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“I'm just...so angry.”
He spoke softly, and she thought for a second she’d imagined it. She turned to him but he stared straight ahead.
“The guilt, the grief, the pain…I can deal with that. But I can't let go of the anger. I don't know what to do with it. I have nowhere to direct it, nowhere to let it go.” He turned to her, his eyes glassy. “Until today. I let a sliver of it escape, and I hurt you, the last person I would ever want to hurt. I don't want to push you away, Iwantto talk to you, but it’s hard.”
He stopped, and she waited patiently for him to go on.
“He took away everything she was—my happy, confident sister, who was full of life, full of love… She always saw the best in everyone. But just like that”—he snapped his fingers—“she was gone, and I was left with a shell of her. First my mother, then my father, and then her. That's all I kept thinking, that she was gone too. He’d taken her.”
The pain etched in his expression broke her heart, and she squeezed his hand. “But she’snotgone. She's here, she’s healing, and you have to heal with her. She’s fighting to get her life back. It's going to take some time, but she'll get there. As long as she has you, and Charles, and Mrs. R, she knows she'll get there.”
“And you. She has you too.”
She smiled softly. “Yes, me too.”
“I know I have to let it go, but it’s hard. I see her fear, and I relive it all. I've let go of the guilt... I know there was no way I could have stopped what happened. She thought she was safe,Ithought she was safe. I knew those people, I knew her friends.” He paused and shook his head. “But there’s more. She doesn’t know this, but when I first saw those horrible pictures, and the way they’d–they’d posed her… It was their plan all along, to make her look–to make her lookwilling. And I believed it. I believed the lie those pictures told. It wasn’t for long; it only took a moment for me to come to my senses and realize Georgie would never do something like that, but for that brief moment, I lost faith in her and believed the worst. I should have known better. I shouldn’t have doubted her. The remorse and shame I feel about that… It will never go away. I'll never forgive myself.”
He rose suddenly and walked toward the beach. She let him go, watching as he passed through the gate and walked across the sand to the water’s edge and stood there, hands in his pockets, staring out at the ocean. Finally she rose from her chair and followed.
She’d just passed through the gate and onto the sand when he turned around and walked toward her. She opened her arms and he stepped into them, hugging her tightly.
“I'm sorry,” he said.
“Shh. It's okay.” She kissed him and stroked his cheek. “You and Georgiana need a night at home together. You need to really talk to her and tell her how you feel.”
He sighed. “This is not what I’d envisioned for the weekend. I wanted to spend it with you.”
“We can see each other tomorrow, okay? My whole day belongs to you.”
“Promise?”
“Yes. Do you promise to talk to Georgie tonight?”
He nodded. “I'll try.”
“That's good enough for me.”
He hugged her again. “I'm so sorry about today—”
“I told you, it’s okay.”
“But it'snotokay. I just want to leave all the dark, ugly stuff out, and surround you with all the good stuff.” He smiled when she rolled her eyes. “I know it's unrealistic, but it's a nice thought just the same, isn't it?”
“It's a very nice thought.”
They walked back to the house and made their way up to the deck, and suddenly Georgiana appeared at the sliding door.
“Hey, when did you get back? I thought you were spending the day down Cape?” She looked from Elizabeth to Will, then frowned. “What's wrong?”
“Just a change in plans,” Will responded softly.
Georgiana stared at Will, and her eyes widened slightly. “She told you, didn't she? That we talked?”
He nodded.
“I thought you would be happy I confided in her,” Georgiana said, her voice low.
“Iamhappy about that,” he said. “It’s just…I was surprised, that’s all.”
