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I manage a small smile. “That is who we’re talking about, right?”
He shakes his head. “It’s not like that. Wait—she thinks you stole me from her? How? It was one night. I was in a rough place and…”
When he trails off, I brush a hanging vine out of the way and say, “I don’t need the details, Kit.”
“No, actually you do. I didn’t tell you before, because it felt like blaming Sadie when I might have been wrong, and it’s not as if I need to justify sleeping with someone before you and I got together. When I say she’s interested in my money, that’s not a lack of self-confidence, Laney. She’s the one who got in touch with me, right after it was announced that I was taking over the company. She wanted to talk business, and then Mom had a cancer scare, and there were a few weeks there where I was convinved I was going to lose her… while Dad was still recovering from his heart attacks. That’s when it happened. A night of comfort and companionship turned to sex, and I won’t lie—I needed that. But she started telling people we were a couple and showing up at my condo.”
“Well, youarereally good in bed.” I lift my hands. “Just saying.”
He laughs, the sound carried on a whoosh of breath as he relaxes. “Thanks, but even I’m not that good. I just happened to have a job opening she thought she could fill, and it wasn’t in the marketing department.”
“CEO’s wife.”
He falls in beside me, and we resume walking. “Yeah. She apologized later for coming on so strong, but it still…” Hands in hispockets again. “I screwed up when Anna died. I know I did. It was the worst time of your life, and I was nowhere to be found. I hurt you.”
I open my mouth to say no, it was fine, I understood. After all, we’d been separated and on the road to a quickie divorce. Instead, what comes out is a single word.
“Yes.”
“I know,” he says. “And while there’s no excuse, if there’s an explanation, it’s Sadie. I couldn’t stop thinking about what she did, taking advantage of me when I thought I could lose both my parents. I wouldn’t do that to you. When Anna got sick again, I wanted to see you. I wanted to be there for you. I wanted to help with the expenses. But I worried it would only make things worse, so I settled for little things. Things you wouldn’t know were me.”
I think back to the anonymous gifts that’d come when Anna was in hospice care and after her death. Endless little things, for her, for Madison, for me, for my parents, from meals to gifts to housecleaning services. We’d presumed different sources—various friends and family being thoughtful. A few of the extravagant things I even suspected came from Kit’s parents. But his parents had helped under their own name and they’d come to visit, as had everyone else on my list. Everyone except Kit, who’d slipped in twice to see Anna when I wasn’t there, who’d taken Madison out a dozen times to cheer her up and give me a break. I figured that was his sole contribution. I should have known better.
“I’m sorry, Laney. I screwed up, and I hurt you more.”
I answer carefully. “I won’t say it didn’t hurt, but I understand why you kept your distance when she was dying. And I really did appreciate all those things you did.”
The path reaches a fork, and we head left, toward the water.
“You argued with Sadie last night,” I say. “That’s actually what I needed to talk to you about. The rest is good to know, but this is the important part.”
“What did we fight about, and could that be a reason for her to blow up your boats.”
“Somehow, I don’t think anything could be a reason to strand us, let alone destroy the boats, but was your fight something that might have upset her more? She was already mad at me.”
I explain why—what Sadie had said in the laundry room—and he squeezes his eyes shut.
“So that’s the real reason she was here,” he says.
“I think there were multiple reasons, but that was one of them.”
“Agreed. Which is exactly what we were arguing about. She said she came here for me, because when she got my message, she knew I was falling into your trap.” His hands fly up. “Her words, not mine. That was the start of the fight.”
“Okay.”
“She thought all this staging was a setup. Everyone knows you love horror movies. So you pretended to find all this stuff, maybe for book publicity.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And then you decided you could use it for something else. Getting me back.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You had Madison call and tell me everything, saying you were heading out here, just the two of you, after finding ritualistic symbols. Naturally, I would fly to your side.”
“Which you kinda did.”
“Yep, I’m predictable. That’s why Madisondidcall. She knew I’d come, and she wanted me to come, and I was fine with that.”
