“I saw Sitka and Erik together,” Aurora said.
Angeni continued to stare straight ahead.
“They talk sometimes, at night. Erik has insomnia,” Angeni said. She kept her voice calm and even. She would not let Aurora get to her.
“No,” Aurora said. “I saw them ... kissing.”
Angeni whipped her head around and stared at Aurora sitting there on the log, looking forlorn.
“You didn’t,” Angeni said.
“I did,” Aurora said. “I didn’t know if I should tell you. It worries me, given Erik’s ... history with women. I wanted to wait until you were feeling better and—”
“Why are you doing this?” Angeni asked, instant tears coming to her eyes.
“I can’t lie to you,” Aurora said.
“You are trying to sabotage things,” Angeni said. “You hate Sitka. Is that it?”
Aurora looked stunned. “What? No.”
Angeni marched toward her, pebbles and shell fragments crunching beneath her feet.
“Why are you doing this?” Angeni asked, less than a foot of space between them. “After I created this whole life for us.”
Aurora stood up so they were eye level. She shook her head vigorously. “Britt, I swear,” she said. She was slipping back into their past too. “I’m telling the truth.”
Angeni retrieved her phone from her pocket, sent a text to Erik.
Can you come get me? I’m at Manzanita Bay
“Erik’s going to pick me up,” Angeni said, before Erik had even confirmed. “I need some space. From you.”
Angeni walked past Aurora. When she got to the end of Dock Street, she took a left on Manzanita Road and walked up the highway with Freya in her carrier, drivers slowing as they passed her.
Erik texted back:
I’m in the back with Matt and Jer. I’ll send Sitka to you
Chapter 30
Sasha
Sasha was in her room, preparing to pack her bags to leave. She didn’t have a good feeling about whatever was going to happen next. There was the kiss with Erik, and now Aurora had seen those texts from Jay on her phone. She hadn’t said anything to Sasha about them, and there was a chance she didn’t know what to make of them, but she had to know Sasha was up to something. Sasha’s plan was to disappear the next day without saying goodbye, without having her big talk with Angeni about Daphne. She just wanted to go home.
“Hey,” a voice said.
Sasha flinched and turned around to see Erik in her doorway.
“Oh, hey,” she said.
He was shirtless, his skin shiny with sweat. He’d been out back with Matt and Jer, working on reinforcing the fence around the property. Nobody seemed to realize the ironic symbolism of this—their collective desire to protect themselves from the outside world when it was obvious that the internal dynamics of their commune were a more threatening problem.
“Can I ask a favor?”
She remembered what he’d said about the formula:We won’t tell Ang. She expected he would now be requesting her discretion with the kiss situation.
“Sure, yeah,” she said.
