Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
I da wasn’t sure she ever wanted to see Shelby again.
The more the police uncovered about Zane’s operation and Shelby’s involvement, the less Ida recognized Shelby as the best friend and “loyal business partner” she’d supposedly known all these years.
Susan Sheridan came directly to the house the morning after Frankie’s return. She was dressed smartly in a black dress and a pair of heels, and she wore an expression that gave Ida the idea that everything would be okay. Susan had discovered the weaknesses of the beast and was prepared to strike.
Ida made a fresh pot of coffee and asked Susan if she wanted anything to eat or drink. Susan accepted a cup of coffee and clasped her hands around her mug. Because Ida was Susan’s client and Susan’s client alone, she’d requested that the other members of the family weren’t in the room during their talk. Frankie, Nellie, and Rick were upstairs, watching television together, waiting for the all clear to come back down.
“You had quite a night.” Susan arched a single brow.
Ida felt her shoulders loosen. “I’m trying to focus on the positives. My daughter is back. We’ve found the rat in my business.” She winced. “My business partner and best friend. My maid of honor.” She tried to add sarcasm to her tone, but her voice shook too much.
“It sounds like Zane threw Shelby under the bus just as soon as the police told him what they had on them,” Susan said.
Ida winced. For whatever reason, Shelby loved that man. And he betrayed her.
She wasn’t coldhearted. She still had empathy for Shelby, even if she didn’t understand her.
“She’ll go away for a long time,” Susan said.
“Wow.” Ida hung her head. “How long?”
“I’d guess ten years,” Susan said.
Ida did a quick calculation. Shelby’s daughter would be twenty-three when Shelby got out of prison. Her son would be twenty-six. She’s going to miss so much.
“Zane was wanted across seven other states for robbery, drug dealing, manipulation, and coercion. The list of his crimes goes on and on,” Susan said. “It’s very likely his real name isn’t even Zane.”
“That’s the least surprising part of all of this,” Ida said.
“True!” Susan laughed warmly. “Zane sounds like the name you’d pick for yourself if you wanted to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies across the entire East Coast, sell drugs, and manipulate women into helping you.”
“It certainly does,” Ida said. She swallowed and looked at her hands. “Do you know when Shelby and Zane met?”
“The police haven’t shared that with me,” Susan said. She folded her lips. “You know, we’ll be able to use all of this in your case with Mr. Grayson. I know it’s been a terribly trying time for you and your entire family. But you’re going to get through this. You’re going to see the light again. I promise.”
Ida was quiet. Out the window was a golden retriever running alongside a man in his twenties. The golden retriever kept turning his head to look up at his owner. He looked so smitten as if it was the happiest moment of his life.
It reminded Ida of herself and Shelby when they’d first set the stage for their company. So thrilled. So optimistic.
It was just yesterday that she’d heard Shelby telling the story of the Nantucket Sunset Cruisers to a guest on the docks.
Does that mean the story still matters to her? Does it mean that she feels guilty for what she’s done?
“I don’t know if I should see Shelby,” Ida said. “But I think I’ll hate myself forever if I don’t talk to her before the trial starts. Before things get really messy.”
Susan leaned back and tapped her pen against the table. “If you’re sure, I can arrange something like that for this week. Bail was set for her, but it’s unlikely her husband wants to pay it.”
Ida’s stomach jumped. Malcolm. What does he make of all of this?
“What’s the bail?” Ida asked.
Susan raised her eyebrow. “As your lawyer, I’d advise you not to post her bail.”
“But what would you do? If this was your best friend behind bars?”
Susan pressed her lips together and studied Ida for a long time. Ida felt scrutinized.
“I would protect my family and myself above everything,” Susan answered at last. “That woman is not your best friend. That woman wanted to throw you and your company under the bus in pursuit of her own selfish affair. Please. Remember that.”
Two days later, the police contacted Ida with news that she could come to speak to Shelby that afternoon at three. Twenty minutes. That was all she got. Twenty minutes to finish out a twenty-five-year friendship. It had to be enough.
