Cole glanced at Georgia in surprise. She nodded, flabbergasted to find her father sitting in the living room. “What are you doing here, Daddy?” Georgia stammered. She had not seen her father in years. What in the world was he doing sitting in the living room at midnight on her birthday? She moved into the room a few steps, glancing between her parents. There was a palpable level of hostility radiating between them. They could have boiled water with the heat of their animosity. What in the world was going on?
“Georgia May,” Buck announced, slapping his hat on his knee and standing. “That woman is a liar.” He gestured toward Star. “She is not to be trusted. Come on, get your things. I’m taking you out of here.”
“What?” Georgia exclaimed at the same time as Star protested, “Buck, no!”
“You promised me a long time ago you’d stay away from our daughter, and for all these years you kept your promise,” Buck said firmly, jabbing a finger in Star’s direction. “Until now.” He looked at Georgia. “She contacted me a few weeks ago with this sob story about a bad prognosis, saying she’s so sick and doesn’t have much time left. She begged me to let her get in touch with you. She said she wanted to tell you herself before it’s too late. Against my better judgment, I agreed and gave her your email address. But then you texted me this morning, said she was fit as a fiddle. I decided I’d better come out here and sort this all out, see what she was up to.” He rounded on Star accusingly. “You lied to me, Star. And this is the last time.”
“It’s not a lie!” Star cried. Every head in the room swiveled in her direction. She swallowed nervously.
Georgia stared at her mother in consternation. “What does he mean a bad prognosis?” she asked, her voice shrill in her own ears. “Are you sick?”
Star shot a single panicked glance at Cole, who raised his hands and took a step back. “You knew she’d find out eventually, Star,” he said, his tone weary. He glanced at Georgia with sympathy. That look sent a cold tendril of dread spiraling through her heart.
“Find out what?” Georgia asked. She glanced around the room. What were they not telling her? How was she the only one who didn’t know what was going on? She felt her temper flare. She was tired of people keeping things from her. “Someone tell me the truth!” she demanded. “What is going on?”
Star deflated. “It’s not a lie,” she said finally, reluctantly. “What I told Buck is true. I got the diagnosis a month ago.”
“What diagnosis?” Georgia suddenly couldn’t breathe. All the air had been sucked from her lungs.
Star swallowed hard and met Georgia’s eyes. “I have a disease called Lewy body dementia,” she said. “It’s sort of like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s combined. It’s in the early stages, but it often progresses pretty fast after a diagnosis. Most people only live a couple of years after they’re diagnosed. There is no cure.” She looked resigned. “I’m so sorry, Georgia.”
“No,” Georgia whispered, tears springing to her eyes. “This can’t be happening.” Star was sick with a disease that had no cure? She had just found her mother only to lose her again. It was too horrible to be true.
“That’s why you contacted me,” Georgia said in a small voice, all the pieces clicking into place. Star had reached out because she was sick. That was the secret Star had been hiding. It all made sense now. The timing of Star contacting her, Billy’s cryptic comments, the tense conversation between Star and Cole she’d overheard the day she arrived.
Star blew out a breath and nodded. “I reached out to you because I’m running out of time,” she admitted, “and I wanted to see you before... before things got too bad. My symptoms are manageable right now, not so obvious most people notice. I’m starting to get a little forgetful now and then, and I’m having some insomnia and sleep problems. But soon it will get much worse. Within a couple of years, I’ll lose a lot of cognitive function and short-term memory and some motor control. I don’t have a lot of time left before things are going to get bad.”
Georgia looked around her in disbelief. This evening had been so perfect, and now it felt like she had plummeted into some horrible nightmare. “Isn’t there anything the doctors can do?” she asked, hating the pitiful note of pleading in her voice.
Star shook her head. “I’m on medications that can slow it,but the reality is that at some point this disease will catch up to me. It’s just a matter of time.” She looked sadly at Georgia.
Georgia closed her eyes. She felt nauseated. Just when she felt like she was finding her way back to hope and happiness, everything came crashing down again.
From the doorway, Cole cleared his throat. “Tell her everything,” he said.
“There’s more?” Georgia asked in alarm. She could not handle any more bad news.
Star looked pained. “I’m selling the cottage,” she said quietly. “Before my condition gets any worse. It’s just too much for me to keep up, even with Cole’s help, and I am going to need the money for my care. I’m putting it on the market in a few weeks and planning to move to a care community out on Lopez Island. It’s a safe place where I can get the help I need as my condition gets worse.”
Georgia was stunned. In these past few weeks, she felt as though she’d gained a mother, a legacy, even a place to call home. Now everything was crumbling around her, disinitigrating in the space of a few minutes.
“I... I can’t believe this is happening,” she murmured finally, shaking her head in confusion, wishing she could rewind time an hour or two and be back at the Oyster Shuck dancing and kissing Cole, not here watching her entire life dissolve like a sugar cube in water. In an instant, everything good was vanishing in front of her eyes.
“Georgia...” Star began.
“No.” Georgia put up a hand to stop the words. “Just no. Not tonight.” She couldn’t handle any more. Her head was fuzzy and she felt sick with dread and grief. She wished she hadn’t drunk those glasses of wine. A headache was throbbing right behind her temples.
“Georgia?” Cole reached out and clasped her arm lightly, but she shrugged him off.
“You.” She rounded on him in sudden indignation. “You lied to me.”
“I never lied.” He looked at her steadily, his expression pained. “I just didn’t tell you the truth.”
“That’s not any better.” She scowled. “Leave, please, Cole. Just... go.”
Cole looked at her for a long, searching moment. “Is that what you want?” he asked slowly. He looked hurt. She nodded miserably, deliberately turning away from him. Without another word, Cole turned and walked through the kitchen and out the back door.
The room was silent for a long moment.
