“Oh, Addison,” Charlotte whispered. “Oh, Addison. I’m so sorry.”
Addison told herself to pull it together. There wasn’t time for sobbing to her sister-in-law, who sat somewhere more than a continent away.
“I don’t understand,” Addison said then. “I don’t understand why he’s there and not here.” She was careful to keep her voice down so as not to wake her father in the next room.
Charlotte took a staggered breath. “It’s difficult to explain.”
“Can’t you give me some kind of hint?” Addison shot back. “Don’t you think I deserve it?”
“I think you deserve to hear everything,” Charlotte said. “But I don’t know if I’m the one who should explain.”
Addison was quiet. She felt weighed down by the world's burden.
“Suffice it to say, when he left, Jack was trying to protect you and the life you had together,” Charlotte said. “He was chasing our uncle, our mother’s brother, this awful man who wants to destroy our family. He was in Mexico for a while, trying and failing to corner him. Pretending to be some kind of secret agent. He wanted to find a way to come back so that he could live as Seth Green again.”
“Too little, too late, huh?” Addison said, although with all her heart she wished they could go back in time and live as Seth and Addison Green again. She wished they could work at the Golden Sunset Hotel again.
She couldn’t understand how some uncle played into any of this.
“There’s still so much to explain,” Charlotte said. “Stories you can’t possibly know. Our mother has cancer, and it’s put a strain on all of us. Jack’s been taking her to her chemotherapy appointments. She won’t go with anyone else. She thought he was dead all these years, and now he’s back, willing her to get better. It’s beautiful, but it’s also so surreal. Am I making sense?”
Addison didn’t know what to say. She could picture her darling Seth with that beautiful Italian woman she’d seen on the news, holding her hand as she went through chemo. She wondered if Seth had told his mother anything about her and the kids. Had he told them he’d lied? That he’d planned to continue to lie?
“Is everyone a liar?” Addison asked.
Charlotte was quiet for a moment. Addison knew how reflective and intellectual Charlotte could be, so she didn’t want to give an answer that wasn’t correct.
But Charlotte didn’t answer Addison’s question, maybe because the answer was one that Addison couldn’t accept. Instead, Charlotte said, “Jack talks about you and the kids all the time. He talks about you with more love than I ever knew he had in him. Back when we were in our twenties, I couldn’t have imagined that he’d ever go on to fall in love and have kids. I thought our lives were too frantic. I thought too many bad things had happened. But Jack disproved all my theories about both him and his family.”
Addison was fully crying now. “I don’t know how to forgive him.”
“I know,” Charlotte said. “He’s weak, too. Terribly weak. Everyone in the Whitmore family is. But I have to believe we’re getting better, little by little.”
Addison didn’t know what to do with “little by little.” She didn’t know what to do with her father, snoring in the living room. She didn’t know what to do with her kids, who would grow up without their father if she didn’t do something about it. Did she have to be the strong one at every turn?
“It’s almost Christmas,” Charlotte said. “We’d love to have you and the kids here on the island with the rest of the family. We’re all here. There are so many of us that I have to take numerous breaks in empty rooms. I’m not used to all this chaos.”
Addison took a breath. Never had her kids known any cousins, uncles, or aunts. The only grandfather and grandmother they’d ever known were Hugh and Beth—and Hugh and Beth weren’t exactly her favorite people right now.
“I want to know your kids, Addison,” Charlotte said. “And I know it would make Jack’s Christmas to see you again. It wouldfix everything, knowing that you already know who he really is and why he had to hide.”
Addison couldn’t speak. For a little while, she and Charlotte remained on the line, quiet. “I have to think,” Addison said finally. “But I’ll text you if we’re coming.”
“I’ll be waiting for your text,” Charlotte said. “Thank you for calling, Addison.”
“Thank you for listening,” Addison said. She didn’t want to tell Charlotte that just now, Charlotte felt like her only friend in the world.
After the call, guided by a force she couldn’t fully understand, Addison hurried upstairs to pack her and her children’s bags. It would be freezing in Nantucket, so she knew they’d have to go shopping as soon as they arrived. But she could pack the basics of toiletries, underwear, and socks. She threw in books, tablets, and packs of cards, knowing the trip would be long, arduous, and boring, and that they’d want things to do.
When she was finished, she zipped up their bags and searched her phone for the cheapest, most readily available flights to Boston, Massachusetts. There would be two flights involved: one from Oahu to Los Angeles, and another from LA to Boston. The trip would last a total of twelve hours, which felt insane but also, weirdly, doable. She booked their first flight for tomorrow morning at eight. Was she insane? Maybe she was.
The kids came home a little while later. Addison was busy with dinner, then told them they were allowed to watch television for a half hour in her bedroom upstairs. When they were gone, she cleaned the kitchen, then entered the living room to find her father awake again. He’d finished the macaroni and cheese she’d made for everyone, but his bowl remained on the table beside him, becoming sticky and grimy as time passed. She wondered if he’d ever taken his dirty dishes to the sink. Shewondered if his mistress had also taken his dirty dishes away for him.
“Dad?” Addison said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Her father turned to look at her. He seemed older than he had only a few weeks ago, as though the sale of the Golden Sunset Hotel had ripped him into a new decade.
“Who was blackmailing you?” Addison asked, too frightened to wait another second.