Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nantucket Island
The day Chloe finally met her daughter was the day after Nina brought her children back to Nantucket Island and moved them into the house on Madequecham Beach for good.
Janie watched from Chloe’s beach house bed as Chloe tried on one outfit after another, too frightened to land on any one dress or any one skirt.
Janie understood that Chloe wanted to look the part of a mother, a friend, and someone very sorry for everything, all at once. How could one outfit do all that?
Finally, Chloe put on a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. “Whatever. This is how I feel the most comfortable.”
Janie hugged her best friend close. “You look incredible, honey.”
“Do I look like a grandmother?” Chloe asked. “Because that’s what I am.”
“You’re the hottest grandmother I’ve ever seen,” Janie said. “The grandkids are going to fall in love with you.”
Chloe clutched the hem of her T-shirt, looking stricken. “I still remember the day she was born,” she breathed. “My only child. But I wasn’t ready. They knew that.”
Janie squeezed Chloe’s shoulder and waited.
Chloe still hadn’t told her the entire story of what had happened during and after Chloe’s pregnancy, nor how it had come to pass that Francesca would call herself Nina’s mother, legally speaking and otherwise.
But Janie guessed her best friend would reveal these secrets when she found the will.
The problem, of course, was that Nina would probably want to know everything up front. Chloe didn’t seem ready to say it all aloud.
That afternoon, it took a great deal more prodding, but Janie eventually got Chloe out the door and off on her greatest adventure. She watched the car turn the corner and head down the road to Madequecham Beach, where Nina and the kids were waiting.
After Chloe was gone, Janie went to the kitchen window and peered out at the water, where Alexander, Xander, Gwen, and Conor were swimming and paddle-boarding, running and splashing around.
She could hear their laughter from all the way up here.
It was a perfect picture and almost exactly what she’d imagined, back when she’d thought she and Alexander would raise their children in Nantucket, back before her first miscarriage.
There had been other miscarriages over the years, false starts on the perfect family she saw before her name. She panged with a mix of sorrow for those babies she’d lost and joy for the story she’d been given.
She counted to one hundred before she did what she knew she needed to do next.
Ever since she and Alexander had gotten back together, something had been nagging Janie about not only the night of the fire, but Chloe’s decision to return to Nantucket this summer as well.
Specifically, why was Nina so set on returning to Nantucket to find Benjamin right now?
It implied something that Janie wasn’t sure she was brave enough to discover.
It implied that—up until recently—Chloe had been in contact with Benjamin Whitmore.
Was it possible that the way to find Benjamin Whitmore was through Chloe?
Maybe. If so, she assumed that he was somewhere nearby, that Chloe had known for sure he would be here, or on one of the neighboring islands.
Maybe, in secret, Chloe had been seeing him already.
Perhaps that dynamic was too personal for Chloe to ever confess to Janie.
It tracked. Chloe’s relationship with Benjamin preceded her relationship with Janie. It meant that, to Chloe, her love for Benjamin was sacred and something she liked to keep to herself.
Janie hurried upstairs and into her best friend’s bedroom.
What she did next was shameful, she knew.
But she started going through Chloe’s things, eager to find an address book, a journal, anything that would give her more information.
If Alexander’s career was really on the line, if his reputation was going to be tarnished, she knew they needed to find Benjamin and get more information about what happened on the night of the fire. Ugh! It was driving her up the wall.
After a bit of digging, she found—to her surprise—Chloe’s cell phone. She held it like a treasure in her hands. At her age, Chloe still hadn’t gotten into the habit of taking it everywhere like the rest of the world. Thank goodness.
Janie wasn’t surprised that Chloe didn’t have a passcode to open it up, either. Chloe had never liked house keys, passwords, or anything she had to remember to keep with her, either in her head or in her purse.
Janie took a breath and opened Chloe’s contacts to find—right there at the start of the Bs—Benjamin. Janie gasped and, before she could stop herself, dialed her father-in-law’s number.
The phone rang three times before he picked up. Adrenaline pulsed through Janie. What am I doing?
His voice was the same as it had been back then: gritty and masculine and powerful, the kind of voice you wanted on board a sailing vessel or an airplane.
Before she said anything, he asked, “Where have you been?”
Janie inhaled sharply, suddenly terrified. It was her one shot at speaking her mind. Was she going to blow it—due to nerves or fears? She couldn’t.
“Chloe?” Benjamin said softly. “Are you upset with me?”
Janie cleared her throat and said, “Benjamin, this is Janie. Janie Whitmore.”
“Janie? What…?”
Janie interrupted him because she couldn’t stand to hear his lies.
“Your children have been coming back to Nantucket one by one. They’ve kept a wide berth of this place because they hate what happened here, and they’re all heavy with trauma and angry at the past. Nevertheless, they’re here, and they’ve figured out you aren’t dead.
Nice try, though.” She cleared her throat.
“I don’t understand why you would abandon your family like that.
I don’t understand how or why you’d fake your own death like that.
But Benjamin Whitmore, if you care about your children at all—the many, many children in the Whitmore family—then I suggest you get over here and start answering questions. Time is of the essence.”
Janie felt as though she were floating. Her ears rang as she waited for his response.
But a moment later came the click of the phone, proof that he’d hung up.
Janie fell onto Chloe’s bed and stared at the ceiling.
She’d just opened Pandora’s box. Now that the chaos had been unleashed, there was no putting it back together again.
Suddenly, there was a figure in the doorway. Frightened that Chloe was back, that she’d been discovered, Janie hopped up, but found only her husband, gazing down at her. He was sun-tanned and sweaty from his walk back up from the beach.
“I was looking for you,” he said, his eyes stirring with questions. “What’s going on?”
Janie swallowed. “Chloe’s off to see Nina and the kids.”
“That’s a doozy,” Alexander said. “How’s she handling it?”
“About as well as anyone would, I guess.” Janie hobbled over to Alexander. She put her palms on his chest, preparing to drop the biggest bomb imaginable. “I just got off the phone with someone.”
Alexander raised his eyebrows. “Oh yeah?”
Janie nodded. “I had a hunch.”
Alexander sniffed with nervous laughter. “You sound like my old private detective. He had hunches about everything. Let me tell you, none of them were right.”
Janie shook her head. “I’m better than your detective.”
“No surprise there,” Alexander said.
Janie took a breath. “I just got off the phone with Benjamin Whitmore. He answered because he thought I was Chloe. Tell your private detective to find a new line of work.”
Alexander’s face drained of its color. He was stunned.