Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Present Day
It was the day after Lily’s mysterious dinner with Yoko, and Lily was at the Sutton Book Club, wiping down tables and preparing her mother’s restaurant for a whole night of reservations.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched through the window as, down below, Mick Hamilton got out of his car, strode up the porch steps, and entered the library part of the big Victorian house.
She hadn’t heard from him since he’d fired her a couple of days ago, but she’d thought about him more than she’d planned to.
Her ears craned to hear his voice down the steps.
When she didn’t, she dropped her rag into the basin of suds and tiptoed downstairs to find him herself.
Mick hovered over a table of books with a stack of three under his arm.
Lily crept up behind him, unsure of how to interrupt his train of thought.
He looked hyperfocused, as if he were searching for something.
Maybe a particular book. But before she could think of what to say, the front door burst open to reveal her grandmother, gasping.
“It’s Yoko,” Esme said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Lily, come quick.”
Mick turned to find Lily, like a creep standing behind him, her mouth ajar. His eyes spun.
“I wanted to say hi,” Lily explained, lunging back for the corner rack to get her coat.
“But you have to run,” Mick said.
“I’m sorry. I’ll catch you later.” Lily grimaced, shoved an arm into the sleeve of her coat, and chased her grandmother, demanding answers. “What’s going on?”
Grandma Esme was pale and red-eyed. “I ran into her at the grocery store,” she explained.
“She was talking to herself, but at first I thought she was talking to me. So I stopped and said hello and realized she wasn’t all there.
” She pointed at her temple, then unlocked her car and gestured for Lily to get in.
“Luckily, your Aunt Valerie was with me and took her to the hospital. I called you a few times. Didn’t you hear? ”
Lily recalled putting her phone on silent in preparation for the night at the restaurant. She cursed herself, remembering that her own father had died during another night at a different restaurant. It felt like an echo of the worst night of her life.
But by the time they reached the hospital, Yoko had already been cleared to go home.
“It was a panic attack,” Aunt Valerie explained as she helped Yoko back to her car. Lily and Grandma Esme chased them, unsure of what to do. “The doctor said to get plenty of liquids and rest. I’m going to take her home.”
Yoko looked exhausted and maybe twenty years older than she had at dinner last night.
Lily knew she needed to care for this woman, that it was what Liam would want.
Before Aunt Valerie closed the passenger door between Yoko and Lily, Lily bent forward and touched Yoko’s shoulder.
“I’m going to come over,” she promised. She realized, after their discussion last night, that she shouldn’t have left Yoko on her own.
Something was amiss—something overwhelmingly lonely about Yoko’s eyes.
Rather than ride with her grandmother, Lily got into the car with Aunt Valerie and Yoko and texted her mother to let her know what was up.
Rebecca sent back a panicked message, saying she sent me her best and to let me know if I needed anything.
But it was impossible to tell what Yoko needed.
As they drove back to the Reynolds estate, Yoko didn’t say a thing.
“I think we’re going to need dinner,” Aunt Valerie said from the front seat, finding Lily’s eyes in the rearview. “But I have to get home to help Alex with August.”
“I got it,” Lily promised.
Once they reached the house, Lily got out and helped Yoko out of the passenger seat and into the front door.
Aunt Valerie was behind them the entire way, ready in case Yoko collapsed.
But Yoko was slight and as graceful as a ballerina.
When they reached the sofa in front of the television, she sat daintily, raised her chin, and thanked them for taking her home.
“I don’t need any help from here,” she said, unable to look at them. It was apparent she was too embarrassed to fully acknowledge what had happened.
Aunt Valerie sat beside her and touched her shoulder.
“You know,” she said to Yoko, furrowing her brow, “we’ve been through a lot in the Sutton family.
Much more than it always looks like. I was alone for years back in San Francisco.
I didn’t think I’d survive my loneliness sometimes.
” She inhaled sharply, as though the memory of that painful time still crashed in on her.
But Yoko didn’t take the bait. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said.
If Yoko’s loneliness was as thick as the fog that rolled in off the Nantucket Sound, Yoko was to be the last to acknowledge it. Lily wondered if that was a Japanese habit or a Yoko one.
Soon, Aunt Valerie admitted she really did have to go. “Call me if you need anything,” she said to first Yoko, then Lily, before gliding to the front door and disappearing into the night.
Lily sat in silence for a full minute, unable to look at her future mother-in-law. She remembered the cryptic way Yoko had spoken last night about relationships and wondered if Yoko’s breakdown had anything to do with Kendall. It seemed that he really was always gone.
“I’m going to make you some tea,” Lily said.
Yoko thanked her and reached for the remote control.
She played an old Japanese movie without subtitles, which sounded pleasant and nonsensical in Lily’s ears.
The soundtrack was divine, sweeping strings and stylish guitar picking.
When she returned with the tea, Yoko took it and continued to watch the television, as though she’d disappeared into it.
Lily took this opportunity to go upstairs and call Liam.
It had been a couple of days since Lily and Liam had spoken on the phone. Liam was busy with reshoots and promotions and auditions and so on, preparing for his “big winter out East,” which he saw as a time of relaxation and “avoiding fame.”
But Liam didn’t answer, not on the second or fourth time she called.
When Lily went back downstairs, she realized how slender Yoko looked, tucked under a blanket with her ankles crossed.
Feeling like her own mother, she hurried to the kitchen and made a platter of snack food, hoping that Yoko would pick at things as the day wore on.
Crackers, chips, nuts, and sweet treats.
