“You have to go now? I said I’m sorry.”

“I’ll be back in a jiff, Joey.” He gave a half smile. “Now don’t anyone move a muscle, okay?”

The screen door closed, and Bea slumped her shoulders. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep up this charade.”

“Stop. Dad could come back any moment.”

“Oh, I know where he went, Joey.” Bea flicked the pages of her list and then with her fist smacked it onto the table. “He has some surprise for you. Some big surprise photo book thing, which I’m sure you’ll appreciate to the nines and lavish attention on him because he’s your perfect father and I’m just the mother who birthed you without an epidural and planned ninety-nine point nine percent of your wedding.”

“We’re really grateful,” said Grant at the same time as Joey said, “This isn’t a fair contest at this stage, Mom. Dad’s not the one who had an affair.”

“Let’s not go there today.” Leo set down his phone. Arthur and his blue eyes lit up on the screensaver.

“We haven’t really gone there yet,” said Joey. “That’s the problem.”

“Jonesey…”

“What, Leo? Lily’s going to be home later, you know. Your sister, Lily. Your sister is going to walk through that door in some outlandish outfit with those same blue eyes. With Rand’s blue eyes. With Arthur’s blue eyes. And you’re going to have to keep quiet yet again. You’re going to have to look at your sister and give her back to us because she doesn’t know she belongs to you too. Doesn’t that just kill you?”

“Your sister, Lily?”

Joey swiveled to the voice, to Lily standing in the sliding door in a majestic floral headdress. She had a hand on her didgeridoo. Her blue eyes were soft, contemplative, like an adult helping a child finish an easy puzzle. Joey watched those blue eyes melt from curiosity to confusion.

“Your sister, Lily? But…?”

Joey died in the span of the poison reaching Lily’s brain.

When no one spoke, Lily slammed the didgeridoo into the ground. But then all of her seemed to deflate, and Lily’s hand released the didgeridoo. It fell to the ground with a clang. She whispered very softly, “Please will someone tell me what that means.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Joey

Florida
2019

“What do you mean I’m Leo’s sister? So…Leo is my brother?” Lily’s headdress slipped crookedly on her head. Still, no one spoke.

“It’s over.” Joey placed a hand over her wild heart. She could hardly believe it had been expelled into the world.

“Holy…” said Grant.

“So you’re not my mother?” Lily asked a white-faced Bea.

Joey got up and put an arm around her sister. “Come here, Lil. Sit.”