“Oh, darling,” Clara said, breaking down as she pulled Lily close in a hug. Lily held her tight, feeling like a child. This woman had been the closest thing Lily had had to an aunt—Clara and Maeve had been as close as sisters.

“Clara, tell me about Granny.”

“I hardly know where to begin. I have a thousand questions—what happened to you? Where have you been? How did you get here?”

“A friend dropped me off. I'll tell you the rest, but first I have to go see her.”

“She's at Shoreline General.”

“I know. Will you take me to her? I couldn't find the keys to her car.”

“I have her purse at my house. I brought it back from the hospital, that first day. Of course I'll take you.”

Lily took a deep breath. She'd made it over the first hurdle. She ran into the cottage, grabbed her bag, locked the door behind her. She stuck her cell phone in the pocket of her cotton pants—it was her lifeline to Rose and Liam. Then she and Clara climbed into Clara's blue Chrysler.

Driving through Hubbard's Point for the first time in daylight, Lily noticed how much had stayed the same—and how much had changed. Most cottages had retained their charming, nestled-into-the-rustic-landscape feel. But others . . .

“What happened there?” Lily asked as they passed the Langtrys' old property.

“Oh, dear. It's happening more and more. People buy a beach cottage and try to turn it into a showplace—frosted glass and all. How they manage to make a Hubbard's Point cottage look like a Meriden funeral home, I'll never know.”

“I can just imagine what Granny says about it,” Lily said.

“She says, ‘They're embracing their nouveau richeness,'” Clara said. “Oh, I miss talking with her. No one makes me laugh like Maeve.”

Makes. Lily heard the present tense and took hope.

“What do the doctors say?” Lily asked.

“They're confused. She's had some sort of what they're calling a ‘neurological event.' Even that would give Maeve a chuckle. An event. She'd say they're making it sound like a lunar eclipse.”

“But what sort of neurological event?” Lily asked, feeling frozen.

“That's what we don't know yet. They're running tests.”

“Clara—Shoreline General? It's not exactly Yale–New Haven. . . .”

“Honey, it was an emergency, to get your grandmother seen to. You were born there, so was your father. Your grandfather died there—”

“Not exactly a testament—”

“Your grandmother is being treated very well. I didn't know what to do. You know, after all these years, she still has you down as her ‘in case of emergency' person.”

Lily took that in, the reality reverberating like an earthquake through her bones.

“It's as if she knew,” Clara said, turning onto Shore Road. “That you were coming back.”

“Hmm.”

“Mara? Did she?”

“I'm not Mara anymore,” Lily said. “I'm Lily now. Lily Malone.”