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“We’re going to be sisters,” Olivia said. “After a lifetime with just guys, I had hoped we could talk and I wouldn’t have to front all the time with you.”
Adler turned to Olivia and realized what the other woman was saying. She and Olivia had spent some girl-time getting to know each other. She had craved having a close sister bond. She had a few half siblings from her father’s numerous affairs, but he had a way with women that made them tend to hate him when he moved on so she’d never had a chance to get close to any of them.
“I do want that,” Adler said. “I just don’t want to ruin this night for you.”
Olivia put her arm around Adler’s shoulders. “You can’t. We’re sisters and I’ve got your back. So talk to me.”
She looked at Olivia for another long minute and then took a deep breath. “I’m freaking out. I mean I wish I could get drunk, like Nick’s doing, but I know that won’t help, and I have to do some shooting in the morning for the reality TV show—which I’m not sure we should still do. But Quinn is counting on me. And maybe it’s better to get ahead of this with some positive media...” She trailed off, realizing she was about to start rambling all of the fears plaguing her.
Olivia shook her head. “I get it. It’s easy for Nick to drink because he can’t begin to start sorting this out, but that’s not you. It’s not me either. Want to make a plan? I’m good at this and I’ll help however I can. Iris will too. You don’t have to worry about anything but your wedding. We can handle the other stuff,” Olivia said.
The wedding was one of her chief concerns. Could she marry a man who wasn’t who she thought he was? It seemed selfish for her to even be concerned about it, but she had never been the kind of woman who ignored her inner feelings. This was bothering her.
Adler knew the lie hadn’t been Nick’s, but she also realized this was going to change him in ways she couldn’t even begin to guess. She certainly wasn’t going to say any of that to Olivia, who watched her as if waiting for something. “You’re right. I think it’s just so new that I was overwhelmed. I’ll make a list and then we can divvy it up.”
“Great. Want to do it tonight?”
She started laughing. Olivia was a bit of a bookworm and didn’t normally like socializing, so Adler wasn’t surprised she wanted to do it now. “No, let’s enjoy this party. I think once the word gets out, things aren’t going to be like this again.”
“You’re right. This is the last moment where we know that Nick is both ours and the Bissets. All my life, Dad has told us August Bisset was the boogeyman and I sort of always believed him and thought that his kids, especially Logan, were the same. But now they are related to me...” Olivia let her words fall; she was probably as mixed up about everything as Adler was, albeit from a different perspective. And at that moment, Nick came running over to Adler, scooped her up in his arms and spun her around.
“I love you, Addie. Nothing else matters but you,” he said, letting her slide down his body until their lips met and they kissed.
Nothing else mattered. She wanted to believe it as he deepened the kiss and cupped her butt, but she knew no matter how much they both wanted that to be true, the outside world would interfere.
Nick had a way of making that all fade as he pulled her into his arms and danced with her as her father sang about the simple life. She remembered her advice to Olivia and decided to enjoy this moment when everything seemed perfect, because she knew perfection was an illusion.
Juliette Bisset stood on the widow’s walk looking out at the horizon. Her husband was in the study with Carlton forming some sort of plan. Tad and Cora Williams had left an hour ago and her mother had retired. She was alone on the walk, wearing the same shawl she’d wrapped Logan in when she’d brought him home from the hospital as a baby. She took a deep breath.
She’d had no idea that Logan was really August’s son. She’d just claimed him in her heart as hers. But seeing Bonnie—Cora!—today had thrown her.
On that fateful night when she’d met a young single mother in a small rural hospital, she’d had no idea who the father of the other woman’s baby—babies—was. But today she knew.
August Bisset. Her own husband.
After all these years, it felt like everything had been laid to rest. She’d had her dark little secret that she carried with her until today. Without even a hint of irony, she had to wonder how she could have missed that Logan was Auggie’s son. They were like two peas in a pod. Auggie was being overly contrite and saying and doing all the things that...well, frankly, he’d done over the course of their marriage every time she’d found out he was cheating.
Juliette had seen in his eyes real sorrow this time. This was the one thing she hadn’t expected to see. Their marriage had been good since Mari’s birth. They’d slowly made their way into a relationship where they were both honest with each other, and that was what hurt the most. Auggie was finally the man she’d always wanted him to be. The way he’d been treating her since the revelation that Nick was his son was evidence of that.
Yet she knew it wouldn’t last.
It couldn’t.
There was no way, once he realized that she’d lied about Logan all these years, that he could forgive her. The baby she’d carried had been stillborn and she’d made a deal with the single mother who had expected one child and not twins. A deal to help save her rocky marriage. But looking back was probably going to not only ruin her marriage but also break her family. How could she have been so blind?
She was racked with guilt. Over the secret that had seemed so innocent until this afternoon when Cora Williams had shown up and revealed herself to be one and the same as Bonnie Smith. The woman who’d worked for Bisset Industries all those years ago, who’d had an affair with August. And with whom Juliette shared a secret that could be her undoing.
Frankly, Juliette had never paid any attention to August’s business since she had carved her own life with her charity work. But now Juliette wished she had. Heck, she’d even avoided meeting Adler’s future in-laws because...well, she hadn’t wanted any part of August’s sharklike behavior to spoil things for Adler. But now she wished—Heck there was a long list of things she wished she’d done.
And they didn’t start with meeting Nick’s mom. They started back in that hospital room in 1983. The place where she’d first met Bonnie. They’d both just gone through labor, and each was facing the hardest challenge of her life. The deal...it had seemed a simple solution at the time. Juliette would help out the destitute single woman who’d just given birth to twin boys by funding her education and giving her a lump sum of money to set herself up in exchange for one of the twins becoming hers. Replacing the stillborn baby that she’d brought back here to Nantucket and buried in that unmarked grave in the family plot.
She’d loved Logan from the second she’d held him. Had never thought of him as anyone else’s son but hers. And bringing the new baby home, the child everyone believed was hers and August’s, had given her and August a new start until his eye had wandered again.
Someone cleared his throat and she glanced toward the open sliding-glass door to see August standing there with a tray that had two snifters on it. He stood tall almost six feet, five inches, but he’d lost a bit of that height in the last few years. His once jet-black hair was shot with gray, which only made him seem more distinguished. His jaw was still as strong. His nose a sharp blade that gave him an intense look.
“May I join you?” he asked. His voice was deep, and she closed her eyes as she felt tears burning at the backs of them.
“Baby, I’m sorry. Please let me try to make this right,” he said.
