It tooka little more than a week for Arietta and Fred to move into their Nantucket summer house. Throughout, a team of nurses and specialists created a perfect hospital-like space for Fred in the downstairs guest bedroom, where Fred had a glorious view of the Nantucket Sound. Arietta was grateful to have something to pour her energy into. She needed to prep the Nantucket house for the next few months. She needed to organize her closet and make the space feel like a home, rather than a place they used for a few weeks each year.
When they were all set up in that gorgeous mansion, Arietta checked on Fred in his room. She sipped tea and explained to him how gorgeous the May sunshine was on the waves as they rolled toward the house. “Your mother would be so happy we’re here,” she said to Fred. She was getting accustomed to talking to him without an answer. It had already been three weeks. “I don’t know if she’d love the new art I hung in the living room, but that can be my secret,” Arietta said. Fred’s mother had died ten years ago.
Arietta remembered now that Fred’s mother had had high blood pressure, too. It was impossible to escape genetics. They always got you in the end.
That evening, Arietta took herself on a beautiful beach walk. She was barefoot, loving the warm sand beneath her feet and the dying light across her shoulders. She wanted to do more research tonight about stroke victims and ways to incorporate them into your daily life. She still wanted to feel connected to Fred, somehow. She wanted him to feel loved.
When she returned to the house, she spotted something white on the front porch. Thinking it was a flier or a piece oftrash that had blown in from the beach, she walked around to fetch it.
But it was a square and perfect envelope. Upon it was writtenArietta Peters.
Arietta’s heart stopped.
She leaned down, picked it up, and told herself that there had to be a reasonable explanation. Maybe the letter was from a neighbor, welcoming her back to Nantucket Island. Maybe one of Fred’s old friends had heard about his stroke and wanted to extend their greetings and condolences.
But something told Arietta this was all wrong.
With shaking legs, she went inside, sat at the kitchen table, and opened the envelope. She pulled out a one-page letter on floral stationery. It read:
Dear Mrs. Peters,
It has come to our attention that your husband is not who he seems to be. Your life together is a lie. If you do not pay us what we demand, all your secrets will spill to the surface, and life as you know it will end. To keep your secrets at bay—and maintain the status quo of your lies—please send twenty grand by the end of the month.
Details for our bank account can be found below.
Yours forever,
Your Guardian Angels
4
It was the tail end of the semester, and Shannon was in the lab, trying and failing to finish her experiment. Everything hinged on this—her grade, her future at Yale, and her status. But increasingly, panic set in. Her hands shook, making it difficult for her to think. When she botched yet another experiment, pipetting the wrong solution into the test tube, she cried out, then burst into tears.
What Shannon didn’t know was that she wasn’t alone in the lab. A moment later, Dina appeared beside her, wearing her thick lab glasses and her long black hair in a gorgeous ponytail. Shannon felt a jolt of anger. She wouldn’t have cried if she’d known Dina was so close. In fact, she might have decided to leave the lab and try her experiment again later.
But Dina seemed unwilling to leave her alone. She grabbed her elbow and led Shannon out of the lab and into the little room between the lab and the hallway, where you were meant to wash your hands and dispose of your gloves. They did that, as Shannon continued to sob. She had no interest in being with Dina. She couldn’t understand why Dina had pulled her out, letalone looked at her. But when their masks and lab coats and glasses were off, Dina sighed and said, “Let’s get a coffee, okay?”
Shannon and Dina hadn’t hung out since undergrad, back when they were roommates. At the time, they’d been very close, studying together, eating every meal together, teasing one another, and trying to push themselves through semesters at one of the most prestigious schools in the country. They’d had a falling out, to put it mildly.
They grabbed a table at the outdoor coffee place not far from the lab. Around them, beautiful students celebrated the last days of the semester, tanning their shoulders and legs and drinking iced coffee. Dina got up to get them both iced coffees of their own, remembering that Shannon had taken two milks and no sugar in hers. When Dina returned, Shannon had to bite her tongue to keep from asking her why she was being nice to her.
Shannon took a sip of coffee, then closed her eyes. It had been three weeks since her father’s stroke, three weeks since her breakup, and three weeks since she’d fully committed herself to school again. She felt raggedy and unlike herself. Dina could probably see that, too.
“I heard about your dad,” Dina said finally, then winced. “I’m really sorry.”
Shannon couldn’t imagine who’d told Dina about her father. Shannon herself had told only her friends Rachel and Russell, but Rachel was the kind of person who talked about everything and everyone, so it had probably spread from her. Shannon decided she didn’t care.
“And also about Cole,” Dina offered. “That’s rough.”
Shannon shrugged.
“That guy was so sweet in the beginning,” Dina said.
“Not everyone stays sweet,” Shannon said.You didn’t, for example, she wanted to say but didn’t.
“I guess not.” Dina sipped her iced coffee. “But your dad. Is he going to recover?”
“We’ve made him comfortable,” Shannon said, parroting what her mother said. “He’s at our summer place with my mom. We’re optimistic, I guess.”