“I hate how everything happened the other night,” she said. “It probably felt like we dog-piled on you about what was goingon. Really, we were frightened, and we didn’t know how to show it.”
Arietta raised her chin. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. I know better than to share so much about myself, especially with a group of strangers.”
“But that’s the thing. We don’t want to be strangers,” Hilary said. “At one time or another, all of the women at that table were strangers to each other. We’ve built a community of compassion and understanding. We’ve been there for each other through thick and thin. Our instinct, when you talked about the blackmail, was to step in and save the day.”
“I don’t want that,” Arietta said.
“We get that, now,” Hilary said. She was quiet for a moment. “You really don’t know anyone who would want to blackmail you? You don’t know why?”
Arietta cocked her head, surprised that Hilary didn’t get the hint.
“Sorry,” Hilary said, blushing. “I can’t get it out of my head, I guess.” Her eyes scanned the kitchen, pausing at a framed photograph of Arietta, Fred, and their three daughters. “Your girls are beautiful,” she said.
Arietta pointed them out. “That’s Shannon, Felicity, and Isabelle.”
“You must be proud of them,” Hilary said.
Arietta knew that Hilary’s daughter, like her mother, was a famous actress. Arietta wondered how often Hilary got to see her daughter, given that Hilary was so famous and in demand worldwide.
“They have their own lives now,” Arietta said of her daughters. “But Shannon checks in.”
Hilary was quiet for a moment. “You’re on the island by yourself.”
“I have Fred,” Arietta reminded her.
“Of course. But women need girlfriends,” Hilary said. “We’re having another Salt Sisters dinner tomorrow night. I’d really like you to come.”
Arietta laughed. She couldn’t imagine burning under the watchful and judgmental gazes of those women. “I don’t think so. But thanks.”
Hilary rubbed the back of her neck. “We don’t bite, you know. We really like you.”
“You don’t really know me,” Arietta said gently.
Hilary crossed and uncrossed her arms. She seemed to have something to say, then thought better of it. “I’ll leave you alone,” she said. “I just thought I’d give it a try.”
Arietta walked Hilary to the front door, where she thanked her for the pie and told her to drive safely. Hilary gave her a final knowing look, then put her sunglasses on and walked to her car. Arietta didn’t wait for Hilary to pull out of the driveway before she returned to her place next to Fred on the veranda. When she reached for her computer to look over her notes again, she felt tears well up in her eyes and throat. She swallowed them down, telling herself it didn’t matter. The Salt Sisters were not her people. Fred was her person. She was where she belonged.
14
Two Years Ago
When Arietta’s mother, Regina, slipped into unconsciousness and passed away, Arietta wasn’t at the care home. At the time, she’d had a cold, but it hadn’t been a run-of-the-mill, easily-fixed-with-medication cold. It was a horrible and nausea-inducing head cold that had kept her in bed for much of the week.
On the one hand, Arietta had known that her mother was getting worse, that her moments of consciousness were few and far between. But on the other hand, she’d felt that Regina had been so ill for so long that a single week of lying in bed and waiting to get better didn’t seem like a problem.
“She’ll be okay for a little while,” Fred had told her.
Arietta hadn’t thought in a million years that she would miss her mother’s death. She hadn’t thought she’d fail her mother like that. Arietta wasn’t sure if she’d ever forgive herself for not being there.
The fact that Shannon was there and Arietta was not was humbling, to say the least. But Arietta was glad that Regina hadn’t been alone.
“She wouldn’t have known you were there,” Fred told her when she said this. “She didn’t really know what was going on anymore, honey.”
“Hearing that isn’t the relief you think it is,” Arietta said.
Regina had requested cremation. She didn’t like the idea of being buried in the ground. After the funeral, after everyone had left the wake and gone back to their lives, Arietta drove to the funeral home to pick up the urn filled with her mother’s ashes. She sat in the car for a long time with her mother’s urn on her lap, crying quietly. She wasn’t sure what to do after that. She longed to be with one of her daughters. Shannon was the only one who answered when she called.
Arietta drove from Boston to New Haven, where Shannon and her boyfriend, Cole, were waiting for her on the balcony of the apartment she shared with her roommate, Dina. Shannon hurried down the steps and threw her arms around Arietta, who bit her tongue to keep from sobbing in front of Cole.