Gia hadn’t slept well. She’d been disappointed by the text she’d gotten from Cormac saying he was exhausted and asking for a rain check on the bread pudding. Something about how long it took him to get back to her as well as his less-than-enthusiastic answer led her to believe he was pulling away. She knew a little about that type of thing, since she was usually the one doing it.
She kept telling herself she didn’t care—she didn’t know him all that well, anyway—and yet, strangely, she kept checking her phone hoping he’d sent her something else.
Her mother called her name. Her parents must’ve had a rough night, too, because they never slept late, and yet she hadn’t heard anything from them until now.
“What is it?” she asked, concerned that maybe Ida wasn’t feeling well. Her mother had been so fretful since Margot left. And knowing Sheldon had to be home by now only compounded the worry. No one could say what would happen next, what he would do, but his last words to Gia on the phone had certainly been ominous.
All of the anxiety had to be taking a toll—but, fortunately, Ida looked fine.
“I think it’s Margot,” Ida said as soon as Gia entered the room.
Stopping a few feet from them, Gia glanced at her father, who was wearing a pair of slacks and pulling on a shirt. He obviously already understood what Ida was talking about. “She called you?”
“No, look!” Her mother turned her phone so that Gia could see a beautiful picture of a beach at dawn. Neither Margot nor the boys were in the photo, but someone had drawn a huge heart in the sand.
“What’s this?”
“Someone just sent it to me. It’s Margot, don’t you think?” Tears filled Ida’s eyes. “It came in as a text from a number I don’t recognize, but it has to be her. This is her way of letting me know she’s thinking of me and she’s okay. Just look at that glorious, hopeful picture!”
Gia felt a measure of relief—but also a flicker of the old jealousy. She’d grown closer to her parents since she’d been home, mostly because she’d quit holding them so accountable for the mistakes of the past. She’d made her own mistakes and forgiveness was necessary on both sides.
But she’d never be what Margot was to them. Margot had been the perfect daughter. She was also the one who’d stuck around the last seventeen years. That was something Gia was just going to have to live with.
“I think so, too,” she said. The other good news was that her sister had used SMS instead of calling, which meant she hadn’t been able to block the number. “Here, let me see if we can get someone to answer.”
Using her mother’s phone, she called the number from which Ida had received that picture, and a man answered. “’Lo?”
“Um, yes, this is Gia Rossi. My mother just received a text from your number.”
“The picture of the beach?”
“That’s it.”
“Yeah, a woman and her kids drew that heart in the sand, then asked me if I’d take a picture of it and send it to this number. So I did.”
Gia arched her eyebrows as she stared back at her parents, who were clearly hanging on every word they could hear. “You’re obviously on the coast, but...where exactly?” she asked the man.
“Can’t say,” he replied.
Gia blinked in surprise. “Why not?”
“The lady who asked me to send you that pic paid me twenty dollars to keep my mouth shut. She said she just wanted to send a little love to her family and leave it at that.”
“That’s great, but...is she there with you now? If so, can you get her? This is her sister. I need to tell her something.”
“Sorry, she’s already gone.”
Gia sank into the chair in her parents’ room even though it meant sitting on top of the clothes her dad had discarded there the past few days. “How long ago did she leave?”
“Right after she had me take the pic.”
Her mind racing, Gia began to knead her forehead. How could she turn this into something that could help them? There had to be a way. “Listen, I’ll Venmo you fifty bucks if you’ll tell me where this picture was taken. Since my sister’s not there anymore, it doesn’t really matter, right? You’re not giving away anything.”
“She made me wait until she was out of sight to send that. I don’t think she’d like it if I told you where she was.”
“She’ll never know!”
He didn’t answer.
“Do we have a deal?” Gia pressed.
He covered the phone while discussing her offer with someone in the background—it sounded like a woman. “Okay,” he said when he came back on.
“You’ll do it?”
“For fifty bucks? Why not?”
“What’s your Venmo?”
“I’ll text it to you.”
She sent the money. Then, as soon as he said he got it, she asked him again. “So...what beach are you at?”
“Huntington,” he said and disconnected.
“Huntington,” she repeated to her parents. “Do you know where Huntington Beach is?”
They both shook their heads, so she asked Google. “Orange County, California,” she read aloud. “Margot went to Los Angeles!”
“That’s so far away,” Ida said.
“And LA’s a big place,” Leo added, sounding discouraged. “How are we ever going to find her there?”
Gia shook her head. “I have no idea, but it’s a start. It feels better knowing even that much, doesn’t it?”
Ida took her phone back, looked at the picture of the heart drawn on the beach and smiled as she pressed the screen to her chest. “It certainly does.”
