I focus on the road. She is right to be angry, but not at Zach. “Celeste, it’s not Zach’s fault.”
Celeste takes a deep breath, turns, and reaches her hand out to Zach in the back seat. “You’re right. I love you for you. It’s not about your family.”
I swallow. I shouldn’t punish Zach for the sins of his father. It’s not right.
“I love you, Celeste,” Zach says. “We’re meant to be.”
“OK, you two. We need to get going if Zach’s going to make his flight,” I say. “Are you sure you want to come home with me, honey?”
Celeste looks at me and nods. “Can’t wait. We both need some down time after this weekend.”
Yes, we do. More than she even knows.
54
Beth
The lovebirds reluctantly parted ways at LAX as Zach hustled to make his flight.
We drive in silence for a while, and then Celeste says, “Was there ever anything between you and Ryan? I mean, he seemed to follow you around a lot, and he was always touching you, your shoulder, your arm. It was sort of creepy, to be honest.”
No, there is absolutely nothing there. One big mistake. Some things are best left buried in the past if at all possible.
“When your best friend is dating somebody seriously, like Sunny and Ryan, it’s natural to create a relationship with him,” I say. “He was always around.”
“I guess,” she says. “But it seemed like more. I don’t know. And then he had that young woman hidden away someplace. Where did she come from? The woman in the driveway when we left?”
I look over at Celeste. Where did she come from? A secret room in a secret house in the beautiful, now damaged compound that Ryan designed for his dead girlfriend and his new girlfriend, who looks just like her. It’s much simpler than that.
“She came from Ryan’s desire to bring Sunny back to life,” I say. “Grieving the loss of a loved one, especially a romantic partner, is a deeply personal and complex experience.”
“I hope I never have to find out about that,” she says with a sigh.
“Oh, unfortunately, you will, honey. That’s the saddest part of love. People cope in various ways. Ryan coped by sleeping with Roxy, falling into the arms of someone who put herself there for him, at every turn. Someone the opposite of Sunny, but it wasn’t a fit; it never was a fit,” I say. “Now he’s finding companionship with a young woman who shares physical similarities with Sunny. There’s no wrong or right way to handle grief.”
I debate whether to tell Celeste that Ryan had been stalking us her entire life, stalking her, too, to ruin my life. To make sure I died alone, with Celeste sucked into their family and me left on the other side. He hated me, blamed me for everything that happened to Sunny, even though we both fell into each other’s arms. He turned his own guilt into rage against me, incapable of blaming himself. I don’t want to scare Celeste any further, and thankfully, she’s out of the Gentrys’ clutches for the time being.
“That had to freak you out, Mom. She looks like Sunny, exactly the way you described her to me, frozen in time. You’vegot to admit it was a little, I don’t know, wrong,” she says. “His wife and kid were there.”
And Celeste hadn’t even seen the mannequin fall from the sky.
“It was wrong, for sure. Unfortunately, I have more experience with disappointing men than you do. I hope you never do,” I say. “Zach’s a good guy. You’ll have a wonderful life together.” I smile at her and pat her shoulder. I pray he won’t break my favorite daughter’s heart, but fate may have other plans.
“I hope so, Mom. I really do,” she says. She turns on the radio and flips to an all-news station. “I want to hear about the storm.”
The voice over the radio says, “So far, there have been two confirmed deaths due to the severe windstorm experienced in Palm Springs. A forty-five-year-old woman smashed her car into a tree, and a fifty-year-old man drowned in a pool during the storm. Their names have not been released pending notification of relatives. Damage estimates continue to grow as many trees are down and the power has not been restored to the area.”
Amelia and Brett. Once they discover who Amelia is, that she is on the cover of every society magazine in Southern California and Washington, DC, her story will get much more attention. I think about her kids, now orphans without a mom or a dad, and hope there is extended family to help them through all of this. Brett will be a footnote, I’m afraid, and likely won’t be linked to her at all.
That’s the thing about choices and fate. Roxy chose to drugSunny. Jamie chose not to help her when she was dying in the pool. Ryan chose to marry Roxy, who he didn’t love, because of the son he knew he would. I chose the wrong man to marry, but I now have a beautiful daughter I wouldn’t trade for the world. Brett chose to come along on the engagement weekend to torment Jamie, I suppose, and in a twist of fate, died because of her. And poor Amelia. She chose to crash this engagement weekend, I think, to torment us all, to wield her power. She had been blackmailing Roxy, and I know, I know, she would have blackmailed Jamie next, despite her promise not to do so.
Deep in my heart I have a feeling. A feeling that Sunny—the real Sunny—was there this weekend in the desert, watching over us in spirit. And deep in my heart, and my soul, I believe that Amelia got what she deserved. And maybe Sunny played a role in it. I know I sound as confused as Ryan, but I believe it. As soon as I reached the mangled car, I felt it. Amelia never confessed to anything, but the way she gloated when everyone began confessing, the way her eyes sparkled, the sinister red lipsticked, pursed-lip smile.
I wish Sunny could tell me herself, but in a sense, I think she did.
“Mom…” Celeste says, and I jump.
“Yes, sorry, lost in thought,” I say. “What is it?”
