Page 51 of Saltwater Secrets
“My mother was wise. She knew that my father was having affair after affair, that he didn’t love her. She tried to push away her love for William, but it didn’t always work. Sometimes, they met up, telling one another they wished it could be different. But in the late seventies, my father found out about them. I think they were spotted by a colleague who told on William. William’s marriage fell apart, and Philip destroyed his career. My mother felt awful about it. But when she wanted to leave my father, he still refused. He threatened her. She decided to throw herself completely into being a mother, into loving Rachel and me. But it didn’t last.” Renée sighed deeply.
Violet’s voice shook. “My siblings and I didn’t know about Rachel. That’s what changed everything for us.” She touched the edge of a photograph on the table, one featuring Rachel. Tears sprang to her eyes. “She looks just like Daddy. She looks just like us. It broke us in half, knowing we’d had this sister who’d died in this tragic way.” She looked at Renée with love in her eyes.
It was clear that they’d adopted Renée, that they’d decided they were family in a strange and roundabout way.
Someone came by to tell Renée it was nearly time for her speech. Aria felt the moment drifting away, and she reached out to touch Renée’s sleeve, to remind her of something.
“But what happened to them? What happened to William?” she asked, breathless. Why did Dorothy lock herself away? Why did she stop living—so long before she actually passed?
“William died,” Renée said softly. “He got cancer. Mom held his hand every day in the hospital and cared for him at the brownstone until he passed. When he was gone, she returned to Nantucket to hide herself away.” Renée’s face broke open. “I worry she was waiting for me.” She turned to look at her mother’s portrait, her hand pressed against her heart. “But I’m here, Momma. I love you. I’ll love you forever. And I’ll tell your story for as long as I’m alive.”
Time went on after that, as Aria knew it would. When the brownstone was finished, Renée asked if Aria and Logan wanted to move into it—for a rent that felt almost criminally low—and Logan and Aria leaped at the chance to build a life together in the city. Logan’s animated film got picked up at three film festivals for early 2026, and Aria secured two interior design projects in Manhattan, both of which her mother would help out with when she came to the city next.
Renée never saw Jefferson Everett again. She remained in the Wagner Estate, helping Hilary out with the redesign and deciding what was next. Maybe she would date again. Perhaps she still had a “William-and-Dorothy-worthy love” in her. But she wasn’t in any hurry to leap into another romance. “I’m learning about myself right now,” she told both Aria and Hilary during one of Aria’s trips home. “It’s about time, right?”
Toward the end of autumn, Renée buried Dorothy’s ashes under a gravestone next to William France’s in Manhattan. It meant that Aria and Hilary had to go visit her when Hilary cameto town next. They sat in the autumn chill as red and brown leaves circled the air around them, sipping hot coffee and talking to her. How Aria wished they could have spent more time with her. How she wished she could have thanked her for “launching” her life into another realm.
“What a wise woman,” Hilary said, touching the top of the stone and tracing her name.
“I think the beauty of Dorothy was that she never thought she was wise,” Aria said. “She made mistakes. She fell for the wrong person. She was entirely herself.”
Hilary nodded, holding the silence. Overhead, blackbirds twittered, preparing to fly south for the winter. There was a harshness to the air that spoke of incoming snowstorms and cozy evenings at home. Aria was ready for all of it: more life, as much of it as she could take.