Over the next few days, Gia felt she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but she wasn’t sure exactly what that would look like. She and her parents were hoping for some new word from Margot while fending off calls and texts from Sheldon and his parents, who were getting angrier by the day and beginning to accuse them, once again, of knowing more than they did.
Of course, they didn’t tell the Nelsons that Margot had been in Southern California. Since they had no idea whether she was still there, even if they were willing to share that information, which they weren’t, they doubted it would help.
In the middle of the tension growing between the two families, friends and neighbors who’d heard about Margot were stopping by to console Ida. That gave her some extra support, but it also meant she heard what Sheldon’s family was telling everyone—that Margot had been a terrible wife and mother and he was the stable one of the two, with a home and a job, and thus deserved custody of the boys.
As upsetting as that was, at least the constant flow of people kept Ida so busy Gia felt safe leaving the house. She needed a break.
She went for drinks with a handful of members from the Banned Books Club on Saturday night and enjoyed it; this time there was no drama. Then she met Sammie at Wakefield Pub & Brewery on Sunday for brunch. But her time with Sammie wasn’t proving to be quite as fun. Her friend kept asking questions about Cormac, and that was the last thing Gia wanted to talk about, because she hadn’t heard much from him. Since he’d put her off on the bread pudding, she’d received only one cursory text. It’d come the next day, while he was at the clinic, she assumed, and simply said he hoped she was doing as well as could be expected considering what was going on with her sister.
It was nothing that had even invited a response.
He seemed to have backed away from their friendship.
She told herself she didn’t need him anyway; she’d never been unable to get over a man. But even though they hadn’t spent a great deal of time together, she missed him. He’d been the one bright spot amid all the problems she’d been dealing with since returning to Wakefield, and thoughts of the way he smiled or kissed—or teased her by rubbing his beard growth on her neck when they were cuddling in bed—intruded despite her best attempts to bar those memories from her mind.
She felt they’d made a meaningful connection, that he’d overcome who she was and she’d overcome who he was to get to know the person behind the name and reputation. So she didn’t understand why he’d suddenly bailed out.
Maybe cutting ties with her gave him a better chance of reconciling with his sisters...
“You’re making too big a deal out of it,” she told Sammie. “Cormac and I are just friends, which is monumental enough, considering the past, right?”
“Absolutely,” she agreed. “He’s just so picky when it comes to women. Ruth said he’s never even given her a second look, and yet he wants to get involved with his family’s mortal enemy. We can’t help wondering how you two got together in the first place.”
“I get it. Like I said, it started out as commiseration and sort of went from there. So...what’s going on with Ruth these days?” Gia was interested in the answer to this question, but she was also hoping to change the subject.
“You haven’t heard from her?”
“Not since right after the Banned Books Club meeting. I think she’s become too close to Edith to be friends with me.”
“I didn’t realize they knew each other that well, but I think you might be right. It’s too bad she can’t be friends with both of you, especially now that everyone knows it was Mr. Hart who lied about that incident in high school.”
Gia wiped her mouth with her napkin. “Everyone knows that?”
“Yeah. You haven’t heard?”
Gia picked up her strawberry lemonade. “I’ve been almost entirely out of circulation. Why don’t you fill me in?”
“Cormac didn’t tell you?” Sammie said. “I heard Mr. Hart more or less admitted to him that your version of events was the right one.”
That’d happened right before Gia had slept with Cormac for the first time. But she’d thought Cormac had agreed not to tell Edith and Louisa—or anyone else so that it wouldn’t get back to them. Why had he gone ahead? “Does that mean they’re finally willing to accept the truth?” she asked.
“I don’t think they really have a choice—although Mr. Hart’s saying he didn’t admit to anything.” She rolled her eyes. “He claims Cormac is just saying that because he’s become infatuated with you. But they know Cormac wouldn’t outright lie, especially about that, so, yeah, they have to believe it.”
She took a sip of her lemonade. “I’m sorry they had to be disillusioned about their father.” She’d tried to let them go on just as they had been, but she doubted anyone other than Cormac would believe that.
“Thank God the truth has been established once and for all,” Sammie said. “Mr. Hart has been so unfair to you.”
Gia put her lemonade back down. “He’s hardly apologetic, even now. Because he didn’t ‘hurt’ me physically—or really get anywhere sexually—he thinks there shouldn’t have been a penalty, especially such a harsh one.”
Sammie grimaced. “Ew. He’s so gross. It was more than the fondling. It was that business with your grade, right? At least now everyone knows that the court got it right and maybe those involved, like you and your family and Cormac and his family, can get some closure.”
