Page 28 of The Cottage on Plum Island
He shook off thoughts of Clair. Harley’s mind was just spinning, trying to find whatever it could focus on—anything but the painful truth of the reality surrounding him.
“We thought Daniel was doing much better.” Margaret Wesley, Angela’s mother, embraced them both. Her eyes were wet with tears.
“He was.” Harley cleared his throat, thankful for the numbness of shock keeping him going. “He got the flu.” He shut his eyes and swallowed, pausing for a second. “After all those precautions Daniel still got the flu.”
“His body was too weak to fight it,” Angela’s voice broke as the bubble of shock that had surrounded her burst.
She collapsed in Harley’s arms, and they managed to fall into the line of chairs against the corridor hall as he held her. He felt each sob that wracked through his ex-wife’s body. Harley didn’t know how long they sat there or where her family went. He didn’t even know when his uncle, sister, and cousin arrived. Nor did he feel or realize the violent sobs racking Angela’s body weren’t only hers.
They were coming from him, too. The weight of grief and guilt crushed Harley’s chest, making it difficult to breathe. He had failed Daniel, just as he had failed Angela. He had promised to protect and be there for them, yet he had been absent when they needed him the most.
As the tears streamed down his face, Harley clung to Angela, their shared grief merging into one solemn moment of despair. The hospital corridor was filled with a haunting silence, broken only by their stifled sobs echoing through the empty hallways.
Harley’s mind drifted back to that fateful day when he had received the call from Angela informing him of Daniel’s diagnosis. He remembered the anger and frustration he felt at himself for not being there sooner, for not being able to prevent this tragedy from unfolding.
The following year, Harley felt like he had moved through fragmented pockets of time. One minute, he was lost in thought; the next, he’d find himself pushing through a mission. He’d thrown himself into whatever he could to keep his mind from having any downtime to think or feel.
But no matter how hard he tried, the guilt and grief always found a way to catch up with him. The weight on his shoulders grew heavier with each passing day, and there were times when Harley felt like he was drowning in an ocean of regret, guilt, and grief. They lingered like dark shadows in the back of his mind. It was a constant presence, always there, reminding him of his failures as a father.
Harley had stormed courageously into battle, yet it had taken over a year to find the courage to go through Daniel’s room at his house and sort out his son’s things. That day, Harley stumbled upon a journalhidden under his son’s bed. Curiosity overcame him as he opened the book. It was filled with pages of Daniel’s thoughts, dreams, and aspirations. It was like peering into his son’s soul.
As Harley read through the entries, he discovered something that broke his heart—Daniel had written about his fear of being forgotten, of disappearing into oblivion without leaving a lasting impact on the world. Daniel had compared himself to Harley—a hero who fought to keep them safe and how his father had made a silent impact on the world—an unsung hero.
Harley had already lost his heart for the military and served his country for another two years after Daniel passed away before he took a job in Boston, putting his engineering degree to use. It also meant he was only a few hours away from his Uncle Sam, who wasn’t getting any younger, and he was in Boston to help his ex-wife. Angela had fallen apart after Daniel’s death. She’d had a breakdown that landed her in a mental health facility in Cambridge.
She’d lost her second husband, who was having an affair with Angela’s twin sister. As for Angela’s parents, they downplayed Angela’s mental health because it didn’t sit right with their social standing. While anything romantic between Angela and Harley was long dead, they still considered each other family. Where Harley came from,family always took care of family, and that is what he intended to do—take care of Angela.
Not ready to let go of any of Daniel’s things, Angela had asked Harley to rent a storage locker to pack the contents of their son’s room in the house she’d shared with her soon-to-be second ex-husband, Wallis Hanover. Every item Harley packed into the storage locker was filled with a memory of Daniel. But by the time the locker was packed, Harley’s t-shirt was wet from the tears that flooded his cheeks.
It didn’t seem right to be packing his son’s whole life into a small container when Daniel should’ve been living a big life.
Present Day
A noise from Betty’s room snapped Harley back to the present, and he felt his cheeks were wet. He wiped away the tears of the past with his t-shirt and moved to the attic’s entrance.
“We need to think about it,” Liam spoke for himself and Jennifer.
“I’m staying at your hotel,” Andrew told Liam. “I’ll be there until tomorrow, waiting for your decision. Here’s my number when you’ve made up your mind.”
Harley was already sitting on the edge of the attic’s opening when Liam and Jennifer left Betty’s room.
“Liam, Aunt Betty’s right,” Jennifer told her brother. “Molly isn’t the one we’re mad at.”
“I know, Jen,” Liam’s voice was soft and filled with doubt. “Come to the hotel for dinner later, and we can discuss this.”
“Okay,” Jennifer agreed as they started to walk down the hallway.
“Um...” Harley called. “Hi down there.”
Jennifer and Liam stopped, turned, and looked up at Harley.
“Harley?” Jennifer’s brows furrowed. “What on earth are you doing up there?”
“I bet Aunt Betty is finally going ahead with her plan to make the attic into an entertainment room?” Liam rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Yes, she wanted me to look into what needs to be done to make an entertainment area up here,” Harley confirmed his suspicions. “Could you put the ladder back up so I can get down?”
Liam got the ladder and positioned it so Harley could climb down.
