Chapter 79
“Sorry I had to get off the phone so quickly last night.” Tessa held her cell between her cheek and shoulder as she buckled her seat belt. “New York was calling, and Olivette had schedule changes, and we all needed to talk. And I was so tired.”
“No problem. Zack and Linny deigned to play Super Monopoly with their ‘lame’ father, and Tris was here, as per usual. His mother, too. It was quite the competitive evening.”
As per usual. A lot to unpack there , Tessa thought, as she adjusted her seat to the full upright position. Other passengers were still boarding. She had time. Picked the least contentious question first. “Super Monopoly?”
“Three boards at a time. Don’t ask.”
“With Nellie?”
“And her son, yes. He won, by the way.”
“Oh, and,” Tessa began, as if it were a logical next question, “what about Barbara? Is she back yet?”
“You’re obsessed with this, Tessa. Okay.
I’m walking. To the window. Walking, walking, walking.
Looking out the window. Nope. Her car is not there.
But maybe she’s out to lunch. Do you want her mac and cheese recipe?
Someday you’ll have to tell me about this obsession.
But hey—great about the Times list, sweetheart. You must be flying high.”
“Actually, that’s precisely true. At least, I’m about to. Guess to where.”
“No idea,” Henry said. “The itinerary is gone, remember I told you that.”
Hard to forget , Tessa thought. And Barbara could have looked at that perfectly-typed schedule every time she was in Tessa’s kitchen, delivering all that distracting food.
Or Nellie, cynically using her son Tris as a decoy while she snooped around.
Were they in it together? Either one might have snapped a picture of it on her phone, then eventually decided to swipe the whole thing.
Why would they be so blatant? Precisely because it was so blatant. I know where you are, the woman had said. I can find you at any time. And your family.
“Boston,” she told Henry now. “I’m flying to Boston.”
“What?”
“It’s a long story, and a wonderfully good one, and I’ll tell you when I get home. Home .”
“Home?”
“Yup. We’re taking off soon, and I arrive in about ninety minutes. I’ll Uber. Tell me the address again, ha ha.”
Tessa’s bad angel had suggested coming home as a surprise, to see who was there and what they were really doing, but in the end, her better nature prevailed.
Plus, Henry would be worried when he saw her unexpectedly, and that moment of concern and fear was not something she could ever inflict on him.
Game night with the suspiciously ever-present Nellie aside.
“We’ll come pick you up!” Henry sounded authentically enthusiastic. “But are you sure everything is okay?”
“More than okay. But truly, it’s easier to Uber. Then I’ll tell you everything.”
Well, not everything, Annabelle said.
Home but not home , Tessa thought, as Henry opened the front door of the house that her family lived in without her.
Enveloped in his hug, in his fragrance, she closed her eyes for a moment, then looked behind him at the galleried stairway wall, down a hallway carpeted with an unfamiliar rug, the glimmer of butter yellow from a kitchen beyond.
A place she knew but didn’t know. Like her life as an author. Like her own past.
But now she’d be here. No more Zoom. No more secret shadows. Everything in the open. For better or worse.
A stampede of footsteps down the stairs. Zack and Linny, each of whom must have grown inches in the time she’d been gone, threw themselves on top of Henry, adding themselves to her husband’s hug, and wrapped their arms around them all.
“Hey, you cute baby chickens,” she said into their shoulders. They were safe, and she was home. “I missed you every minute.” She stepped back. “Let me look. You’re so tall!”
“We are not.” Linny’s newly chopped hair was actually charming. “That’s impossible, Mom.”
“I am,” Zack said. “Soon I’ll be taller than lame-o Linny.”
Even their sniping sounded wonderful. She grabbed her suitcase handle, but Zack took it from her.
“I’ll carry it, Mom,” he said. “Do you remember where your room is?”
“Good one,” she said. Henry, in his ratty Red Sox T-shirt, looked as handsome as she’d ever seen.
His eyes twinkled with genuine welcome. She’d been suspicious of him, but maybe he was simply a good guy who’d been manipulated by someone with ugly ulterior motives.
Someone who seemed to be helping him keep his children happy.
Just like her mother had done for her. Maybe Henry had not been unfaithful, just unwitting.
Maybe. Either way, that didn’t mean he wasn’t in danger.
And she had put him there.
“Linny and I will make you a snack, won’t we, kiddo?” Henry said.
“Yum. I can’t believe I’m here. Home. Zack and I will head upstairs, and be back in a minute.”
As Tessa watched her son lug her roller bag up the staircase, she scanned the house she’d barely seen before.
The long upstairs corridor, the row of closed doors.
The master bedroom looked over the front yard, and as she and Zack entered, the top branches of a pink-flowering tree showed through open slats of the white-shuttered window.
And then. A sound.
“What was that?” Tessa frowned, looking at the ceiling. The closet. The door. “Did you hear that?”
“Gah. This dumb old house.” Zack waved her off. “It makes sounds, like all the time. It’s the trees or something, or squirrels. You’ll get used to it. We all did.”
The sounds , Tessa thought, remembering. Her imagination had made them sinister. When they were simply sounds of home. Their home. Her home.
“You okay, bud? In this new place? I hear you had some delicious mac and cheese. And listen.” She perched on the edge of the bed, grabbed Zack’s wrists, and held him in place.
“We’ll talk later about going to Maine. It’s a big decision, and I need to meet Mrs. Delaney.
And Mrs. Willoughby. About waiting on the dog. ”
“Oh.” Zack winced. “That was the secret, remember I asked you? We—”
“Yes, I do,” Tessa had to interrupt. She didn’t have much time. “Your father told me about it. And you kept that secret, honey. You’re the best. But back to Mrs. Willoughby. D’you have a picture of her? It’s so funny that I’ve never seen her.”
“If I had a phone I would, Mom.”
He plunked down beside her on the bed, pouting about the phone, and she draped an arm around his narrow shoulders. Her son . She’d do anything for him.
“Did you at least bring me hats?” he asked.
“Yes, my darling sweetheart. Hats for everyone. So, no pictures of Mrs. Willoughby?”
“Where would they even be? I don’t have a phone. Remember? I really, really, really need a phone.”
“We’ll talk about that later, too, Zackeroo.” She kissed the top of his head, and he squirmed away. “Too big for that, huh? Never. Let’s go down for that snack. We’ll get the hats, after, and you can tell me more about Mrs. Willoughby, and the Delaneys. Okay? I’d love to hear all about them.”
Zack was looking at his feet, his chunky sneakers. “It’s good you’re home, Mom.”
She would never let anything happen to him.
No matter what she had to do. If anything good could result from her manipulated childhood, or her wrenching mistake that day with Annabelle, it was that she’d vow to be fearless.
Brave. And, though she would probably have dismissed it, learn from her mother’s mistakes.
And from her own.
Tessa, Annabelle said. Give yourself some grace here. That’s what life’s about, learning from mistakes. And you’re already fearless and brave.
Zack looked up at her then, winsome. “I bet it’s fun being famous.”
“It is,” she said. “But being your mom is also fun. And I cannot wait to find out what happens next.”