Caleb was used to his grandson’s disrespect and general insolence. He’d never say it, but this particular grandson was the one most like himself when he was alive. He kept the frown on his face. “I need to know what happened to Valentina,” he stated simply. What he didn’t add was that he now knew there was a time limit. He had until the twenty-third of June, just weeks away, to find out what had happened to the woman he loved so much that even death couldn’t separate them. If he didn’t put it all back together, he didn’t think that any of them—all the people who had been involved so long ago—would find the happiness they deserved. All he had to do was make his stubborn, never-listens-to-anyone grandson believe.
Chapter One
Alix continued weeping as Izzy handed her one chocolate after another. So far it had been two doughnuts, one of those flat bars of sixty percent cocoa, a whole Toblerone, and a Kit Kat. If this kept on Alix was going to start in on chocolate chip cookies, which meant Izzy would join her and would probably gain ten pounds and not fit into her wedding dress. Wasn’t that above and beyond the call of friendship?
They were on the fast ferry that went from Hyannis to Nantucket, sitting at one of the tables by the snack bar. All sorts of delicious, fattening things were within their reach.
Alix had done well in the past few weeks as she and Izzy finished their last semester of architecture school. They’d turned in their final projects, and as always, Alix had been praised by the teacher to the point of embarrassment.
It was that night that Alix’s boyfriend had broken up with her. Dropped her flat. Eric said he had a different plan for his life.
After the disastrous date, Alix went straight to Izzy’s apartment. When the knock came, Izzy and her fiancé, Glenn, had been snuggled on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn. She wasn’t in the least surprised when Alix told her what happened—she’d even prepared for it by having two quarts of chocolate caramel ice cream in the freezer.
Glenn kissed Alix on the forehead. “Eric is a stupid man,” he’d said before heading off to bed.
Izzy thought she’d be in for a whole night of misery, but an hour later Alix was asleep on their couch. In the morning, she was quiet. “I guess I better go pack,” she said. “Now there’s no reason for me not to go.” She was referring to spending a year on the island of Nantucket. A few years before, right after Izzy had met Glenn—and she’d immediately known she was going to marry him—the girls had made a pact. After their last semester of school, they would take a year off before going job seeking. Izzy wanted time to just be a wife and to think about what she wanted to do with her life.
Alix had always known that she wanted to prepare a portfolio of designs that she’d present to a possible employer. Since most students went directly from school to a job, all they had to show was the work they’d done for assignments, all heavily influenced by the likes and dislikes of a teacher. Alix wanted to show her own work, all of it original.
When Alix was told of the year in Nantucket, she had been reluctant. Going somewhere she knew no one was too much. And then there was Eric. Could their relationship stand so much separation? Alix began to come up with excuses for why she couldn’t go, starting with Izzy needing her for the wedding.
But Izzy had said that this was a once in a lifetime chance and Alix had to take it. “You have to do this!”
“I don’t know,” Alix said. “Your wedding … Eric …” She shrugged.
Izzy glared at her. “Alix, it’s as though your fairy godmother waved her magic wand and gave you just what you need at exactly the right time. You must do this!”
“Think my fairy godmother has green eyes?” Alix had asked and the two of them had dissolved into laughter. Alix’s mother, Victoria, had emerald eyes. Of course she’d been behind obtaining this year of work and study for her precious daughter.
What made them sure Alix’s mother was behind the hiatus was that she’d been the one to tell Alix about the strange provision in Adelaide Kingsley’s will. Izzy had always been in awe of Victoria. Even if she weren’t internationally famous for all those wonderful, exciting books she wrote, she’d still be magnificent. For one thing, she was gorgeous. She had thick auburn hair, a figure like a Spanish soap star’s, and a personality that commanded a room. Victoria wasn’t loud, wasn’t really flamboyant, but when she entered a room everyone took notice. A hush fell over people as they stopped talking and turned to look. It was as though they felt Victoria’s presence as much as saw her.
The first time Izzy met Victoria, she wondered how Alix would react to her mother getting all the attention, but Alix was used to it. To her, that was how her mother was and she accepted it.
Of course it helped that whenever Victoria spotted her daughter entering a room, she stopped charming the people who’d gathered around her and went straight to Alix. They would link arms and turn away to some quiet corner, just the two of them.
When Alix had first been told about the contents of the will of some woman she didn’t remember, she’d said no. Yes, Alix had always planned to take a year off, but not on some isolated island.
The real problem was that she hadn’t told her mother she had a boyfriend whom she was thinking about marrying. If Eric asked, that is.
“I don’t understand,” Izzy said. “I thought you and your mom told each other everything.”
“No,” Alix said. “I said that I find out everything about her. I am very selective about what I tell her.”
“And Eric is a secret?”
“I do my best to keep my love life with any man away from my mother. If she knew about Eric, she’d be here interrogating him. He’d probably run away in terror.”
Izzy had to look away so Alix wouldn’t see her frown. She’d never liked Eric and she wished Victoria would do whatever it took to get rid of him.
After Alix had finished her designs for the last school year and made her model, she’d “helped” Eric with his. The truth was that she’d almost done his whole project for him.
After the breakup and Alix’s decision to go to Nantucket, she’d been very adult about it. “I’ll also have time to study.” To become a licensed architect, one had to take a series of truly horrific exams. “I’ll do well on the tests and make my parents proud,” Alix vowed.
Izzy thought that Alix’s parents couldn’t be more proud of her than they already were, but she didn’t say so. When Alix finally said she was going, it was her depressed, fatalistic tone that made Izzy decide that she would travel with her friend and stay in Nantucket until Alix got settled. She wanted to be there when Alix finally broke down.
It happened when they stepped onto the ferry to Nantucket. Until then there’d been so much to do to get ready for the trip that Alix hadn’t had time to brood about Eric. Her mother had covered all expenses, even shipping their luggage to the island, so the two young women would only have to deal with overnight bags. And they’d left days earlier than the original plan because Izzy was afraid Alix would see Eric again.
Alix had seemed to be doing well until the ferry pulled away from the dock. When she looked at Izzy, there were tears running down her cheeks. “I don’t understand what I did wrong.”