“I hope so. I’d like to put it all behind me and forget about it at last.”
Sammie was about to say something else when her eyes fastened on a spot over Gia’s right shoulder and she put down her fork.
Gia twisted around to see what had caught her attention and saw Sheldon sitting with Cece in a corner booth. Apparently, since Margot had left town, he wasn’t particularly concerned about being seen out and about with his other woman.
“That’s brazen,” Sammie whispered.
Gia curved her fingernails into her palms to help contain her anger. “He thinks he’s untouchable, that once Margot is found, he’ll get his money and his kids back and toss her aside with nothing.”
“Do you think he’ll ever find her?”
“That’s a good question,” Gia said and glared at Cece until she noticed and touched Sheldon’s arm, who looked back and locked eyes with her.
Sammie leaned in. “I wonder what he’s thinking.”
Sheldon gave them a defiant “kiss my ass” grin before turning back to his girlfriend, and that was when Gia vowed that she wouldn’t let him get the best of Margot, no matter what it cost her.
Why did you tell Louisa and Edith, after all?
That text came from Gia on Sunday evening while Cormac was watching a football game he’d recorded earlier. The Jets were playing. They were his favorite team, had been since he was a kid simply because his best friend’s father had been a Jets fan and watched game after game with them. His own dad had shown more interest in books than sports.
But Cormac had been having trouble paying attention to the game even before Gia texted him. Just knowing she was so close, right in the house behind him, had made for a long week. He’d forced himself to stay away from her, but whenever he was home, he had to fight the impulse to go to the window every few minutes to see if she was in her parents’ backyard.
He couldn’t understand why he wanted to see her so badly. They’d had a good time together, and he knew she was a nice person. But there was no way they could ever get into a serious relationship. If she was leaving town, he’d have to say goodbye to her eventually. It made sense not to get too close.
Besides, his family had accepted the truth about his father, and his sisters were slowly beginning to speak to him again. Louisa had acted more like herself on Friday than she had in over a week. Part of it was because he’d told her he wasn’t involved with Gia anymore, that whatever had flared up between them was already over. If letting go of her a little early helped to placate his sisters, he felt that was probably the best way to go.
But that approach sounded better during the day when he was working with Louisa than at night when he was home alone and could be seeing Gia. And now she’d sent him a direct text, so of course he had to respond:
You mean about my dad admitting what he did? Long story. But they’ve been told. And as hard as that was for them—especially with my dad acting like such an ass and still trying to deny it—I’m glad everyone knows *you* aren’t to blame for anything.
He set his phone aside and went back to watching the game, but he found his mind drifting almost immediately. He was waiting for her to respond.
Five minutes passed, then ten minutes, then fifteen. When all he got was a mere thumbs-up an hour later, he realized that was probably all he was going to get, and he couldn’t blame her. He hadn’t invited further conversation. He’d purposely held back so he wouldn’t spark more interaction.
“Just hang on and see it through until she leaves,” he told himself when he was tempted to send a follow-up text.
Turning the channel to a sports news program he could listen to while cutting up vegetables to take to work with him in the morning, he moved into the kitchen. But it was only a few minutes later when he saw the porch light snap on over at the Rossis’ and found himself running up the stairs to look out his bedroom window.
Sure enough, Gia was getting into the hot tub.
Cormac knew Gia had to have heard the gate open when he came through it, but she didn’t look over. “Hey,” he said.
She continued to stare up at the stars as if he hadn’t spoken.
He’d taken the time to throw on a pair of sweats before coming outside. It was growing colder by the night. “How are things going with Margot?” he asked, walking to the edge of the hot tub.
She still didn’t look over at him. “They aren’t going,” she said. “Nothing’s happening there. We haven’t heard from her, don’t know where she is.”
She’d said it mechanically, as if she’d repeated it a dozen times, which let him know that was the official statement she was giving everyone. He wondered if it was true. “I’m sure you’re worried about her. I’m sorry.”
“We’ll manage.”
With that simple two-word response, she’d already dismissed him. He should leave. After all, he was the one who’d put this distance between them with how he’d behaved this week and how he’d just responded to her text, which might’ve been her way of trying to reestablish communication with him.
But he’d always been attracted to her, and that hadn’t changed, so he couldn’t help trying to engage her again. “Sheldon’s been saying a lot around town—about how he’s going to find her and take custody of the kids.”
“I’ve heard that.”
“You’re not concerned?” he asked.
“He wasn’t a great father to begin with. Those boys are better off with their mother.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “But you won’t be the one who gets to decide, right? He’ll take her to court if he finds her. It’ll turn into a battle.”