Rick, Nellie, and Frankie sat around the breakfast table that morning with plates piled high with cheese and veggie omelets and fresh bread. Ida struggled to eat anything despite her family’s urges. There were still five hours left between her and her final conversation with Shelby, and she felt she needed to mentally and physically prepare. She decided to eat half of the omelet and take a solo walk down the beach. Her family tried to join her, but Ida refused.
What can I say to her? What can I ask?
The waves rolled onto her feet and left foam between her toes. She thought about swimming on this very beach with Shelby—maybe a hundred times, maybe a million times. She’d thought they had so many years left.
Just two minutes into the walk, Ida’s phone rang. It was the call Ida had been waiting for.
“Malcolm,” Ida said, surprised at how tender she felt toward this man. She’d never really liked him. But he didn’t deserve this.
Malcolm took a staggered breath. “I’m sorry, but I’m just calling you back now.”
Ida had called him a few times over the previous days, but he hadn’t picked up.
“I don’t know what to do,” Malcolm said. “The kids are inconsolable. They flat-out refused to go back to school next week.”
Stacy. Anthony. Ida loved them as though they were her own.
“I want to have them over soon,” Ida offered. “If they want that, too.”
“It might just hurt them more,” Malcolm said.
Ida had to understand that, even if it broke her heart all over again, to learn she might never see them again.
Everything changes in an instant.
“I’m completely blindsided,” Malcolm said. “I’ve loved Shelby to pieces since we met in college. You were there every step of the way.”
“I’ve loved her, too.”
“I didn’t suspect anything,” Malcolm stuttered. “Everything’s been normal. Better than normal, actually. We went out on a dinner date just last week! We held hands on our walk the other night.”
Ida wanted to say that she was a fantastic liar.
But instead, she said, “I think she still loves us.”
I have to believe she still loves us.
“It sounds like this guy took over her mind,” Ida finished.
“I’ve never punched anyone before,” Malcolm said. “But I would, Ida. I would.”
Ida closed her eyes and listened to the wind, the waves, and the seagulls overhead.
She wanted to get off the phone.
“You’ll let me know if you need anything?” she asked.
“Yes,” Malcolm said.
There was a moment of silence.
“We’re going to move,” Malcolm added.
Ida said she understood.
Ida arrived at the police station a full twenty minutes before her arranged meeting time with Shelby. The officers made her wait the entire twenty minutes, shivering with nerves in the waiting room. She wanted to ask why they made her wait. It wasn’t like anyone else was there.
Susan had told her that Zane was already in an alternate location—a prison, maybe, in one of the states where he was wanted for his crimes. It felt good to know he wasn’t lurking somewhere in the police station. He can’t get into any of our heads when he’s behind bars.
His lavish parties were over.
The officer with the thick gray beard called Ida’s name at three. Ida got up and walked down a long, thin, gray-painted hallway to the final door on the right. Once at the door, the officer explained that they would monitor everything from the next room. Everything would be recorded for both Ida’s and Shelby’s safety.
As the door creaked open, Ida couldn’t help but remember the first time she’d met Shelby in that dorm room a thousand years ago. Shelby had been skinny as a green bean with long, bright blond hair. She’d popped down from the top of the bunk bed, stuck out her hand, and said, “I’m Shelby Brighton.” And Ida had been so grateful she hadn’t decided to bunk with any of her friends from Nantucket. I’ll have a new friend. We’ll invent new stories together. We’ll start a fresh chapter.
So many years after that first day of college, Shelby’s face was hollow and forlorn. In all gray scrubs, she sat on the other side of a low table with her hands clasped. She wasn’t wearing handcuffs. Perhaps she’d been labeled “not dangerous.”
But what is danger? Ida thought. Isn’t it dangerous when the ones you love turn on you?
Ida sat down and heard the door clamp shut behind her. She had twenty minutes to make sense of this. She squeezed her hands together and tried to meet Shelby’s gaze. Shelby continued to stare at her lap.
Why am I here? Ida wondered. What do I want from her?
Seconds passed. They added up to a minute. Then another one. Ida and Shelby had never been so quiet with one another. It was startling. The room felt as though it was echoing with the weight of their silence.
Ida decided on the simplest way forward.
She decided to shrug and say, “Why?”
