“You mean, how much will we release?” Simon shook his head. “I don’t know. I can’t even imagine getting dressed, never mind trying to think this all out. It wasn’t just a courtesy asking you to come. I really need you here, Eileen. It’s too much, and I can’t manage it alone.”

“Of course,” she said. She took a deep breath and held on to it for several moments before letting it go.

“They’ll be here at three. They want us to hash out a plan and come out with a revised statement by the end of today. They hope it will help squelch the rumors starting to fly.”

Eileen nodded. “We’re going to tell everyone, aren’t we? We’re going to let the world know what Clare did?”

Simon swallowed, the corners of his mouth pulling down. “I think we might have to.”

“I need to tell our mother first. It needs to come from me—not some news report or nursing assistant.”

Simon looked at the time on his phone. “Yes, absolutely. You’re right,” he said, the tone in his voice giving away the fact that he hadn’t even considered this. “That would be the right thing to do. And you should have time to get there and back before everyone arrives if I call Henry right now and arrange for him to drive you.” Simon pulled up the contacts on his phone. “Can you be ready in twenty minutes?”

“Yes,” she said, largely because no was apparently not an alternative. She picked up her coffee and turned to head back up the stairs and into a very quick shower. She stopped at the door and looked back at Simon, who was just finding Henry’s number. “You said especially that book. Why? Have you figured out what’s so different about it? Aside from her not letting you read it right away?”

“You haven’t read it?” Simon asked as he lowered his phone.

Feeling slightly ashamed of the fact, Eileen shook her head. “Not yet. I just picked it up.”

Simon sighed. “Well, apart from it just being a very different book from what she usually wrote, the main character, in the end… she kills herself.”

Eileen stared at him.

Simon looked up and met her gaze. “So you can understand why I feel like I should have known my wife needed help.” He looked down at the space of counter between them and shook his head. “I should have known. I should have been here.” He placed his hand on his forehead and held it there for a moment before slamming his fist onto the marble. “I should have fucking been here,” he whispered. “I could have stopped her…saved her…fucking done something other than…find her.”

On instinct, Eileen went to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.