“Mom?”
“Jo?”
My mother’s voice brought me back to the night Samson died. It had been past midnight when my phone rang, and I’d nearly bumped my head on Britt’s bunk when I sat up, thinking it was morning and my alarm was going off. It had been disorienting, waking up in the middle of the night to the wordMomflashing on the screen.
Jo, my mother had said then, her voice thin and wavering. I hadn’theard her so broken since Dad died. For the last seventeen years she’d been nothing but angry.
When she’d told me about Samson, I hadn’t felt anything. Not right away. Because it was impossible. I’d only seen him two months before, when I’d come up for New Year’s Eve. We’d talked about going to a Marlins game. I’d watched him feed a spider to the Venus flytrap Kitty had gotten him for Christmas. At the time he died, I was throwing a black light party in the Sky Lounge.That can’t be right, I’d thought.
“Jo?” my mother said again, bringing me back to the condo. I thought of Beth and Mark. Had something happened to one of them?
“Yes, Mom?”
“How are you?”
How are you?I breathed a sigh of relief—no one was in danger. But even so, I was on edge. “I’m... fine. Just work and spending time with Mia and Kitty. How are—”
“Have you talked to your sister lately?”
My stomach sank. As I’d predicted, Mom had bad news to bear. “Not for a few days.”
“You might want to check on her. Mark moved out yesterday, and I know how close you two are.”
A tinny buzzing started in my ears, making it hard for me to hear what she said next. Something about an apartment downtown, Beth looking for boxes. “Mark... moved out? But I thought they were working on things.”
“Life isn’t a fairy tale, Jo.”
As if I didn’t already know that. “Yeah, Mom. I’m aware.”
“Well, call your sister.”
“Okay, I will.”
I waited for her to say something, anything. But after a few seconds of silence, she only said, “That’s all I wanted to tell you. Love you,” and hung up.
I lowered my phone, my hands shaking as I navigated to my favorites and tapped on my sister’s name. I’d known Beth and Mark getting divorced was a possibility, of course I did. But this was Beth and Mark! And even though I’d told myself love only ends in hurt, I’d held on to a thread of optimism for them. Hadn’t they been through enough already?
“Is it true?” I said as soon as she answered.
“Where are the girls?”
I leaned back into my office chair. “Walking to the pier with Nina.”
Beth sighed, and the sound confirmed everything.
“So it is true.”
“Did Mom call you? Because I told her—”
“What? To keep it a secret from me? I can’t believe you’d tell Mom before me. I can’t believe this is happening at all.”
“This is why I didn’t tell you. And I didn’t tell Mom, she dropped by without warning, and it was obvious Mark was packing his stuff.”
I leaned back into my chair and spun a lazy circle with my eyes closed. “But on the phone you two sounded so... good?” The last I’d spoken to them, Mark had called her Betty, the nickname he’d had for her since high school. I hadn’t heard him say it in so long; I’d thought it was a good sign.
“It’s not like we hate each other,” Beth said. “It’s mutual. Amicable.”
“But you still love him, right?”