“With any luck, he won’t find her.”
“She plans to stay gone indefinitely?”
“I think so.”
He whistled. “Wow. She’s serious.”
“We obviously didn’t understand how truly unhappy she was. I feel bad about that.”
“Gia...”
At the change in his tone, she finally looked at him. “Is this where you tell me you still want to be friends, Cormac?” she asked.
He stared down at his tennis shoes, trying to figure out what he really wanted to happen from here. He knew he’d be a fool to go back to what they’d started. She had a life somewhere else. That was why he’d backed away to begin with—but it didn’t hurt that it helped patch things up with his family, too. “I honestly do, you know.”
“Fine. Consider us friends,” she said and grabbed her towel as she got out and went back inside.
Margot was so excited her hands were shaking. Getting a new identity opened up the world. She could sell the Subaru, buy a new car, get a phone, rent an apartment, apply for jobs—start over. So much had depended on a new social security number and driver’s license. And it hadn’t been that hard to get. She’d had to brave the dark web and pay in Bitcoin, and she’d had to trust the unnamed person on the other side of the transaction to deliver with authentic-looking documents. But what she got looked real. Amazingly so.
“Did that come in the mail, Mommy?” Greydon asked from the back seat, where he was watching a movie on her iPad with his brother. “What is it?”
Margot set the torn envelope on the empty passenger seat. She’d rented a PO Box on the other side of LA and had the documents sent there. She wasn’t about to give anyone she didn’t know the address of their motel, and she certainly wasn’t about to meet a stranger in person, especially one involved in illegal activity. She didn’t have anyone to watch the boys and couldn’t risk taking them into a potentially dangerous situation. So she’d had to trust that the person she’d paid would actually send the items she’d purchased and, after driving in two hours of traffic for three days straight and finding nothing, was infinitely relieved that he’d finally followed through. “It’s what I need to be able to get us into an apartment,” she told him. “Won’t that be nice?”
“What’s an apartment?” he asked.
“It’s sort of like the motels where we’ve been staying,” she told him.
He clapped his hands together. “Can we get one with a pool?”
“Maybe,” she said. “We’ll have to see what’s available.”
Greydon went back to the movie while she continued to marvel at the quality of her new documents. “Margaret Lane...” she said aloud in an effort to get used to her new name. “Margaret Lane... Hello, I’m Margaret Lane... This is Margaret Lane. I’m not available right now, but please leave your number at the beep.”
“Why are you saying ‘Margaret Lane’ over and over again?” Matthew asked.
“I’ve decided to go back to Margaret,” she told him.
“Go back to Margaret?” he repeated, obviously confused.
“That’s my real name. Margot was just a nickname.” She’d chosen her new last name from Lois Lane in the Superman movies. Not only did she like the way the two names rolled off her tongue, “Lane” was short and easy to spell.
“Oh,” he said as if it wasn’t particularly remarkable—and that was it as far as probing questions from her children.
She smiled. Kids were so flexible. She felt she’d gotten away from Sheldon just in time, before the boys were old enough to know what she was doing and to tell other people about it.
She dug deeper into the file she’d taken from the envelope and found the three birth certificates she’d also purchased. One was for her, in case she ever needed it. There was no way she wanted to have to go onto the dark web again. The other two were for the boys, so their last name would still match hers. They’d need birth certificates when she enrolled them in school. She didn’t think there was any way Sheldon, his family or even the cops could track every child who went to public school. There was no big repository of information on all American students, no computer search that could be done, so she could’ve let them keep Sheldon’s name and simply explained to anyone who asked that she was divorced and was using her maiden name.
But it would be so much more difficult to change their surname when they got older, if she wanted to, that she’d decided to make the switch now and keep it clean and consistent. With enough time, they probably wouldn’t even remember that anything had changed. She’d let them keep their first names, which was about all they identified with at this point. Changing those would be far more impactful.
With a relieved sigh, she put the documents back into the file and set it on the passenger seat on top of the envelope. Then she adjusted her rearview mirror to be able to see her children in the back seat. “You boys still buckled up?”
“Yep,” they said, and she put the Subaru in Drive.
“Who’s hungry?” she asked as she pulled out of the post office. “Should we get some lunch before we drive back to the other side of town?”
“Can we have pizza?” Greydon asked.
“I don’t see why not. And after that we can go look at a few apartments.”
They didn’t respond. The movie must’ve hit a high point because they were both glued to the iPad. They’d had way too much screen time lately. She had to get them back in school, hated that they’d already missed two weeks. But she had what she needed, so she’d get on top of everything.
It was only a matter of time.