Shelby flinched.
But now, Ida was on a roll. “We already know what you did. There’s no question. I just want to know why. Why did you throw me and the business under the bus like this.”
Her voice was forceful and sure.
Shelby sighed. Her eyes flickered. “You know that Malcolm and I have never had the greatest marriage.”
Ida waited.
“Our relationship was always highs and lows. We were always completely in love or on the brink of divorce,” Shelby continued. “We probably shouldn’t have had the kids. That threw a wrench into everything.”
Ida shifted. Shelby loves her kids. The Shelby I know loves her kids.
“I do love my children,” Shelby countered. “Don’t get me wrong.”
“I know you do.”
Shelby sniffed. “I met Zane in early March. Remember when I took Anthony to that music competition in New York?”
Ida remembered it. Shelby had forced her to watch the video of Anthony’s five-minute drum solo more than once.
“During the trip, Anthony rehearsed long hours for two days in a row at this little studio space,” Ida said. “It meant that I could wander around the city and pretend I was someone else. Someone who hadn’t gotten married so young. Someone who wasn’t latched to a cruise business that always, always gave us so much stress.”
Ida furrowed her brow. I thought you loved the business! I thought we both loved the business!
“The music rooms were attached to the other studio spaces for painters and sculptors. That first afternoon, I wandered through the hallways, peering into studio spaces, imagining myself in all these different lives. That’s when I ran into Zane. I remember how startled I was when he came around the corner. I had never met anyone so handsome. I don’t think I ever will. He looked at me with this big, surprised smile, a smile that completely changed the trajectory of my life. I thought he was one of the art students, so I asked if he had a studio there. He said he did. He led me upstairs to the most remarkable studio I’ve ever seen. The paintings were dark and alienating but so inspiring. They opened me up to another area of expression.”
Ida had never heard Shelby speak like this before. So poetically. So earnestly. She seems like a stranger.
But Ida was captivated. She’d thought she knew all of Shelby’s stories.
“The police have suggested that that wasn’t Zane’s studio at all,” Shelby said with a wry laugh. “But he knew exactly which studio to take me to. He knew which paintings would amaze me. That says something, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it mean he really saw me for who I was? Or who I could be?
“That same afternoon, I went back to his apartment in Manhattan,” Shelby continued. “I knew already I was falling in love with him. He told me a little bit about his side hustle. He made money here and there, but he wanted to expand. He asked question after question about Nantucket and about the Nantucket Sunset Cruisers. I felt like I was the most fascinating woman in the world to him. For the first time in many years, I didn’t feel so old. I felt wanted. ”
Shelby swallowed. “You and Rick have always had a powerful marriage. You’ve always been each other’s ‘ones.’ But I never felt that way about Malcolm.”
“But you felt that way about Zane?”
Shelby nodded and burrowed her face in her hands.
“How did he validate the money he wanted from the Sunset Cruisers?” Ida asked.
Shelby looked flustered. “It’s so hard for me to remember. I feel like I’ve been out of my mind for months.”
Ida gave her a look that meant to get to the point.
“He said he needed money to pay his employees,” Shelby said. “He said he wouldn’t be able to set up his business here without it. He assured me it would only be temporary. And I told him you rarely ever checked the bank balances.”
Ida glowered at her—this stranger.
“He told me he’d pay it back in full by the end of the summer with interest. He also told me that by next year, we could leave together. Start over.”
Ida’s voice shook. “What about your children?”
Shelby spread her fingers out. “What am I supposed to say? When I was with Zane, I never thought about my children. I never thought about Malcolm. I was totally focused on Zane. What he asked me to do seemed like second nature.” She hiccuped. “And now I’m going to pay for it. I’ll never have anything I want again.”
The bearded officer soon came to retrieve Ida from the terrible cinder-block room. Ida stood too quickly, and her chair fell beneath her.
Ida met Shelby’s gaze for a split second before Shelby dropped it.
They’d see each other again at the trial.
But Ida knew she wouldn’t visit Shelby in prison. She wouldn’t spend another minute of her life loving this woman. She had to let herself free.
“Goodbye, Shelby.”
Shelby remained silent.