Page 52

Julia

Julia buzzed with a fresh surge of energy. Shutting David down had awakened a dormant part of herself. Her growing confidence felt addictive.

She would be okay regardless of how the situation unfolded. The loss of her business? Fine. Losing the lake house? Why would she want to live next door to that asshole anyway? So what if Taylor needed to go to public school? Julia went to one, and she turned out fine—a few minor hiccups aside.

The first step on her new journey was to embrace reality.

She had stopped at a bookstore on her way back from Bennington.

Chapter one in the book on mindfulness she had purchased suggested that in order to grow, she needed to accept her situation as it was, without attaching judgment to her story.

And that meant taking full ownership of the role she played in the cratering of her life.

She had joined Christian’s business willingly.

She’d endorsed the private school they couldn’t afford, believing, as her husband did, that it would be in Taylor’s best interest. And she, nobody else, had agreed to give Christian signing authority over the family trust, which included the lake house.

Julia had gotten herself into all these situations, and she intended to get herself out of them.

Now, that was a post that would get a lot of likes: Your happiness depends on your actions, not your wishes.

She brought a piece of paper to the kitchen table and began to write a list of worst-case scenarios:

Go broke, file for bankruptcy.

Julia had no idea about the ramifications of bankruptcy, but they couldn’t be good. Taylor would have to take out college loans (if they could get them), and good luck paying those back. But she tempered her anxiety with reminders that these were worst-case scenarios, not inevitabilities.

Which led her to…

Divorce Christian.

What would she have after splitting their assets? Julia did some mental math and came up with not enough.

The next item didn’t make her feel any better.

Sell the house.

Not the lake house, but her primary residence.

She could buy a condo or rent if it came to that.

Julia couldn’t remember the last time she’d paid rent.

It would have been over twenty years ago.

Bonus: can always move to a less affluent town.

Taylor wouldn’t be in public school long enough for it to matter.

On to…

Lose the lake house.

This one was crushing. But what could she do? Actions, not wishes, right?

Looking over the options (none of them ideal) moved her to pour a tall glass of wine. She’d need to watch herself to make sure a new item doesn’t get added to the list:

Develop a drinking problem.

But that could be tomorrow’s concern. She took a sip, and then another.

Outside, she heard peals of laughter coming from the twins. Julia went to the window. There she saw Brody, Becca, and Erika playing catch with Nutmeg in David’s yard.

A wedge of sadness slipped between her ribs. It had always been the three of them at the lake together—Erika, David, and her—and now it was undone, a shared history unraveling before her eyes. No amount of wine, no list, could lessen the ache of the immense change that time had wrought.

Julia returned to her wine just as the front door flew open. Taylor walked in with a weighty aura. She was followed closely by Izzy, whom Julia was pleased to see walked without a limp.

“Mom, we need to talk,” Taylor said.

Julia cringed. When a teenager requested a conversation, it was generally for one of two reasons: they wanted money or there was big trouble. From her daughter’s body language, Julia guessed it was the latter.

“Of course, honey. Come. Sit down.”

They gathered at the kitchen table. Izzy’s leg bounced while Taylor fidgeted in her seat. Julia feared she was about to have more items to add to her list. Since nobody took the initiative, Julia got the ball rolling.

“What’s going on with you two?”

Taylor’s gaze slid over to Izzy. “Maybe you go first,” Taylor said. “I… I need a minute.”

Julia’s maternal instincts kicked in. “Is this about Lucas?” she asked.

Her daughter’s pained expression was answer enough.

Every fiber of her being told her a dire revelation loomed on the horizon, but Julia would have to wait, because Taylor insisted Izzy begin.

“She needs to know about Susie and Anna,” Taylor urged.

It took Julia a moment to place the names. “The missing women? The lake lore? Why? What have you both been up to?”

Izzy released a resigned sigh. “It’s the real reason I came here,” she confessed. Her words hung in the air.

The revelations she delivered over the next several minutes left Julia speechless.

“Once I read about the bones, I set up a Google Alert looking for job opportunities. I just knew I had to come here and learn more. What better way to investigate my aunt’s disappearance than during a two-week stay right across from her old house?

And before you get mad, I got my CPR certification and took an online first-aid class, so I wasn’t completely irresponsible.

Plus, I read a ton about nannying and watched Mary Poppins enough times to have it memorized. ”

Mary Poppins ? Despite the shock, Julia couldn’t suppress a smile.

