynona Cannon-Longleaf-Higgins-Gunter

Kimani Cannon and Wynona Cannon-Longleaf-Higgins-Gunter’s relationship is at once intimate and strained by the consequences of family violence: Kimani grew up tending to the injuries Wynona suffered, while Wynona later urges her daughter to forgive and move forward. Their bond carries both genuine care and a disagreement over what recovery requires. When Wynona’s new marriage plans expose her to danger, Kimani’s protective instincts are tested against her mother’s insistence on making her own choices.

A Childhood Shaped by Violence

Wynona’s marriage to Kimani’s father made Kimani a witness to recurring physical and emotional abuse. Her father’s violence did not remain an adult matter behind closed doors: Kimani says that she had to heal her mother’s bruises, and that Wynona worked extra hours to save money for Kimani’s ambition to become a doctor. When the time came for college, her father took the savings from their bank account. The lost money connects the violence at home to the disruption of Kimani’s future plans, while Kimani’s efforts to care for her mother place her in a role of responsibility within the household.

The abuse followed a recognizable weekly rhythm. At fairs, Kimani remembers, her father could seem normal and might stay sober for a few weeks. The pattern resumed on Fridays: after work, he went to a bar, and someone in his group would eventually bring him home. Kimani believed it would have been safer for her mother if the men had taken him to a hotel instead. On Saturdays, while he slept late, Kimani bandaged Wynona’s wounds. When he woke and saw the bruises, he apologized, promised the violence would not happen again, and resumed his role as a loving husband and father. Wynona wanted to believe him and eventually forgave him; Kimani, who dreaded weekends because she knew what might happen at home, remembers the cycle from the position of the child made to live through it.

A beating during Kimani’s senior year of high school brought a change in Wynona’s decisions. After being taken to the emergency room, Wynona told Kimani tearfully that she did not want her daughter to think a woman had to tolerate physical abuse. Kimani was grateful that her mother found the strength to leave, but she also recognized that Wynona continued to believe a woman needed a man to survive. In Kimani’s view, that belief contributed to Wynona’s three later marriages. None of the three stepfathers abused Wynona as her first husband had, but Kimani regarded those relationships as lacking substance; none lasted more than a year or two.

Different Understandings of Forgiveness

The two women carry the same history into adulthood but draw different lessons from it. Wynona explains that she blamed herself for Kimani’s reluctance to marry, believing her decision to stay with an abusive husband had turned her daughter against marriage. Kimani acknowledges that witnessing the abuse did affect her willingness to marry, but does not want her mother to take responsibility for that choice. She believes Wynona should have left for her own sake, not because Kimani needed her to do so.

Their disagreement becomes explicit when Wynona asks Kimani to forgive her father. Wynona presents forgiveness as part of moving on: she says she has put her abusive marriage in the past and is now with someone who wants to make her happy. Kimani is not convinced that forgiveness comes easily, and she resists the implication that love or a new relationship should settle an older injury. Her account of searching for her own estranged mother, only to conclude that the woman did not deserve forgiveness, also sharpens the contrast between the daughter’s difficulty forgiving and the mother’s claim that she has done so. The novel therefore presents forgiveness not as a shared family decision but as a personal judgment shaped by what each woman has endured.

Marriage, Secrecy, and Concern

When Wynona cannot attend a wedding, she initially gives Kimani little explanation, promising to tell her everything later. Kimani remembers that the last time her mother behaved secretively, a man was involved. She does not begrudge Wynona the possibility of happiness with someone new, but her memories of the abusive marriage and the short-lived marriages that followed make her alert to the consequences of her mother’s choices.

Wynona announces that she has accepted Edward Villarosas’s proposal and wants to marry within three weeks, possibly by flying to Las Vegas. Kimani questions the speed of the plan and how well her mother knows him. Wynona answers that she and Edward enjoy one another’s company and insists that she is informing Kimani, not seeking permission. That assertion marks an important boundary: the daughter’s concern does not give her authority over her mother’s decision. At the same time, Wynona asks Kimani to bring her supposed fiancé to meet him, believing her daughter is in love and feeling relieved that she might marry. The irony is that Kimani’s engagement is fabricated; her mother’s happiness rests partly on a false account of her daughter’s romantic life.

As suspicion about Edward grows, the tension between caring for Wynona and getting to know her intended on the right terms becomes harder for Kimani to manage. Kimani recognizes that she is questioning him for reasons tied to the investigation rather than simply approaching him as her mother’s prospective husband. When Duan Jeffries suggests that Edward may be responsible for the deaths of his previous two wives, Kimani is shaken and struggles to take in the possibility. Her reaction reflects the high stakes of the investigation for her: this is not only a question about a suspect, but a threat to the future her mother has chosen.

Crisis and the Limits of Protection

The danger becomes immediate when Wynona calls Kimani from Las Vegas using another woman’s phone. She explains that her own phone battery has died and that Edward accused her of wanting to call Bennie after encountering him with Wynona the previous night. On the trip from the airport to their hotel, Wynona persuaded Edward to stop at a fast-food restaurant so she could use the bathroom; from there, she was able to make the call. She reports that Edward had been fine until they reached Las Vegas, where he began yelling and accusing her of having an affair.

Kimani urges her mother not to return to Edward’s car and to call 911 with the location. Wynona initially minimizes the situation, saying Edward needs time to think about what he is saying. That response recalls the older pattern in which apologies and promises followed violence, although the scene does not make the two situations identical: here, Kimani has a warning call and an opportunity to act. Wynona is eventually returned to Shreveport on a law-enforcement plane, sedated and resting in a hospital. Kimani asks for an additional week off work so she can stay with her mother, and keeps other family members from disturbing Wynona while she sleeps.

After the crisis, Kimani hopes Wynona will understand that happiness cannot be secured by relying on another person; she also recognizes that she must accept the same lesson herself. She intends to tell her mother the truth about her fabricated engagement and Duan Jeffries’s actual reason for coming to Shreveport: to investigate whether Edward is guilty. Their relationship thus closes on a promise of fuller honesty, not on a resolution that erases their differences. Kimani remains protective, but her care includes acknowledging that Wynona must make her own choices; Wynona’s history, meanwhile, continues to shape how both women understand love, safety, and the possibility of moving forward.