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Chapters (47)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraphs
  5. Prologue
  6. Part One
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. Part Two
  25. EIGHTEEN
  26. NINETEEN
  27. TWENTY
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. TWENTY-NINE
  37. THIRTY
  38. THIRTY-ONE
  39. THIRTY-TWO
  40. THIRTY-THREE
  41. THIRTY-FOUR
  42. THIRTY-FIVE
  43. THIRTY-SIX
  44. THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. Acknowledgments
  46. About the Author
  47. Newsletter Sign-up

“Can you do me a favor and not say anything about seeing me? I need to figure out the best way to work this out.”

“She needs to know sooner than later. Look, these things can get messy. I see it all the time.”

Michael appreciated her concern. “Oh, it got messy a long time ago.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

Ann

Ann buried herself in work to avoid her trip to the Cape—or, really, to avoid Poppy. The house. Her grief. Everything.

But she really was busy, and Ann was terrified by the talk of layoffs. Evaluations were coming up in a week, and her assistant, Mindy, had sent her yet another screwed-up spreadsheet, but the mistake landed on Ann’s shoulders.

As she tried to make sense of Mindy’s work, her phone buzzed. Poppy again. She let her sister’s call roll into voice mail. She’d check it later. The last time they’d spoken, Poppy told her that Brad was buying the Milwaukee house. Brad—of course! Why hadn’t Ann thought to ask him if he wanted to buy it?

Now Poppy was headed for the Cape, and Ann had given her a list of to-dos that had to be taken care of before the house could go on the market: leaky gutters; a well test for arsenic, radon, and bacteria; and questions about the plat map that needed to be resolved with the town. Apparently, the shed encroached on the neighbor’s lot and needed an easement. Ann didn’t want to talk to Poppy about the house, didn’t want to think about it. However, she wasn’t sure whether they could act like sisters again.

Later, she thought. Maybe later. Had her dad ever told Poppy about Anthony and Michael? She doubted it. Ed and Connie had only learned about it themselves shortly before they’d died.

One night last summer, when Noah was away at camp, Ann decided to drive to Wellfleet to see how her mom was doing, and also to see how her dad was holding up. The constant care she required wore on him. Ann entered the house without so much as a knock, startling her parents. Her dad was laid out on the floor stretching his back, and her mom sat in her usual chair, a book on her lap, her readers balanced so low on her nose they might have slipped off. “Annie?”