A walkway leading toward the dunes.
Cars filled the driveway.
Children’s bicycles were scattered near the garage.
Sophie gasped.
“This is Grandma’s house?”
“Yes.”
“I think so.”
She already had her seat belt off before I parked.
Caleb stopped her.
“Wait.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Should we go in?”
My eleven-year-old son was asking permission to enter his grandparents’ vacation house.
That was what Nathan had done to them.
I opened my door.
“Yes.”
“We’re going in.”
Linda appeared before we reached the porch.
She was barefoot.
Her gray hair blew in the wind.
The moment she saw Sophie and Caleb, she covered her mouth.
Sophie stopped.
For one awful second, neither moved.
Then Linda ran down the steps.
Not walked.
Ran.
She wrapped both arms around Sophie.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Sophie looked stunned.
Then she hugged her back.
Linda started crying.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Sophie looked at me over her shoulder.
Caleb stood rigidly beside me.
Linda turned toward him.
“Caleb.”
He hesitated.
Then she opened her arms.
He stepped forward.
She hugged him just as tightly.
“I thought you didn’t want us here,” he said.
Linda pulled back.
“What?”
“Dad said you only wanted your real family.”
Linda’s face changed.
I had never seen rage appear so quickly on an older woman’s face.
“You are my real family.”
Caleb stared at her.
“Then why didn’t you call?”
The question hit her.
She closed her eyes.
“Because your father told me your mother didn’t want us contacting you too much.”
Caleb looked at me.
I shook my head.
Linda whispered.
“He told us you both became upset after calls because you felt pressured.”
“That you needed space.”
Sophie looked confused.
“I like when Grandma calls.”
Linda started crying again.
Then the front door opened.
People began coming outside.
Nathan’s sister Melissa froze when she saw me.
Behind her stood Ryan.
Then his wife.
Then cousins.
No one looked angry.
They looked shocked.
Melissa’s hand flew to her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
Sophie recognized her cousins.
For years, she had watched them through photographs.
She ran toward them.
One little girl screamed her name.
Within seconds, they were hugging.
Caleb remained beside me.
Ryan walked over slowly.
“Claire.”
“Ryan.”
He looked ashamed.
“We thought you hated us.”
I stared at him.
“I thought you hated me.”
His eyes closed.
“Jesus.”
Melissa began crying.
“We sent invitations.”
My head snapped toward her.
“What?”
“Every year.”
“Not formal ones.”
“But texts.”
“Emails.”
“I asked Nathan.”
“He always said no.”
I pulled out my phone.
“I never received anything.”
Melissa looked at Linda.
Linda whispered.
“He blocked the group.”
I frowned.
“What?”
She held up her phone.
“Our family group.”
“Your number is in it.”
I stared at her.
“I have never seen that group.”
Melissa opened her phone.
She searched.
Then her face changed.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“Your number isn’t your number.”
She showed me.
The contact labeled Claire contained a phone number I did not recognize.
Ryan cursed.
“Whose number is that?”
No one knew.
Then Linda said quietly.
“I think I do.”
She dialed it.
Everyone waited.
A phone began ringing inside the house.
Not mine.
Melissa went still.
Then she turned and walked inside.
We followed.
The ringing came from a kitchen drawer.
Linda opened it.
Inside was an old prepaid phone.
The screen displayed her name.
Linda stared at it.
Nathan had created a false phone number under my name.
For years, his family had been sending messages to a device he controlled.
I could barely breathe.
Melissa opened the family group.
There were messages from “me.”
Not many.
Enough.
Thanks for thinking of us, but we’re staying home this year.
Another.
Sophie gets overwhelmed around big groups.
Another.
Please don’t keep asking.
Another.
Claire here.
We appreciate the invite, but family vacations are Nathan’s thing.
The words sounded almost like me.
Almost.
Nathan knew how I wrote.
He knew which phrases I used.
He had impersonated me.
For eleven years.
Ryan looked sick.
“That son of a—”
Linda stopped him.
“Not in front of the children.”
I looked around.
“Where is Nathan?”
“Still in town.”
Linda’s voice was hard.
Then a girl appeared at the top of the stairs.
She looked about fourteen.
Tall.
Dark hair.
Blue eyes.
She stared at me.
Everyone became silent.
The girl slowly descended the stairs.
She looked familiar.
Not because I had met her.
Because she had Nathan’s eyes.
My stomach dropped.
Linda looked at me.
“Claire.”
I could not take my eyes off the girl.
“Who is she?”
The girl stopped halfway down.
Linda answered.
“This is Ava.”
I swallowed.
“Who is Ava?”
No one spoke.
Then the girl herself answered.
“Nathan is my dad.”
The room disappeared.
Not literally.
But every wall seemed to move away from me.
I looked at Linda.
Then Melissa.
Then Ryan.
No one looked surprised by Ava’s statement.
They already knew.
“How old are you?”
I asked.
Ava looked frightened.
“Fourteen.”
Sophie was fifteen.
One year older.
My mind began calculating.
Nathan and I had been married sixteen years.
Ava had been conceived after we married.
The floor seemed to shift.
Linda moved toward me.
“Claire.”
I stepped back.
“You knew?”
Her face crumpled.
“We knew about Ava.”
“You knew my husband had another child?”
“Yes.”
“For fourteen years?”
“Yes.”
“And no one told me?”
Linda began crying.
“Because Nathan told us you knew.”
I laughed.
A sharp, ugly sound.
“Of course he did.”
Ava looked terrified.
I immediately regretted my tone.
I forced myself to look at her.
“You haven’t done anything wrong.”
Her eyes filled.
“I know.”
“No.”
“I need you to hear me.”
“You did nothing wrong.”
She nodded.
Then a woman stepped into the living room behind her.
She was around my age.
Maybe a little younger.
Blonde hair.
Bare feet.
A beach cover-up over a swimsuit.
She froze when she saw me.
I knew immediately.
“Erica?”
Her face changed.
“You know my name?”
I did.
Erica Hayes.
Nathan’s high school girlfriend.
He had mentioned her once.
Years ago.
He said they had not spoken since college.
Apparently, that was another lie.
Linda looked between us.
“Erica.”
“This is Claire.”
Erica stared.
Nathan had lied to her too.
I could see it before she spoke.
“What are you doing here?”
I almost laughed.
“I’m Nathan’s wife.”
Erica’s face went white.
“I know that.”
“Good.”
She looked confused.
Then she said.
“He told me you were separated.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“He said you stayed legally married for the children.”
“He said you had separate lives.”
I stared at her.
“He slept in my bed three nights ago.”
Erica sat down hard on the nearest chair.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“He said you hadn’t been together in years.”
“When did he tell you that?”
“Years ago.”
“How many?”
She looked at Ava.
Then back at me.
“Almost eleven.”
There it was.
Eleven years.
The vacations.
The lies.
The separation.
Everything connected.
I looked at Linda.
“You thought I knew about Ava?”
“Yes.”
“And Erica?”
Linda shook her head.
“Not like this.”
“We thought Erica came because Ava came.”
“She stays nearby with her parents.”
“Sometimes she spends the day with us.”
“We didn’t know Nathan was still involved with her.”
