Kate lay in bed in the guest room of the Sea Garden Suite. It was on the third floor of the Ocean House, where Hadley and CeCe lived, and her gaze kept drifting toward the terrace. On this bright summer morning, she squeezed her eyes tight to keep herself from seeing the snow that had been falling that December day Conor had proposed to her. She would do anything to block that memory right now.
She hadn’t slept all night, but early that morning she had started to doze. Then, around eight, the sound of sirens woke her up. She couldn’t tell where they were coming from, but she knew that someone was having an emergency. Whenever she heard a siren, she remembered her mother’s death, her sister’s murder, and how police had closed in on the scenes. It was one big PTSD-fest. Her saving grace was that Conor had been there for her. He had stepped into her life at those times of tragedy.
She had wondered why she was still alive, when her mother and sister were dead. Conor had pulled her from those depths of despair, made her feel that she wasn’t alone, that life was a gift. He had made her want to be here on earth, with him, looking forward to whatever came next.
And now, all of that had fallen apart. She tossed in bed, wishing she didn’t have to think at all. Images flashed in and out of her mind—the little silver ring, the glee in Belinda’s face, the blue eyes of that baby.The blue eyes that reminded her of Conor—the ones she had loved so much, that had promised her they would be together forever.
Eventually she reluctantly got up and went into the dining area of the suite, where Hadley and CeCe were having breakfast. They offered her some, but she wasn’t hungry. They left the table, and she heard them talking, moving about, Hadley getting CeCe into her bathing suit, but she’d barely registered any of it.
July sunlight glanced sharply off the ocean and streamed through the tall windows. The French doors were open to the terrace, and the sound of the waves came through, beckoning her outside, but she couldn’t bear that idea.
The memories she had blocked while lying in bed came forth so clearly now, she had to let them in. The suite’s terrace was where Conor had proposed during that epic blizzard on Christmas Eve. There had been a holiday party here in the Sea Garden Suite, with dancing and champagne and twinkling lights on the tree. Hadley had gathered friends and family together, to create a happy holiday for CeCe—for all of them.
Kate and Conor left everyone by the fire and stepped outside, onto the terrace. The snow and wind had momentarily stopped, and there was a short spell of calm in the heart of the blizzard. They had stood by the rail, thinking of how fierce the storm had been and how clear and still it was at that moment. They could see the five windmills on the far side of Block Island, miles across the water, gently blinking red.
And then Conor started to tell her why he had brought her to the Ocean House. Right in the middle of his proposal, he discovered he’d lost the engagement ring. He started to panic, and Kate laughed. She held out her hand, and in her palm was the sapphire-and-diamond ring she was wearing right now.
“You dropped it,” she told him. In the living room, when he had been giving CeCe a gift.
So he took it from her and put it on her finger, and they kissed. That was the moment she had believed that, after everything that hadhappened to her, life was good and safe. That she and Conor loved each other so much, they would protect each other till the end of time.
It had meant so much to both of them that they had gotten engaged on this seaside terrace, while people they loved were just inside: Tom and Jackie, Hadley and CeCe. When the time came to plan their wedding, they knew it had to be right here, at the Ocean House, the site of that magical evening, just after the blizzard. And they knew that the people who had been there with them, the first to see Kate’s ring and hear that they were getting married, would be here for them, be part of the ceremony. There had been no doubt in their minds.
“Are you okay?” Hadley said from across the room. She had barely left Kate alone all day.
“Where’s CeCe?” Kate asked. She’d been there just a minute ago.
“I asked Sam to take her to the beach so you and I could talk.”
“I don’t really have much to say,” Kate said.
“I can imagine,” Hadley said. “But I know you didn’t sleep all night, and you didn’t have breakfast, and you look totally shell shocked. I’m worried about you.”
Kate’s eyes welled up. It was times like this she missed her sister, Beth. Of all the people she knew on the planet, Hadley was the only one who really understood what that was like—to have a sister stolen, to have her life taken away by a murderer. Hadley got it. Like Kate, she knew more than anyone should about loss.
“I guess Iamshell shocked,” Kate said. “I’ve never trusted anyone the way I trusted Conor. He’s the best man I’ve ever known. He’s so good, and he made me feel so loved. But now ... it all feels like a lie.”
“But you don’t know for sure that it is a lie,” Hadley said.
Kate knew what Hadley was getting at. After Belinda’s bombshell last night, Kate had run off, come straight up here, and hadn’t given Conor the chance to explain himself. She had spent the night in Hadley and CeCe’s guest room. She hadn’t seen Conor or returned to the Tower Suite, their home for this wedding weekend; they hadn’t talked. He hadknocked on the door—or at least she assumed it had been him—and she’d asked Hadley not to answer it.
She kept thinking of that moment after the rehearsal dinner, after Belinda had shown her the photo. Kate knew him so well, she had been able to read his expression, and the way he’d said her name, when she’d asked him, “Is it true?” Talking wouldn’t change that.
“It just feels unreal,” Kate said.
“Kate, everyone has a past. Do you really think you’re the only one he’s ever been with? Haven’t you had boyfriends before Conor?”
“Of course, and I know he had other girlfriends before he met me. But I didn’t have their children.”
“That woman seemed crazy,” Hadley said. “To pull a stunt like that in front of a crowd. At your rehearsal dinner? I wouldn’t believe anything she said.”
Kate didn’t want to, but she pictured the baby’s blue eyes. Plenty of people in the population had them, but when she put it together with that silver ring, Belinda’s tone of possession, and Conor’s reaction, she was tilting in and out of believing her. Her father had cheated on her mother, and it was how her family blew up. She had always believed she had an unwanted talent—accurate radar for betrayal—because she had grown up with it.
“Can you tell how old Belinda is in the photo?” Hadley asked.
“A lot younger than now,” Kate said.
“The timing would make a huge difference,” Hadley said. “Because if it was before you and Conor were together ...”
