Chapter 22
In the very next room to the left, Juliet was in a similar panic.
Throwing her shoes into the corner, she collapsed on the bed and felt tears drain from the corners of her eyes.
There was no reason to be crying. There was no reason to pick apart the lovely evening she’d spent with Theo and ask herself what had gone wrong.
But why was she crying?
It was nearly eleven at night, which meant that calling Ivy to check on Danica was probably out of the question.
Ivy had to wake up early to open the flower shop, and she needed everyone to respect her sleep schedule.
But Juliet had arranged for her daughter to spend the night with Ivy during her trip to the city, which, she knew, had activated a whole gossip channel through the Harper family about the state of Juliet and Theo’s relationship.
“We’re not falling in love,” Juliet had said to each of her sisters, over and over again, as she and Theo had thrown themselves through the process of reigniting the restaurant.
But going to the city with a man like this was certainly cause for conversation. Juliet understood that.
Juliet texted Celia, Ivy, and Danica, telling them she was in for the night and wishing them well. Ivy wrote back immediately, her text sounding groggy, if only because she mistyped a few words.
IVY: It’s sweet u brought dan w u. She was so happy to go.
At this, electricity shot through Juliet.
Brought Dan with you? Juliet jumped to her feet again, calling Ivy.
But maybe Ivy had only woken up for the briefest of moments, long enough to write that message.
Ivy didn’t answer, and when Juliet called Danica, Danica’s phone went straight to voicemail.
Immediately, all the fears about having a teenage daughter crashed through Juliet, and she burst into tears.
Obviously, Danica had told Ivy that she was going to the city with Juliet and Theo after all. Ivy had believed her, because, why wouldn’t she? She hardly knew Danica. She didn’t know what Danica was capable of.
Then again, did Juliet know what Danica was capable of? She was beginning to think she was a stranger.
That morning before Juliet and Theo had left, Juliet had sat with her daughter, watching as Danica made a list of the things she wanted to pack for Aunt Ivy’s place.
Juliet had asked if she wanted to be driven to Aunt Ivy’s, or if Danica would rather walk herself down, and Danica had laughed and reminded her mother that she wasn’t a kid anymore.
“Besides, you’ve been so busy the past few weeks,” Danica had said, which had felt loaded.
“I can walk, like, ten minutes by myself.”
Again and again, as her fear mounted, Juliet called her daughter.
She called Ivy. She called Celia. She wasn’t sure if she was overreacting, if Danica was actually asleep, if she’d wake up tomorrow to a thousand phone calls.
But Juliet wasn’t embarrassed. She wouldn’t be embarrassed if this all turned out to be a fluke.
Please, she prayed, let this be a fluke!
It wasn’t till a little after midnight that she thought of her daughter’s blog.
She hadn’t been reading it as much, if only because so often what was written there and reality were two separate states of mind.
Danica had fully committed to her “fictional” life in Singapore with her father, which hurt Juliet to read.
But now, when she pulled up the site, she realized that the previous ten posts were all about that guy, that stranger, Magnum X. Her blood ran cold.
The thing about meeting internet friends in person is that you don’t know who they are, not really.
You don’t know whether your personalities from the “REAL WORLD” will match, and you don’t want to risk your internet friend hating your real persona.
But Magnum X has finally talked me into a real trip—not just a fake, silly story.
I’m so ready to live in the real world! I’m so ready to unshackle from this small town and stop pretending to be happy!
I have to pretend to everyone. It sucks! !!
Juliet fell into a total panic after that.
Her head swam as she imagined her daughter in all kinds of awful situations: kidnapped, locked away somewhere, screaming for help.
Juliet hated how many stories like this she’d heard before of young people trusting internet personas over their own parents.
Young people thinking they had control, when it was so clear they did not.
She tried to call Danica, Ivy, and Celia again, and when they didn’t answer, she watched herself dial the only other person she could think of just then: Wren.
Juliet couldn’t remember the last time she’d dialed her little sister on purpose.
Although they were closest in age, Juliet and Wren had lost track of one another during their teenage years and never really resolved their differences in the year-plus since the Harper sisters had reunited to read their father’s will.
Reaching out to Wren felt silly, but she couldn’t imagine waking Theo up, and she felt achingly alone.
To her surprise, Wren answered on the second ring with a bright and happy, “Juliet?”
Juliet could hear sunshine in her sister’s voice. “Wren,” she breathed. “Wren, where are you?”
But Wren heard something sinister in Juliet’s voice. “What’s going on?” she demanded, rather than answering. “Something is going on.”
It didn’t take Juliet long to explain. Soon, she sent Wren her daughter’s blog, which Wren promised to scan for any details she thought were pertinent. “It’s so hard to say if this is real,” Wren muttered. “Most of the blog is fiction, but this guy…”
“He seems real,” Juliet finished. “I don’t know what to do, Wren. I really don’t.”
Wren was quiet for a moment. “You said you’re in the city?”
“With Theo,” Juliet breathed. “We came to, um, research for the reopening of his restaurant.”
“Huh. Wow.” Wren seemed not to know what to say.
And then, as though she could read Juliet’s mind over the phone, she offered, “You know, I still think about that night all the time. Prom night. I know it changed your life more than any of ours, but it changed mine, too. I loved Callie. She was like another sister to me, and, yeah. I just couldn’t believe it. ”
Juliet scrunched her face into a big, red ball and let out an awful sob.
Of course, fear of losing her daughter had always been tied up in the reality of having lost Callie.
Of course, with each moment that passed, that she didn’t know where her daughter was, she thought of Callie, of all Callie had missed out on, of all the pain Callie had been saved by, if only because she hadn’t been allowed to keep going.
What had happened to Callie’s mother? Where had she gone when it was all over?
Had she ever forgiven herself for letting Callie go to prom in the first place?
“Listen,” Wren breathed. “You can’t be alone right now. Go down the hall and wake Theo up. He’s the only one who can really understand you, anyway. That night back in ’05 linked you forever.”
It was what Juliet had been thinking all month: that Theo’s soul was forever attached to hers, that they never should have spent so much time apart, that they couldn’t have avoided one another for the rest of their lives if they’d tried.
She promised Wren she would go down the hall and talk to him, and Wren said she’d keep reading Danica’s blog for details.
“She’s a good kid, Juliet,” Wren breathed. “We’re going to find her.”
“I hope you’re right,” Juliet echoed back. “I love you, Wren. Come back?”
“I don’t know if I can,” Wren answered softly. “Bluebell Cove can be such a dark place.”
“I know what you mean. But there’s a lot of light there, too,” Juliet said.