“You’re not going to need a burner phone.” Joanna took her hand and squeezed. “Remember what I said to you yesterday? It doesn’t matter what they wrote, or what they write in the future. It doesn’t change the truth. What happened was an accident, Ashley. You weren’t responsible. And if there is blame, then it’s Cliff’s, for putting you in a position where that was the only way you could talk to him.”

“But people think—”

“Strangers,” Joanna said. “They’re strangers.”

Ashley eyed her. “They said stuff about you, too.”

“I’m sure they did.”

And she was so tired of it. She and Cliff had been divorced for a year before he’d died, and yet still they made her the story. They’d continued to hunt and she’d continued to hide. When was it going to end?

She rocked back on her heels.

It ended now. Right now.

What was it Ashley had said to her the day before?

Why do we have to hide?

It was a good question. She’d blamed Cliff for it. She’d blamed the press and the public. But she was the one who had chosen to live like this. And she could choose not to.

The idea rocked her.

Was it really that simple?

No, but how much harm could they do to her? What could they say that they hadn’t already said? Over the past two decades they’d exposed her to scrutiny and publicly humiliated her in every way imaginable. Joanna had handled it by locking herself away, and locking her emotions away, exactly as she’d handled Denise. She hadn’t fought back, she’d made herself small. She’d allowed Denise, and then the press, to chip away at her self-confidence. She’d allowed them to decide who she was, even though she didn’t recognize the person they created.

But no more.

Maybe it was being back at Otter’s Nest that had made her see things differently. Maybe it was Ashley, who was bold and brave and questioned things she hadn’t had the courage to question herself. When she’d discovered that the intimate details of her life were about to be made public, her first instinct hadn’t been to hide, as Joanna would have done, it had been to ignore it and carry on with her life.

And that, Joanna thought, was what they were both going to do.

“It only matters if we let it matter. For decades I let it matter. I don’t want you to make the same mistake. But I understand that you’re upset, and that’s natural.”

“Upset?” Ashley sniffed. “Yes, I’m upset, but mostly I’m really angry.”

“Me, too.”

“I’m not like you. You’re so controlled and you never—” Ashley stopped. “What did you say?”

“I’m angry, too. Furious.”

“You are?”