“I mean, sick? Tired? I don’t know.” Alexander studied his wine, unable to look at either of them.
Nina raised her shoulders. “She’s nicer to me. But I think she’s had a lot of time to think.”
“Maybe she’s softening,” Charlotte offered. “But she’s a woman with secrets. Sometimes I think those secrets are eating her alive.”
Alexander furrowed his brow and contemplated this. It didn’t seem entirely rational to him, especially when he considered her bodily health, but he decided to let it go.
The night was now entirely black, peppered with bright stars. It was an altogether different atmosphere than the one he’d hidden from back in Florence. He was grateful.
He turned to look at Nina, lovely Nina, and whispered, “I know the identity of your mother. And I know why she never reached out to you. Well, she tried.”
Chapter Twelve
August 2025
Venice Beach, California, and Nantucket Island
It was the first day of August, and several days into Chloe’s stint in Venice Beach, when Chloe finally admitted to Janie what she wanted to do. She had a plan, which was more than Janie could say about herself. She was still hiding out in Venice, ignoring Alexander’s calls, watching the news for more signs that he’d done what they’d said he’d done, and waiting for her children to demand answers.
The thing was that her children seemed to be flourishing in Venice Beach. They knew not to pester their mother about their father. They were emotionally intelligent, perhaps even more than Janie herself.
When Chloe finally said something about her next steps, they were at the beach, watching Gwen, Conor, and Xander surf their hundredth wave of the week, sipping sparkling water, and exposing their stomachs to the bright sun above. Janie still hadn’t gotten over how comfortable it was to be back with Chloeagain. Janie felt both twenty and forty-nine at once. She felt like all the ages she’d been since she’d met Chloe at that fish restaurant in Nantucket in 1996. Chloe’s voice, her laughter, her stories—they echoed through the years. And Xander, Conor, and Gwen all called her Aunt Chloe and had barely questioned her arrival, though they hadn’t seen her in several years.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Janie said, rolling onto her stomach and stretching her arms across the hot sand. “I thought I was going to go insane.”
Chloe smiled and pulled her curls into a loose bun. Her eyes reflected the glowing ocean. “I could hear it in your voice on the phone. It reminded me of my darkest moments.”
Janie sat up on her elbows and looked at her friend’s beautiful profile. Just like many friends, she wished she could take her best friend’s pain away.
Look at what the Whitmores have done to us, she thought.But I am a Whitmore! My children are Whitmores!
In the distance, Gwen cried out in ecstasy as she rode another wave. She was fast becoming better than her brothers, and Xander was growing both resentful and proud.
“How long do you want to stay in Venice?” Chloe asked, her voice wistful. It was a logistical question, the likes of which they hadn’t offered to one another since Chloe’s arrival.
Janie let her head fall on her towel. “I don’t know. Do you think I can hide here forever? Or should I move the kids and myself to New Zealand or something? China? Colombia?”
Chloe snorted. “No. I don’t think it’s good to keep running away.” She reached for one of the apples they’d brought and took a massive, crunchy bite. “If anything,” she said after a long time of chewing, “I think we should run toward our problems. Face them.”
Janie’s stomach twisted. She sat upright and wrapped her arms around her knees. But as much as she wanted to protestwhat her friend said, a part of her knew Chloe was correct. Running like this was doing nothing but giving her nightmares.
“What do you have in mind?” she asked.
Chloe’s smile was mischievous. “Don’t you want to get to the bottom of all this? Don’t you want to know what’s really going on with the Whitmores?”
“I don’t know if anyone knows,” Janie said tentatively.
Chloe curled her fist through the sand and squinted. “Benjamin knows.”
Janie winced. Chloe had hardly mentioned Benjamin since she’d arrived in Venice, but Janie knew Chloe well enough to recognize that Benjamin was in Chloe’s thoughts all the time. He was like her permanent ghost.
“He didn’t die,” Chloe murmured.
Janie put her face in her hands and didn’t speak for a good five minutes. The heat on her shoulders became so unbearable that she thought she might have a panic attack.
Finally, Janie whispered, “Where would we run to discover anything?” Her voice was edged with a sarcasm that she wanted to take back.
“We can’t stay on the West Coast,” Chloe breathed. “We have to go east. To Nantucket.”
