Chapter 10
Feeling guilty for planning to leave him again tonight, Arietta spent all day with Fred, talking to him, reading beside him, and wheeling him around so that he could feel the sun on his face and hear the ocean.
When it was time to go, she returned him to bed, then hurried to change into a sundress and do her makeup.
By the time the nurse arrived, she was itchy and adrenalized, nervous about meeting all of Stella Turnbilt’s “Salt Sister” friends.
She was already beginning to forget she had sent twenty grand to a stranger. She was already beginning to tell herself that it didn’t really happen. Let’s move on.
The address Stella had texted was in Siasconset, not far from her place, which meant that whoever owned the property had tremendous wealth (just as Fred’s family always had).
Arietta drove to the gated mansion with her heart in her throat.
As the gates creaked open, she found herself thinking back to that first night she’d spent with Fred and his parents.
They’d scrutinized her, wondering what their son saw in her.
What had he seen in Arietta? After a lifetime spent together, Arietta was beginning to forget what had brought them together in the first place.
She wondered if the Salt Sisters would look at her the way Fred’s mother had that night—as though she didn’t belong.
But Arietta soon discovered that she shouldn’t be nervous.
Stella was the one to meet her in the foyer of her friend’s place, which was truly astounding.
It was the home of a movie star who’d since passed.
“Do you know Isabelle Helin? That was Hilary’s mother.
She was really something,” Stella explained, leading Arietta to a veranda that was decorated beautifully with fairy lights and greenery.
Around a long table sat some of the most stunning women Arietta had ever seen in one place.
Most of them were in their forties, fifties, and sixties, and they drank wine and laughed together with an ease that made Arietta ache for female friendships of her own.
Had she ever laughed with anyone like that? Maybe not since before she’d met Fred.
One after another, Stella introduced her first to Hilary Salt, then to women named Nora, Robby, Rose, Tina, Ada, Katrina, and Gale.
Someone hurried to pour Arietta a glass of wine, while Robby filled a plate of cheese, crackers, guacamole, and dried fruit for her.
“We always snack and snack and snack,” she explained, putting the plate down in front of Arietta.
“Where did you meet Stella?” the woman named Rose asked, smiling.
“We met at a reading,” Arietta explained. “I was wandering around. I didn’t know what to do, and I found myself at that reading, where I promptly spilled wine all over Stella.” Arietta winced, but the Salt Sisters laughed happily.
“That’s such a cute story,” Hilary said. “It’s almost like the start of a rom-com.”
“It’s just the start of a beautiful friendship.” Stella grinned. “If she’ll have us!”
For a little while, the Salt Sisters told Arietta what had brought them to Nantucket, along with their jobs, and occasionally, what horrible thing had befallen them.
It seemed they were all in the process of getting over something.
Some of them were still in the process of getting over something that had happened years, if not more than a decade, before.
They seemed to open the door for Arietta to talk about her own life, about the horrible reality that she was now living through. But Arietta was resistant, unsure if she deserved to be understood. She was happy to sit and listen for now.
But eventually, as the night sky dimmed to blackness and stars peppered overhead, Hilary turned to Arietta and asked, “Tell us a little about yourself. I see that you’re wearing a wedding ring?”
Arietta hesitated, her jaw hanging. “Yes, well. I am married.”
Stella looked momentarily confused. Arietta remembered that she’d told Stella how lonely she was here on Nantucket after her move from Boston.
Maybe married people weren’t welcome here in the Salt Sisters.
But after a cursory glance, she saw that several of the other women were wearing wedding rings.
“But he’s, um… he’s not well,” Arietta said, although the right words didn’t come to her at first. “He had a stroke while we were in Greece, and yeah. I don’t know.
He’s not really there anymore.” She gestured vaguely toward her own head and tried not to look at anyone’s expression too hard.
She guessed they were looking at her with pity.
“Oh, honey. We’re so sorry to hear that,” Hilary said gently.
Arietta closed her eyes. “Yeah, well. It’s something I’m trying to get used to.”
“Of course.” Hilary sighed. “Have you found a place for him to live?”
Arietta snapped her eyes open again. “He’s with me, of course. He’s my husband.”
“Yes. I understand,” Hilary offered. “It’s just that it must be so much work.”
“It’s not too bad,” Arietta said, although if she was really honest with herself, the work of caring for Fred was beginning to destroy her.
This was nothing she would admit to anyone, never to Shannon, and least of all these strangers.
“I guess the worst of it is dealing with everything on my own, now. I need to get all our affairs in order.”
Hilary, Stella, and Rose burst into conversation about lawyers, paperwork, and various things that actually grounded Arietta in the reality of her current marriage and setup.
She took out her phone and noted down some of the things they wanted her to know.
She couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t spoken about this with their lawyer yet.
He probably should have been her third or fourth call.
She’d been so underwater, she supposed. She hadn’t really let herself dig into the logistics of money and everything they owned.
Plus, Fred wasn’t dead. Maybe he wouldn’t be for a long time.
At some point, as the conversation moved from logistics to funny stories to tragic tales about love and loss, Arietta realized she was having a good time.
It was the first time in ages that she felt like herself, and each time she laughed, she felt shocked.
Was that really her? When was the last time she’d laughed like that?
She couldn’t remember. She imagined calling Shannon after this and telling her that she’d made friends on the island and was no longer alone.
Midway through her third glass of wine, Arietta found herself cackling along with a story Stella told about herself, a story about how much she’d struggled after her divorce.
It was both tragic and heartbreaking—meant to both make fun of herself and also shed light on how things kept going, regardless of how broken you felt.
“I relate to this so much,” Arietta said, wiping tears from her cheeks. “Just last night, I sent twenty grand to some blackmailer. And this morning, I woke up, did some yoga, cleaned the kitchen, and took Fred onto the porch to see the ocean.”
All at once, the laughter on the veranda died off. Arietta realized she’d said something wrong. She realized she’d put her foot in it. The Salt Sisters now looked at her with fear in their eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Stella said. “Did you say blackmailer?”
Arietta tried to wind her way back. “Did I? That’s not really what I meant…”
“What did you mean?” Hilary asked.
Arietta’s thoughts raced. She couldn’t believe she’d come out and said exactly what she’d never wanted to say to anyone. This was her biggest secret, and she’d spilled it in one day!
“It’s not a big deal,” Arietta said, reaching for her glass of water.
Could she drive home as she was? She didn’t want to take any risks, especially not now that Fred was the way he was.
She filled her mouth with water and told herself to calm down.
But she could feel the Salt Sisters staring at her.
“If someone is blackmailing you, they won’t stop just because you sent them a bit of money,” Hilary said gently. “Trust us, some of us have been through this before.”
Arietta tried to laugh it off. “I didn’t mean blackmail. I meant, you know. Like, someone thinks they know something about Fred and me, but they don’t, obviously. There’s nothing to know.”
“If there’s nothing to know, why did you send them twenty grand?” Stella asked.
The back of Arietta’s neck was slick with sweat.
She needed to get out of there. She needed to escape these prying questions and these women who pretended to care so much.
These women weren’t like Arietta. They’d probably all come from wealth, so they didn’t question their enormous houses and their expensive bottles of wine and their connections.
But Arietta had never stopped questioning any of it, not from the first day she’d entered Fred’s home and met his parents.
“I have to go.” She stood on shaking legs.
“Please, Arietta. Stay,” Hilary urged.
But Arietta couldn’t be persuaded. Rather, she let Stella call her a cab and waited on the front stoop till it arrived, embarrassment making her stomach swirl. She couldn’t believe she’d made such a fool of herself. She couldn’t see those women ever again.