And yet, and yet, Charlie was afraid she was going to burst into tears. Shame, disappointment, humiliation, relief—she didn’t know which one it was, but it was rising in her like a wave, tightening her throat, making speech impossible. She did her best to fight off the tide of emotion, to push it back, jam it down. And she managed. Almost. All that came out of her was a single tear, spilling over the brim of her eye.

Jude leaned forward and kissed it off her cheek. She fell into him, burying her face in his chest.

Chapter Twelve

Chapter

• TWELVE •

The following afternoon, Alice was at the club. She was waiting for Charlie to finish her clinic, then the two of them were going to head into town to see the new Ryan Gosling movie, maybe go for Thai food after that. A slinky black Town Car had swung by the house for Richard and Maggie an hour ago. They were being driven to Boston, the guests of honor at a dinner the Pollards were hosting to introduce them to the museum’s biggest donors. Alice was glad that she and Charlie were spending the evening together. It seemed like forever since they’d done anything, just the two of them.

As whenever she was in the club, Alice found herself drawn helplessly to the dining room, to the photo hanging on the east-facing wall. She didn’t know how long she’d been standing there, staring, but it must have been for a while, because before she knew it Charlie was beside her.

“Who is it you’re looking at in this picture?” Charlie said. “I used to think it was Tommy, but Tommy’s on the rowing machine in the gym right now. You could be ogling him live and in the very buff flesh if you wanted. So Camilla must be the one.” Raising an eyebrow, she said, “Obsessing over a girl who’s dead and semi-related to you. Now that’s twisted, like three perversions rolled into one.”

“She doesn’t look like the type who’d kill herself, does she?”

Charlie sighed. “We’ve been over this already. Life had just flipped her off big time. Her head was all messed up. Plus, she might have been having a really bad hair day.” Off the look Alice shot her: “I’m kidding, obviously. Lighten up. Seriously, she might have been unbalanced to begin with. You know, like chemically. And what happened to her mom pushed her over the edge.”

“You think that was it?” Alice said. “A chemical imbalance?”

Charlie shrugged. “I’m just throwing it out there as a possibility.”

“But she sounded so high-functioning. A whiz kid at school, Mother Theresa-ing in her spare time, not to mention the active social life, serious boyfriend, and all that.”