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‘When he asked me to marry him, he wrote it in the sand at a beach in Baja. Even then, he couldn’t say the words, but I found it more romantic that he wrote them like that. I’ve got a photo of the words in the sand, whereas if he’d said them they’d have blown away in the wind. Gone forever. We’re trying to have a baby, but it’s hard, isn’t it? When we both work so much and then we’re dead on our feet afterwards. I keep thinking of spiriting him away. Taking him back to Baja, but we have thisotherbaby, the award-winning bistro, so I’ll wait. I know it’ll happen when the time is right. And until then, I’ll keep waking up to fresh brioche every Sunday, knowing I’m one of the lucky ones but only because I made that choice years ago not to settle for second best …’
The next day, I’m back in my townhouse, feet up on the coffee table as I scroll the internet and still find no mention of my name, or anything about Willow Grove. TheChroniclesocial media pages haven’t been updated either. The absence of a story worries me more. Just how big an exposé is he writing? Perhaps he’s gone to some other national with it and they’re taking their time, getting it fact-checked and approved by their legal team.
I get a text from Sofia:Darling, please come back! The town isn’t the same without you. You’ve made Willow Grove into the place I always dreamed about living in. A tight-knit community where everyone has everyone’s back despite a squabble here and there. No one cares you’re Ellie Astor. Maisie is beside herself with worry about the library slipping away under her hand. Will you at least take my call? I miss you so!
There’s a Teddy-style knock at the door, banging so loud you’d think the place was on fire. I go and let him in, shocked to find Finn standing behind him.
‘What …’
Both men walk inside before I can think to slam to the door. ‘Hear me out,’ Finn says, holding his hands up as if in surrender.
I’m so mad at Teddy I feel like my head is about to explode. Now Finn’s getting a good peek around my townhouse. I’m sure he’s calculating just what to say in his article about the extreme wealth on display here. The princess in the penthouse.
‘Teddy, how could you do this?’
He shakes his head. ‘Come and sit down. It’s not what you think.’
I glare at him but go through to the sitting room, arms folded defensively across my chest. ‘Make it quick, Finn. I’m really not interested in anything you have to say to me.’
‘The notes weren’t mine, Elodie,’ Finn says.
‘Riiight.’
‘I mean it – they weren’t. When have you ever seen me take notes on a notepad? I use my iPad for work.’
‘That doesn’t prove a thing.’
Finn rubs his face. ‘It was Harry who found the notes stashed away in the library. He took me to one side and quizzed me until my head spun in order to know if he could trust me with this secret. He was worried people would find out because he didn’t know who the notes belonged to.’
‘Who did they belong to then, if not you?’
Finn rubs the back of his neck. ‘Maisie.’
‘Maisie?’ I feel a wave of betrayal.
‘Yes. Look, Maisie’s young; she made a huge mistake. She was out of sorts about the treatment of her gran and to her the blame fell squarely at your feet, albeit unfairly. I had a chat on the phone with her yesterday and she’s distraught that your secret is out and that you left because of it. Whatever you said to her as you were leaving made her realise that you were in Willow Grove for the right reasons.’
‘What I said to her?’ I struggle to recall that fateful morning when I left the library in such haste. ‘But then she had all this information about me. She’d done all that digging. Why?’
Finn takes a deep breath, and explains, ‘When Maisie found out you weretheEllie Astor, the one she’s seen wearing couture in the tabloids, the one whose life seems full of glamour from the outside, she got angry. She believed there was an ulterior motive to your arrival in Willow Grove. Then you suggested the People Library idea and Maisie had it in her head that it was some kind of scheme, and that you weren’t doing it for the greater good of the community.After you said your goodbyes to her in the library she took stock. Just because you have a fancy last name doesn’t mean you’re any happier than the rest of us. She finally pieced it together: we all have dreams and yours was to live your life on your own terms. She’s really upset, Elodie. She’s worried everyone’s going to blame her for your leaving. But she’s been so brave and told everyone what she did and promised to make it better.’ Now all the missed calls from Maisie make sense. She wants to apologise.
‘No one cares what name you use, especially me! You’ve done such a huge amount of good for the library and the town of Willow Grove. Old wrongs have been righted. Hurts are beginning to heal. And it’s all because of you. I don’t care if you’re Ellie Astor, or Elodie Halifax because I know the real you. The one who wants to change the world, to help others in every way possible. To let go of her privilege and prove herself on her own merit. And trust me, I know what it’s like to start over, Ellie, and to want to run from the past.’
It’s so much to process. ‘I wouldn’t know because you never really speak about your past.’
‘Likewise.’ He’s got me there.
‘So tell me.’
FINN
‘I always wanted to be an investigative reporter in the bright lights of the big city. The thrill of breaking a story before other reporters appealed to me. It’s like playing detective, piecing the clues together and finding the narrative that fits. But life had other plans for me,and my own dreams went on the back burner. Eventually, those dreams drifted further and further away until they weren’t reachable anymore. I let the idea go and while it hurt I figured it wasn’t that big a deal. People sacrifice a lot more than that every day.
‘I moved to Willow Grove because it was just far enough away from the place I grew up so no one would know me, or my family name. Isn’t it funny, that we both were hiding from our surnames? Mine’s not a name linked with glitz and glamour, more disreputable. I’d hear people talking behind their hands:There go those Ford kids looking for all the world like they’re starving. Or:They should be taken away from her. She’s an unfit mother.
‘To be honest, she was an unfit mother most days, but she tried her best to raise us, while being crippled by drug addiction. It controlled her life and she made so many bad choices under its influence.
‘My kid sisters were always hungry and there was always a new baby on the way but no man in the picture.
