Page 42 of Saltwater Secrets
It happened because finally, against all odds, Renée found her voice. To Jefferson, midway through the fireworks, she said, “Don’t talk to me like that.” It started like a low growl and advanced to a volatile shriek. “Don’t talk to me like that!” Suddenly, she lurched away from Jefferson, just as Jefferson leaned forward to whisper another horrible thing in her ear. Themotion of the boat and the rocking of the waves cast Jefferson over the side and into the black water.
Just like that, he was gone.
The fireworks continued to explode overhead. Everything turned to panic. Roland called out, “Man overboard!” and sprang into action. Marc put on a life vest and prepared to leap in after him. Hilary had her hand on Marc’s shoulder, willing him not to go into the water. There had been a few shark sightings this summer. Aria wrapped her arms around Logan as tightly as she could. Her heart pounded.
Suddenly, Jefferson returned to the surface, splashing and howling. He was angry with Renée, with the Colemans, and at the boat. “I told you not to position the boat here, Roland!” he cried. “It’s tilted all wrong! The waves are crashing into it! Anyone could have fallen!”
The Colemans were quiet, both relieved at Jefferson’s reappearance and genuinely at a loss, unable to handle his volatility and idiocy. Marc threw a rope into the surf and pulled him in. Jefferson gripped the rungs of the ladder and hauled his body back on board, where he huffed, on his hands and knees, glaring up at Renée. It was like she’d pushed him overboard.
But everyone had been her witness. She’d done nothing wrong.
Renée’s eyes glinted with tears, but she remained standing, her chin raised. For the first time, Aria wondered if Renée had returned to Nantucket, returned to the Colemans, because she’d begun to feel the rot in her relationship with Jefferson. Maybe she wanted a second opinion.
Renée had been living her life alone for too long. Maybe she trusted Hilary and Aria. Perhaps she needed their confidence.
Rather than watch the rest of the fireworks, Roland directed their boat back to shore. The other Coleman boats remained out on the water, waving forlornly, their faces marred withconfusion. Jefferson sat wrapped in a towel, glowering. Logan was quiet and on edge, as though he felt it was up to him to go over and tend to his producer. The money man.
It was a perfect mess.
When they got to the dock, Marc sprang out to tie up. Quietly, but loud enough for everyone on board to hear, Roland turned to Jefferson and said, “I’d like to ask you to leave my home.”
Jefferson’s jaw was ajar. It was clear he wasn’t accustomed to being spoken to like this.
“How dare you,” he said. “They’ll be hearing about this all over the city. They’ll know what kind of man you are, Roland.”
Roland chuckled softly. “They already know what kind of man you are, Jefferson. I don’t have to make any calls.”
Jefferson gasped, shot to his feet, and stomped onto the dock. His clothes remained drenched, sticking to his body so that you could see the entirety of his outline. He glared down at the Colemans, then sniffed a, “Come on, Renée!”
But Renée remained on the boat, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She wasn’t strong enough to look up at him. Aria couldn’t blame her. It was clear that Jefferson had a dramatic hold on her, that he’d been a sort of puppeteer in her life. She had to break the cycle.
Finally, Hilary stood and smiled serenely at Jefferson. “Renée is going to stay with us. We want to celebrate with her.”
“Don’t give her any of your pity,” Jefferson growled. “She’s a mess of a woman, just like the rest of her family. You’ll see.”
“Her mother was a dear friend of ours,” Estelle said, joining Hilary in standing up for Renée. “And we’re so grateful to have Renée with us.”
They stood firmly, smiling at Jefferson. Kindness was always more smothering than rage. Jefferson balked.
“I’ll call you a cab,” Roland said, removing his phone from his pocket.
But that was when Jefferson remembered Logan. Glaring down at the much younger man, he said, “You. Come with me.” He was drunk and swaying, his cheeks blotchy and red.
Logan flinched. It was as though he wanted to shrink down to the size of a bug and scuttle off the boat. Aria’s heart seized. She knew how much his movie meant to him. She knew that if he didn’t go with Jefferson, he’d probably lose his funding.
Oh, she felt terrible for him.
But when Logan didn’t stand right away, Jefferson smiled cruelly and stomped off the dock and up the dark grass, disappearing on the other side of the house.
The remaining Colemans sat on the boat, quiet. Aria took Logan’s hand, but it felt like a dead fish. The fireworks continued to explode, too bright and too joyous. Someone had gone overboard. Mistakes had been made. But everyone was all right.
Suddenly, Renée burst into tears. She sobbed, her shoulders shaking, her hands flailing, as though she needed something or someone to hold on to. Hilary hurried over and swept her in a hug, as Roland, Marc, and Logan got the hint and left.
Only Estelle, Hilary, Aria, and Renée remained, listening as Renée cried and cried. It wasn’t until after another five minutes of panic that she was able to say what she really wanted to.
“I was never supposed to tell,” she whispered through tears. “I was never supposed to tell what happened to Rachel. It was a secret. And it almost killed me.”
Chapter Nineteen
