Marin looked a little bit older than she had when Charlotte last saw her. A little bit leaner, as if her recovery from the accident had toughened her up. Charlotte wanted to know everything she’d been through over the last two years. Since today’s showing had been a bust, they’d see more houses together. Maybe this could turn into a friendship.
Charlotte could use a new friend, and more than that, she felt an indescribable desire to have Marin in her life for longer than it took to find her a house. She wasn’t sure she believed in fate anymore, but surely there was a reason they’d found each other again. Sitting here now, Charlotte felt lighter than she had in months, maybe years.
“So,” Marin said, then sipped her coffee. A bright smile lit her face. She’d smiled so much today. She seemed happier than the woman from Charlotte’s memories, more vibrant in some indefinable way.Whatever changes she’d made to her life recently, they seemed to suit her. In fact, Charlotte was a bit envious, given her recent downward spiral.
“Where do we start?” Charlotte asked, suddenly overwhelmed by all the things that had led them to this moment.Tell me everything,she wanted to beg.I want to know absolutely everything about you.
“Let’s start with you, if you don’t mind,” Marin said, and there was something guarded in her expression now, as if she’d heard Charlotte’s silent plea. “I feel like our interactions so far have revolved mostly around me.”
Charlotte swallowed her disappointment. They had time. “Fair enough.”
“What brought you back to Vermont?” Marin asked.
“I’m looking for answers.” She sipped her coffee, debating how much of the story to share. Her mother’s disappearance was common knowledge among everyone she’d known while she was growing up, but she’d lived outside that shadow for most of her adult life. It was one of the reasons she’d left this town in the first place.
Marin watched her, seemingly waiting for Charlotte to elaborate. She was a striking woman. Marin might not be considered conventionally beautiful, but she had such warm brown eyes. High cheekbones. And her chestnut hair was glossier than Charlotte remembered. Anyway.
Charlotte exhaled slowly. “My mom disappeared when I was ten, just ... headed out for her monthly book club meeting, and no one ever saw her again.”
“Shit.” Those eyes Charlotte had just been admiring were wider now. “How awful. I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. It was pretty terrible. Suddenly everyone at school was whispering behind my back. There were so many rumors. You know how kids are. Some people said she’d run off with her secret lover. Some people figured my dad killed her and hid the body. There were a million theories, and they all hurt.”
“Did the police have any theories?” Marin asked.
Charlotte lifted one shoulder, tracing a finger back and forth over her coffee cup. “They don’t put in too much effort when an adult goes missing, if there’s no evidence of foul play. I think they assumed she just left us. That’s not a crime.”
“No, but it’s not an easy thing for a child to accept about her mother.”
“Definitely not,” Charlotte said. “My dad hired a couple PIs over the years, but neither of them was able to find her.”
“What do you think happened?”
Charlotte sighed. “Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve gone around in circles about it most of my life. I just can’t accept that she would voluntarily leave us to wonder if she’s alive or dead, but there was never any evidence that something happened to her. Whatever I feel about my dad, there’s not a violent bone in his body. I just can’t imagine him hurting her.”
Marin cocked her head slightly. “So you’re here now trying to find out what happened?”
Charlotte nodded. “I know it’s a long shot. I mean, it’s been thirty years. The trail is cold, but I’m going to give it my best. My other reason for being here is to try to repair my relationship with my dad.”
“Were you close before she disappeared?”
Charlotte rolled her lips inward. “Yes. My early childhood was magical, or at least that’s how I remember it. My dad was the fun dad, you know? He’d take me on hikes and play with my toys, read me as many bedtime stories as I wanted. Then after she disappeared, he just ... shut down. He left me with babysitters, never seemed to want anything to do with me. Looking back as an adult, I can see that he was grieving, but at the time, it felt like I’d lost both parents, and I hated him for abandoning me like that. I left Vermont after high school and never looked back.”
“Do you have other family here in town or just your dad?” Marin asked.
“Just my dad. My parents had both moved to Vermont to work at the university, so my aunts, uncles, and cousins are scattered up and down the East Coast. I don’t see them in person as often as I’d like.”
“My family is somewhat scattered, too, so I get that.”
“I pretty much cut ties with everyone in Vermont when I left, even my friends from high school.” Charlotte sucked in a deep breath, meeting Marin’s eyes. “After watching you die—or thinking I had watched you die—it felt like a wake-up call, a reminder of how short life can be. I’ve been running around ever since, trying to do all the things I would have regretted not doing if it had been me lying in that street.”
Marin flinched. “I suppose I’ve been doing the same thing. Ironic that that moment somehow led us to this one.”
“Feels kind of fated, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” Marin agreed. “And I say that as a person who—prior to almost dying—didn’t believe in fate. I was the least superstitious person I knew. I didn’t even believe in luck. I thought it was all nonsense. Give me numbers. Now those make sense.”
“No wonder you looked so skeptical when I read your horoscope.”
