By the time she finally agreed to go out to dinner with him at Ciro & Sal’s, she knew deep down she was already smitten. They’d been together ever since. The only tricky part had been convincing Jack to accept the fact that she never wanted to get married. “Marriage just isn’t for me. I don’t want any part of engagements, engagement rings, labels . . . none of it,” she’d said. That was true. But there was another reason, one she wouldn’t admit: She was afraid of the Pavlin curse.

Thankfully, over the years, marriage hadn’t been much of an issue. Their life was peaceful. It had a rhythm, a wonderful predictability. Making it all the more vexing that her sister had just shown up like that.

“My sister’s not here to visit. She wants something.” She’d mentioned the auction over dinner, fried oysters from his cousin’s oyster farm and a few cold beers, but he didn’t share her concern.

“Why not just sign the papers then and be done with it?” he’d said.

She couldn’t tell him about Mercury in retrograde. She and Jack were like-minded in so many ways: their love of P’town, antiques, the sea, cold beer on a warm night. But Jack’s patience for what he called her “hocus-pocus” was limited. And so she told him the second truest thing: “I feel like our parents are still manipulating us—even from the grave.”

Elodie’s temporary landlady, Lidia, seemed to be a competent, pleasant woman. She had silver-brown hair to her shoulders, deep-set brown eyes, olive skin with the hint of sunspots on her cheeks, and just enough New England saltiness to appear trustworthy. Yes, if she had to prolong her stay to put pressure on her sister, this place would do just fine.

The third-floor bedroom had plain wood-paneled walls, a queen-sized bed with an iron frame and headboard. The cotton sheets were crisp but mismatched. There were two white wicker chairs and a distressed wood bedside table also painted white.

Pearl seemed to feel right at home. She climbed the newly purchased doggie steps, which Elodie had found that afternoon in town, to reach the bed and promptly fell asleep. Elodie set her water bowl and food dish in the corner near the bathroom.

She opened her laptop, scrolled through some work emails, and resisted the urge to call her sister and yell at her.

Her phone rang. She sat up in bed, almost hitting her head on the dormer ceiling.

“Hello?”