“I called because I need to tell you something,” Marina said. “It’s serious and I hate having to tell you over the phone, but I don’t want you to hear it from someone else.”

“Oh my God, are you ill? Did someone die?”

“No to the first. Not yet to the second.”

“Then what? Stop worrying about how I’m going to handle things. I’m not a child anymore. Besides, I have a freshman mixer to get to and still have to finish my tinfoil dress first.”

Pre-Stolen-Crotchless-Lingerie Marina would have launched into a million questions and then a plethora of unwanted advice about the tinfoil dress thing, but Post-Stolen-Crotchless-Lingerie Marina just cringed a little and moved on. She had bigger fish to fry.

“It’s about your father and me,” Marina said. “We’re getting a divorce.”

“What? Are you kidding me?”

Avery’s voice had shifted from wanting to get away from the conversation to somewhat anxious.

“I wish I were kidding,” Marina said. “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this way. I would have preferred to do it in person but I was afraid someone might call and tell you before I had a chance to talk to you.”

“Why would someone else call to tell me anything about you and Dad? That doesn’t make sense.”

“It makes sense if your father was having an affair and everyone in Last Chance found out. Including me.”

Avery let out a single laugh. “An affair? Dad? No way. He’s too old and well, he’s Dad. No offense, but who would want him?”

“That’s the other really bad thing. He’s taken up with Chastity.”

There was dead silence on the phone for so long that Marina thought Avery had hung up on her.

“Avery?” Marina said finally. “Are you still there?”

Avery let out a string of cursing, with some phrases Marina was going to have to google later on. When her ranting finally stopped, Marina heard a huge intake of breath and then what sounded like a choked sob. Marina’s heart clenched so hard she felt as if her chest would burst.

If Halcyon had been standing there with that offered pistol, Marina would have grabbed it from her hands and driven straight to Harold’s house and put a round or two in him. Avery never cried. Never. She thought it was stupid and weak. Even when she’d had appendicitis, she’d waited until it was about to burst to complain about the pain. And even though surgery had been difficult and recovery less than desirable, her daughter had never once complained, much less shed a tear. She took stoic to a level that Rambo hadn’t achieved.

“Avery?” Marina said quietly.

Another sniff.

“Yeah, Mom. I’m here. Sorry for all the cussing. I know you hate it.”

“Given the circumstances, I’m okay with it. I said some things to Halcyon that I thought would never come out of my mouth.”

“Can’t you fix it?” Avery asked, sounding more like a little girl than the adult she so desperately tried to be. Marina’s heart broke all over again.