“If you flipped toward the middle or back, you would have seen not-so-happy pictures. You would have seen evidence of a child who had been sexually abused.” Olivia’s voice quivered slightly, and she cleared her throat as if she’d betrayed herself. Her gaze stayed on the waves rolling over.

Chase felt her stomach lurch. “You’re saying Marley was abused?”

Olivia nodded. “I’m sure you noticed that Neve goes by Neve Hancock and I go by Han. That’s because my father was arrested for sexually molesting several of his students. He was an elementary school principal.”

“Oh God,” Chase said, wanting to reach out and comfort Olivia in some way but knowing that her touch might not be welcome. Olivia stood stalwart against emotion and even now looked like an island, as if what she was saying were about someone she didn’t know, like a case study, instead of about her own life. “I’m so sorry.”

“I had my doubts about his innocence, but before his trial, my father and I had a falling-out. He was angry at therapists, who he thought misconstrued his affectionate nature, and so he accused me of supporting my career over my family. But Neve and my mom believed him when he said that it was politically motivated by a group of parents and that the children had been coached. He was found guilty and served time. But we never knew if it was true, and now we do.”

Chase swallowed hard and closed her eyes tight. She didn’t know much about Marley but had seen her name scrawled in a few books and found some old pictures of her as a child. She’d been blonde and beautiful. Chase didn’t fail to note her own resemblance to Olivia’s youngest sister. “That’s horrible, Olivia.”

“But not any more so than what happened to you.”

“I don’t know. I think it could be. I didn’t love Peter. He was a random guy who . . . who took what he wanted. My father didn’t hurt me.”

“But he did. He let it happen.”

“But he didn’t do it. He was messed up, using drugs and drinking all the time. I’m not even sure if he understood what happened to me, or maybe he couldn’t remember that I was a child. I’m not making excuses for him, because that whole deal was a horrible thing to let happen to your daughter, stoned out of your mind or not, but your dad knew what he was doing.”

Olivia bent down, grabbed a handful of sand, and flung it into the crashing waves. She did it again and again until she was breathing hard. Then she stood with her head bowed and covered her face with her sandy hands.

Chase stood beside her, never trying to stop her, because she understood.