“That’s quite inventive of you, Izzy,” she said. “It is Izzy, right? I mean, is that your real name?”

“Yes, I’m Isabelle Greene, like I told Detective Baker.

And my mom is Lauren Greene, but she was Lauren Welch until she married my dad.

They divorced, but she didn’t want to take her old name back.

There were too many painful memories attached to it.

I don’t know if she’s ever been diagnosed, but I think my mother has suffered from PTSD ever since her sister’s disappearance.

That’s why I became a true crime junkie.

And I got the idea that if I could figure out what happened to my aunt, it would somehow help heal my mother’s heart. ”

As the news sank in, vague memories began to congeal in Julia’s mind, forming an increasingly vivid picture.

Lauren and Susie Welch—the girls from across the lake.

She had played with Izzy’s mother as a young girl.

As a teenager, she’d done vodka shots in the Shack with both Welch sisters.

How crazy was that? She hadn’t thought of Lauren Welch in ages, not since the family abandoned the lake house shortly after the disappearance.

But then again, the lake lore was always about the missing, not those left behind.

“I’ve been investigating Fiona’s disappearance as well. Taylor asked me to find out if Lucas might be involved.”

“Lucas?” But then Julia caught on. “Right, the kiss.”

“I don’t think he did anything to her, and he’s actually been helping me… Taylor, too.” Izzy cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Anyway, we’ve discovered some concerning information.”

Izzy took a Polaroid picture from her backpack and placed it face up on the kitchen table in front of Julia. She told the craziest story about a box that had once belonged to Anna Olsen, but had ended up with Susie Welch.

“This picture was hidden inside a secret compartment. I’m certain the boy in the photograph is David. He was involved with my aunt, and judging by the blacked-out face, it didn’t end well.”

Julia stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the image before her.

She recognized David’s gold chain, which had belonged to his father.

She even remembered that ratty old Nirvana T-shirt he had worn until it was threadbare.

She knew David and Erika had hooked up back in the day, but she wasn’t aware he had a relationship with Susie.

Of course, David had pursued everyone, Julia included.

And growing up, he had spent more time on the lake than Julia.

Her parents always had to leave to get back to work, but David could spend his summer with Cormac, his ever-grieving mother a shadow of herself.

Had Julia missed an entire romance between David and Susie Welch?

“There’s more.” Izzy told Julia about Anna’s letter to her sister Grace and the strange coincidence of two women hiding secrets inside the box before they went missing.

Julia thought things couldn’t get any crazier until she read Anna’s letter, which Izzy had saved on her phone. The story was heartbreaking, but the mention of the Mob nearly took Julia’s breath away.

Izzy’s leg was bouncing up and down fast enough to shake the table.

Julia cupped the nanny’s hand, and the leg movement slowed.

“This is all very disturbing,” she said.

“Especially since it’s the second Mob reference I’ve heard in one day.

” She revealed David’s connection to a gangster named Jimmy T and his association with an underground website that also had a tragic link to Fiona Maxwell.

Izzy’s eyes danced as she absorbed all the information. “I’ve seen that website. I got the code to his computer and searched through it. I know I shouldn’t have, but the Polaroid changed everything.”

“What? How?” Julia was equal parts impressed and concerned.

“Don’t ask,” said Taylor, and Izzy didn’t offer, so Julia chalked it up to kids and technology and left it at that.

“So you saw a porn website on David’s computer, but he could have just been watching it. What made you think he’s running the site?” Julia crinkled her nose.

“There was a spreadsheet,” Izzy explained. “It was obvious from the entries that he was making money from it. It looked like a lot of homemade stuff, which could easily include revenge porn—but I only got a quick look because he caught me, and, well, it was kinda scary. He threatened me…”

“Oh, Izzy, this is way too dangerous,” said Julia, whose shoulders sagged with the weight of this news.

“So let’s review,” she continued. “We have a sketchy adult website—not that there are many non-sketchy ones—the Mob, a revenge porn suicide, three missing women from the same lake, a secret letter, and a Polaroid picture of your aunt with my neighbor in what appears to be a relationship gone sour. I’m afraid to ask what else you wanted to tell me, Taylor. ”

The room went so silent that all Julia could hear were the distant sounds of the twins playing in the yard next door.

Taylor inhaled deeply, closed her eyes, and released a sigh of surrender. “I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just going to come right out and say it. I’m pregnant.”

The moment she made this announcement, a piercing scream erupted outside.