The man shook Russell’s hand with such strength that Shannon saw Russell wince. “Pleasure,” the man said, but he didn’t offer his name.
Shannon realized she needed to get away from these people as soon as possible. She made a vague excuse about having to be somewhere, then ducked ahead, praying that Russell would follow her. Eventually, she heard him shuffle after her. When she felt him beside her, she broke into a run.
“Man, Shannon. I don’t know if I can run anymore today.” Russell laughed.
But Shannon couldn’t slow down. She stretched her legs out, long and fast, till they started to scream with pain. When she reached the edge of campus, she stopped, gasping, and glanced back across the long stretch of green grass. She could no longer see Dina nor her weird friend. Just behind her, Russell stopped and gasped for breath, then raised his eyes to hers. “That was odd,” he said, his shoulders shaking. “You don’t think Dina had something to do with your experiment going missing, do you?”
“It’s nothing I can prove,” Shannon said quietly. “But Dina has had it out for me for years. I don’t know why.”
Russell considered this. “Do you think she’s jealous of you?”
Shannon shrugged. It had never occurred to her that anyone was jealous of her. Shannon had always kept to herself. She’d always studied hard, pushed herself, loved Cole as well as she could, called her parents, and made sure to check in with hersisters. Her life was a series of schedules, logistics, and trying to keep up with everything she wanted to be.
“More people are jealous of you than you know,” Russell offered finally.
“That’s hard for me to believe,” Shannon said.
Russell laughed softly. “You’re one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met,” he said. “I think you might be the only person who doesn’t know that about yourself.”
Shannon wrinkled her nose. “Cole cheated on me. I can’t be that great.”
Russell stopped laughing at once. “He cheated on you because he knows you’re better than him. That’s how these things usually go.”
Shannon didn’t know what to say. The sweat from her run felt cold on her upper lip. She pulled her eyes away from Russell’s urgent ones, then turned away. It felt like too much.
13
During the days after Arietta’s dinner with the Salt Sisters, she stewed in such shame that she couldn’t leave the house. She couldn’t believe that she’d let those strangers know about the blackmail. She couldn’t believe she’d told them that she’d sent the money! Now that she’d told them, she couldn’t pretend it hadn’t happened.
Probably, all of the Salt Sisters were sitting in their private, beautiful mansions (not unlike her own) and calling one another to gossip about how stupid Arietta was. They were probably saying, “We would never be that dumb. Can you imagine being that dumb?”
But did Arietta herself think she was stupid? She didn’t know.
June 1stcame and went, and nobody bothered her. No big secrets surfaced. Maybe everything would be all right. Maybe it was only going to be all right because she’d sent the money.
To celebrate the beginning of June, Arietta wheeled Fred out onto the veranda. It was a gorgeous day, seventy-eight degrees with a light and salty breeze, and she poured herself a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and tried to focus on a book she’dalways wanted to read,The Master and the Margarita. But she hadn’t written a single word since she’d been in Greece—minus to-do lists, of course—and she found it difficult to concentrate. She wondered whether her mental agility would ever return.
“Maybe I’ll finally stop all that journalism stuff,” Arietta said to Fred now, closing her book on her lap. “Your mother would be pleased! Too bad she’s not around to see my retirement.”
Arietta wondered what Fred’s mother would make of her favorite son, unable to speak or walk at the age of fifty-six. It broke Arietta’s heart to think of Shannon or Felicity or Isabelle undergoing such horrors.
Suddenly, as though to save her from her racing mind, her phone rang. It was Jasper, her old journalist friend, whom she and Fred had seen back in Greece. Arietta answered, telling herself to act normally. But her voice was high-pitched and not entirely her own.
“Jasper, hello!”
“There she is,” Jasper said happily. “How are you?”
Arietta kept her eyes straight ahead, toward the ocean, so as not to look over at Fred. “I’m doing all right. We moved to Nantucket for the summer.”
“Beautiful there this time of year,” Jasper said.
“It really is. Maybe we’ll make ourselves year-rounders,” Arietta said.
“And leave the city? You?” Jasper laughed. “I never imagined you’d slow down like that.”
“Things change,” Arietta said meekly.
“Yes. I suppose they do.” Jasper was quiet for a moment. “I got back from Europe last week,” he explained. “It’s been strange to return to divorce proceedings and angry children.”