“Maybe she’s not really Rand’s. Maybe she’s my dad’s and the Lily’s Place thing is a coincidence.”

“No, Jonesey. She’s Rand’s. When I confronted him, he confirmed it.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, think of Lily. She has those blue eyes.”

“My mom has blue eyes. So does my grandmother.”

“But I swear if you look at my father’s and Lily’s side by side, you’ll see the similarity. And Lily’s birthday, J.”

“May twenty-second.”

“May twenty-second. That’s a late August conception date. Your mother—”

“My mother was the only one of us who stayed longer in August. To do gallery stuff.” She was going to throw up again.

“There’s something else. She has this smirk face, you know? Or she did. I remember it about her.” Leo drew circles in the sand with his tennis ball, and Joey had an astounding revelation. Lily was Leo’s sister. “Her smirk face is my father’s face when he’s negotiating and he’s waiting for the other party to cave.”

“Oh.” How hadn’t Joey seen it? It was so strange and twisted. Lily was to Leo as Lily was to Joey.

“I’m sorry, J. I wanted to tell you, all those years I wanted to tell you, but why should I ruin your life too?”

“You should have told me.” A sob shuddered through her. “I had a right to know.”

“But then what? We’d stay together with this huge secret? It would have eaten us alive. I know that because it was eating me alive. So at least I could spare you. And it would have gotten out somehow to Scott and Maisy, and I just didn’t want that, to ruin their lives too. And especially…I didn’t want the whole thing to affect Lily. I know what Rand was like as a father, Jones. I wanted better for her.”

Joey absorbed it. His explanation made sense on its face, but something in her—maybe something illogical—couldn’t forgive him. “You don’t think?” She had a sudden, vile thought. “You…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. “Me?”

“No,” said Leo quickly. “Of course not. They’re not that disgusting of parents. We were sleeping together. And besides, there’s a whole backstory about why they got separated after they first met and then ran into each other before we started coming to Corfu. My father wrote Bea letters that she never got. You’ll have to ask your mom for all the details.”

“Oh, I will. Trust me, I will.” Joey stared at her legs adorned with late-summer souvenirs: mosquito bites and sun freckles. “What about us, Leo?” she whispered. “Why didn’t you take us into account in your whole calculus? Did you ever think about destroying us? About destroying me?”