Telling herself that she wasn’t stupid, that she was doing what she needed to do to survive, Arietta logged into her banking app and sent twenty grand to her blackmailers. As soon as the money was sent, she let out a gasp. And then, she burst into tears so awful and so violent that she nearly fell to the floor.
Afterward, she sat with Fred, her fingers laced in his limp ones, gazing out the window. “What do they know, Fred?” She whispered. “What did you do wrong?”
Of course, she prayed she’d never have to know. That was why she’d sent the money. She wanted to live with Fred for the rest of his life. She wanted to care for him. She wanted to uphold this beautiful love.
8
Summer 1996: Nantucket Island
Achance encounter with an acquaintance led Arietta to apply to be a lifeguard at a swanky private beach on Nantucket Island. The acquaintance, a girl named Kathy who’d once swum on the swim team with Arietta before quitting school to marry a wealthy man, told Arietta that her husband’s family belonged to this particular island club and that the club needed lifeguards. “The prettier, the better,” Kathy said, laughing. “These Nantucket elites like everyone to look a certain way.”
Arietta had never considered herself to be beautiful. She’d been told she was, of course—by her sisters and her mother—but she’d always dismissed the compliment. She’d thrown herself into her academic life, avoiding makeup and hair products and often skipping out on sleep, first to focus on her laboratory reports, before she’d changed her major to journalism. She spent her time rewriting articles or reading entire books about the history of journalism. She was obsessed, to put it lightly. She wanted to pour her love of science into all of her writing. Shewanted to help the world understand the exciting research that was poised to change medicine forever.
But Arietta needed money. She was only nineteen, which meant she was too young for most of the newspaper internships she craved, and she didn’t want to go back to her hometown for the summer, where her mother would probably make her cook for her father and clean up the house. Arietta loved her mother, but she’d spent eighteen years living at home. It was time for a change.
A few days after her freshman year at the University of Massachusetts finished, Arietta was on the bus to Hyannis Port, where she took a ferry to Nantucket Island for the first time. She couldn’t believe how good-looking everyone was, nor how fine the fabrics of their clothing were. As she walked from the ferry ramp and into the first line of shops and houses, she felt as though she was entering another universe.
Her boss, Susie, picked her up from a little coffee shop not far from the ferry. Susie was twenty-five, with long, slender arms and legs and bushy brown hair. “I didn’t grow up around these people, either,” she explained as she drove Arietta to her summer dorm, where she’d be staying with the other lifeguards.
“Should I be afraid of them?” Arietta asked about the wealthy Nantucketers. It was a joke, but Susie answered it seriously.
“They always get what they want,” Susie said. “Just make sure you always play by their rules, okay? Because if they think they can’t trust you, or you stick out like a sore thumb, they’ll do everything they can to get you off their beach.”
Arietta was taken aback, but she tried not to show her fear.
Inside her dorm room, Arietta introduced herself to the three women she was going to share the space with for the rest of the summer: Candice, Marjorie, and Eloise. They were all around Arietta’s age, and none of them were from elite families. They were all in college, studying to become teachers, nurses, andliterary scholars. They thought Arietta’s obsession with science and journalism was a little overzealous, but they accepted her anyway. They were all in the same boat.
Arietta’s first shift at the private beach was two days after her arrival. Sitting up in the lifeguard stand, she oversaw bored and wealthy people as they suntanned and drank beer and dipped their feet into the water. Only three or four people actually got into the water the entire day. Arietta decided to thank her lucky stars that this wasn’t an arduous job. It wasn’t like she wanted to save people’s lives all day, every day.
On her thirdday of work, Arietta clocked off at three thirty after a six-hour shift, then changed into a sundress and headed for the beach’s exit. It was bizarre to her that the beach was private, that only a set number of people were allowed to come to what was obviously a natural spot. But she’d already given up on understanding Nantucketers. This wasn’t her world.
“Hey! Lifeguard. Wait up,” a male voice called after her.
Arietta paused, then turned to find a handsome twentysomething guy in a pair of dark blue swim shorts running toward her, his abs ripping. He stopped about a foot away from her and smiled. His eyes were clever and bright.
“Can I help you with something?” Arietta asked.
“You can,” the guy said. “We’re having a party tonight at my parents’ place. They’re not there. We want you to come.”
Arietta was taken aback. She’d already had a few beers with the other lifeguards and been to a couple of parties. But she hadn’t imagined that she’d get invited by an actual wealthy Nantucketer. She wondered if it was a trap or a way to make fun of her.
“Oh, that’s okay,” she said, turning back.
But the guy hurried up beside her and stood between her and the entrance. “Why won’t you come?” he asked.
“Um, because I don’t want to?” Arietta said, smiling.
The guy grinned wider. “That’s not a good reason. It’s going to be a great party. It might be the best party you’ve ever been to.”
Arietta rolled her eyes. “I doubt that.”
“Why would you take that risk?” he asked. “What if it’s the best party you’re ever invited to, and you miss it? You’ll never forgive yourself.”
Arietta blushed, then glanced to the left to see Candice and Marjorie, whispering and watching her and this stranger. Marjorie waved and called out, “Hey, Fred!”
“Hey, Marjorie!” the man called Fred said. “Marjorie’s coming to my party. Why won’t you?”
It seemed stupid to argue. Arietta groaned and said, “I’ll think about it,” then scurried past him and headed back to the dorms. Once there, she talked with a few of the other lifeguards, some of whom had been invited to Fred Peters’s house party, and others who had decided to tag along. “Apparently, those parties get wild,” one of them said.