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Lauren didn’t seem to hear her. She sleepwalked her way across the kitchen as if someone had programmed her via remote control.
“I’m going to check on Mack. I know she doesn’t want to talk to me right now, but she has to have questions.”
They all had questions, such as who is Mack’s father if it isn’t Ed?
Lauren paused in the doorway. “I’m glad you came.”
“Me, too.” Jenna felt a rush of love for her sister. “We’ll figure all this out, I promise. Come home with me.”
“To the Vineyard? I couldn’t do that. My life is here now. And Mack has school and her friends—”
“Is that really why?”
“What do you mean?”
Jenna shrugged. “I always had the feeling there was a reason you spent so little time there.” And it had hurt her feelings that her sister, who seemed to have limitless funds, hadn’t come home more often. She hadn’t come over for Greg’s thirtieth birthday party or to attend the wedding of one of her school friends. It was as if something on the island had scared her away.
Now Jenna was wondering if it had something to do with Mack’s real father.
“Ed was always busy.”
But you could have come without him. “Sure. Forget it.”
Lauren’s hand tightened on the door. “Don’t tell Mom about Mack. Not yet. I need to work out how to handle it.”
“No one is better at keeping secrets than I am. You should know that.”
But maybe, Jenna thought, they’d learned to keep their secrets a little too well.
She waited until Lauren was halfway up the stairs before calling Greg.
Late evening in London meant late afternoon on the Vineyard. He was probably finishing up with clients, but she felt a desperate need to talk to him. If there was one thing guaranteed to make you appreciate your husband, it was watching another woman lose hers.
Gratitude: a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation.
“Hey, sweetheart.” The sound of his voice was as welcome as a cool breeze on a summer’s day.
“Hey, you. I love you.”
“Love you, too. How’s it going?”
“Awful.” She gave him an update, skipping the part about Ed not being able to have kids.
“You didn’t know? But you two talk about everything.”
“Apparently not.” And it shouldn’t bother her, should it? A person didn’t have to know every single little thing about another person, even when that person was a sister. “Lauren is talking to Mack now.”
“That won’t be an easy conversation. Not exactly the kind of information you want to learn when you’re heading into adulthood.”
“Lauren is a great mom. Whatever you may think of the decision, she did what she genuinely believed was best for Mack.” As she jumped to the defense of her sister, she wondered what she would have done in the same situation.
“No one is questioning her intentions. But discovering your parentage isn’t what you thought it was is a tough thing to deal with when a child is as old as Mack.”
Jenna felt a rush of irritation. “Could you quit being a therapist for five minutes? This is my sister we’re talking about. My family. Lauren had her reasons.”
And she knew what those reasons were.
Cold washed over her skin.