Lily knew her cooking couldn’t hold a candle to Yoko’s, so she didn’t even want to try.
Maybe in an hour or two, she’d order food.
Did Yoko like pizza? She couldn’t imagine Yoko inhaling a slice of pepperoni the way Lily wanted to right now.
When Yoko’s first film finished, she ate the first of the assembled snacks and put on another Japanese movie from the 1970s.
This time, for Lily, she added English subtitles and said, “You’ll like this one.
It’s about a matchmaker in Tokyo. Things are not so different these days.
” It was as though she’d just realized Lily sat beside her.
Eventually, Lily texted Liam.
LILY: Your mother isn’t feeling well. I’m at the house taking care of things. Btw, does she like pizza?
Liam called right away. To avoid bothering Yoko, Lily hurried back upstairs and into the study to answer him.
“What’s going on?” Liam demanded.
Lily explained what Grandma Esme had told her and what had happened since. “I think she’s really lonely with your dad on business trips all the time,” she said tentatively. She knew how Liam felt about his father, knew how close they were.
“She’s never been bothered by it before,” Liam retorted. There was a bratty edge to his voice as though Lily had caused Yoko’s breakdown.
“She needs to eat something,” Lily said. “Pizza? Mexican? Sandwiches?”
“Keep it simple,” Liam said after a pause. “Nothing too heavy. It hurts her stomach.”
“Got it,” Lily said, grateful for Liam’s input.
His voice broke. “I should be there already. I should be helping you. And her.”
“You have things to do,” she assured him. “And you’ll be here soon. Your mom can’t wait to see you.”
Liam took a staggered breath. “It hasn’t been easy. I mean, everyone thinks I’m doing a silly teenage series, but it’s honestly a lot to handle.”
“I know.” Lily offered him more words of encouragement and listened passively as he complained about a string of other events, both on set and off. Most notably, he complained about Bex for a full three minutes. Trouble in paradise, she thought darkly, then told herself to quit.
Eventually, Liam had to get off the phone and run to another meeting, and Lily had to figure out what to feed his mother for dinner.
They parted with “I love you” and promises to keep one another updated.
Flushed with feeling, Lily returned downstairs to find Yoko at the tail end of the Japanese film, eager for another.
“I want to order food for us,” Lily said. “But I don’t know what you like.”
“Fish,” Yoko exclaimed. “Lobster rolls!”
Lily had never heard her future mother-in-law so exuberant about food.
Hurriedly, Lily ordered the costly meal, plus a bottle of champagne to share, and watched out of the corner of her eye for the delivery to arrive.
When it did, she spread out their feast on the coffee table and poured their glasses.
Yoko raised hers and gave Lily a twinkle-eyed smile.
“You know,” she said over the last lines of the movie, “I sometimes wonder why anyone gets married.” She sipped her champagne. “Why are you getting married to my son?”
Lily felt stricken. Was this Yoko’s elaborate ruse to break Lily and Liam up?
“Oh,” she said softly. “I love your son very much. He’s such an incredible—”
But Yoko interrupted her. “I sometimes wonder why I chose image over love. Take it from me. Love is everything. And when you walk into a marriage and realize you don’t have it?
You’ll spend the rest of your life bereft.
” Yoko sniffed twice. “Bereft is a word I learned three years ago. It took me ages to learn English. Ages. It took my parents very little time at all. I think they were smarter or more curious than I was. In any case, they’re gone.
They died. They’re never coming back.” Yoko’s chin quivered with sorrow, and she set down her champagne.
Lily shifted across the sofa and wrapped her arms around Yoko. But Yoko stiffened and then slowly withdrew from Lily’s grip.
“I need to eat something,” Yoko said under her breath. She reached for the lobster roll and took a tentative bite. Her eyes closed.
Lily imagined the fuel rolling through the small woman’s veins, strengthening her muscles and her heart and her mind. Maybe by morning, she’d make more sense.
After Yoko fell asleep an hour later, Lily cleaned up their trash, poured herself another glass of wine, and pulled out her phone.
The third Japanese film of the evening showed an old Japanese man walking slowly down the road, a box of vases in his arms. Lily had no idea what was going on.
But on her phone screen was an even deeper mystery.
Shelby had sent her a link that read: Is Kendall Reynolds Having an Affair?
Lily turned to make sure Yoko was still sleeping before she opened the gossip article, one that seemed similar to the one about Liam and Bex.
But this article featured multiple photographs in different locations and with many different outfits: Kendall and a mysterious woman on the beach, on a yacht, dining out, kissing on the boardwalk.
Each photograph was situated in Miami, glowing with a sunlight that hadn’t deigned to show its face on Nantucket in months.
Lily’s heart stopped. She wrote Shelby back immediately.
LILY: Where did you see this?
SHELBY: It’s all over.
SHELBY: At first, I thought it was more gossip about Liam. (I know Liam isn’t cheating on you, but I really do believe his father is cheating on Yoko. Grandma called and said you’re with her now. I’m worried.)
Lily was worried, too. For now, it was crystal clear that Kendall Reynolds’s other life was in Miami, a life he preferred to the one he’d built with Yoko all those years ago. And now, Yoko was fading away in his parents’ mansion as her old trophies were dusted and her son forgot about her.
Lily resolved not to forget about her. But in the back of her mind, she wondered if, in marrying Liam, she was about to make the same mistake Yoko had when she’d married Kendall. Was that the wisdom Yoko had wanted to impart to her? She shivered.
How could anyone know when they were making a big mistake? What were the signs?