“It’s good to see you.” Kristen sniffed and stepped again. “Thanks for permitting me to return.”

“I’m glad you’re right here.” Cecilia needed to hold her personal feelings in examine. She launched her daughter and took a more in-depth take a look at her face.

Kristen gave a crooked smile and tried to clean her hair. “I’m positive I look horrible.”

“No, however you do look drained.” And she or he might really feel the distress coming off her in waves. “I’m anxious about you. Come and sit down. You’re simply in time for breakfast.”

If Kristen was delighted to have left Theo, it didn’t present. Her eyes had been shadowed, and he or she appeared exhausted.

“Is Dad becoming a member of you, Mother?” Todd picked up Kristen’s suitcases.

“No. He has to work. I’m having a couple of days to myself.”

And that was what mother and father did, Cecilia thought. They hid their ache from their youngsters. Protected them. However perhaps there got here a degree the place it was higher to share than to close them out. A time when it was higher to inform the reality.

Kristen pressured a smile. “Is there someplace I can clean up?”

“After all. Let me present you round earlier than we eat.” Cecilia gestured to the entrance door of the cottage however Kristen stopped and stared on the identify, freshly painted by Lily on a bit of wooden common by Todd.

“Dune Cottage,” she mentioned slowly. “That is the place you used to return to with Dad. When Winston and I had been little. You spent weekends right here.”

Cecilia was stunned. “You recognize about this place?”

“Not specifics. You had been all the time secretive about it, which made me all of the extra curious. Every time I requested Dad the place you’d been, he’d all the time say ‘paradise.’ He mentioned that you simply stayed in a cottage that perched on the sting of the dunes, with nothing however sand between you and the ocean. He informed me that every bed room had a balcony.” She glanced upward, to the balconies and the shingled roof. “I assumed it was someplace you rented. You personal it?”

Cecilia realized how a lot she needed to share along with her daughter. “I believed your father had bought it way back. I solely came upon just lately that he hadn’t.”

Cecilia gave her a abstract of the whole lot that had occurred and Kristen shook her head, confused.

“Why would he fake he’d bought it?”

“As a result of he knew I wished him to promote it.”

Kristen didn’t ask for her causes for that. “However he stored it.”

“Sure. It was a shock to find that.” She anticipated Kristen to defend her father as she all the time did and was stunned when her daughter took her hand.

“I don’t perceive any of it, however it doesn’t matter.” Kristen squeezed her hand and let go. “So, you’ve been renovating?”

“That was Todd and Lily’s concept. I discovered it exhausting being right here. They thought {that a} makeover would possibly eliminate the recollections.” The second the phrases left her lips she knew she’d misspoken. “I’m sorry—I do know you discover it tough that I—”

“No, don’t apologize.” Kristen touched Cecilia’s arm. “No matter it’s worthwhile to do is okay with me. I really feel dangerous that I didn’t know. That you just felt you couldn’t inform me. I ought to have talked to you extra and been extra understanding.”

This was a humbler, softer model of Kristen. It was as if this seismic occasion in her marriage had shaken the foundations of who she was and made her query the whole lot.

They stepped inside and Kristen glanced round her.

“It is a lovely room. These cabinets. I acknowledge Todd’s work.” She scanned the area after which stopped, her gaze fastened on the portray. “The Lady on the Shore.” She mentioned it quietly, as if she was speaking to herself. Then she moved towards it and examined it carefully. “That is it. That is the portray everybody has been asking about.”

Cecilia stood quietly. This second had been inevitable in fact. And now it was right here, the sense of dread left her, and he or she felt solely aid. She wouldn’t have the ability to transfer on till the entire of the previous was cleaned up and this was the final remaining piece.

“Sure. It’s The Lady on the Shore.”

Kristen turned to have a look at her, questions in her eyes. “The day of the get together—you mentioned you thought it had been destroyed way back.”

“I did assume that. I believed your father had destroyed it. He was speculated to.”

“However why would he? It’s beautiful.” Kristen studied the portray. She appeared to have forgotten that she’d meant to clean up. She’d forgotten that she was drained, and unhappy. She appeared to have forgotten about Theo. It was all in regards to the portray. “The brushwork. The usage of coloration and lightweight. It’s extraordinary.” She pressed her hand to her chest as if she was having hassle respiration. “All these years, it was right here?”

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