“I don’t hate you, Greer.” I was wired to hear my mom’s voice above others, to be able to pick it out of a crowd. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have Sawyer. So rest assured, I’m not going to burst your little bubble with respect to your current deception.”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about, Ellie.” Before my mom could respond, Greer caught sight of me and nodded in my direction.

My mom turned. She saw me, then let her gaze travel farther into the tent, to Sadie-Grace. “All I’m saying, friend, is that maybe you’re so set on making life go your way that you’re missing out on the ways that it already has.”

I’d wondered how hungover my mom was. The answer was apparently philosophically hungover, which generally hovered around the midpoint of the scale.

Without responding to my mom’s advice, Greer went to make her exit. I watched her go. Do you know that your husband lost a child when he lost his first wife? I thought. Would it make any kind of difference to you if you did?

Given that she was eight months into this deception, I doubted it.

“She’s a piece of work,” my mom declared, coming to stand beside me. “Happy Fourth of July, baby.”

She hesitated when she called me baby, like she wasn’t sure she was still allowed to call me that. The hesitation hit me harder than any attempt she’d made to mend things between us.

“Happy Fourth of July,” I returned. I might have left it there, but I realized, suddenly, that I knew something that she didn’t know.

Something that she probably should know.

“Mom,” I started. “Don’t do anything rash or stupid when I tell you what I’m about to tell you. Aunt Olivia? She knows.”

CHARLOTTE, LIV, JULIA,
THE INTERLOPER, AND THE BOYS
SUMMER BEFORE SENIOR YEAR
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS EARLIER

“Don’t worry,” Liv whispered in Charlotte’s ear. “You’re prettier.”

Charlotte wanted to say that she hadn’t been worried, but that was a lie. Down below, the boat was anchored. Sterling and the other boys—and the interloper—were making the climb up. The girl might have been wearing a bathing suit, but she was also wearing an oversized T-shirt that made it hard to tell. She should have looked hideous in it, but she didn’t.

She shouldn’t have been touching Sterling, but she was.

“Hello, hello!” Charlotte forced a smile onto her face, sweet as sugar. She waved, letting her eyes lock onto Sterling’s as he helped Miss T-shirt up the incline.

“Who’s she?” Julia asked, coming up behind Charlotte and Liv. Charlotte would have liked Julia significantly better if she’d sounded the least bit upset about the unexpected addition.

At least she’d asked the question loud enough for everyone to hear.