Page 22 of Trick of Light

BETHANY: Do you think we could talk soon? I’m worried about you.

Alongside that, of course, she was worried about her career. Another thought had sprung up—a horrible one. One that involved Nick’s arrogance and his anger at being passed over for his father’s job.

If Nick had really followed Bethany’s instructions in the operating room, there was no reason he wouldn’t throw her under the bus to move up the ranks. Nick was still a Waterstone, and she was still a woman in a man’s world. She couldn’t be sure what would happen.

They’d been married for years. They’d had three children. But ultimately, Nick was Bob’s son. Like any man, he wanted to make his father proud.

It was his weakness.

Bethany’s gut swirled with panic. She downed the rest of her margarita, watching her phone for a message from Nick. Instead, she got several from Phoebe, who wrote them from Amanda’s phone. She sent photographs of Maddie and Tommy and her drawings from that afternoon. There was another of Amanda’s little fuzzy terrier, who’d once bit Bethany’s ankle. It's not her favorite animal. That was for sure.

After she ordered another margarita, she tried Nick again.

BETHANY: Please, Nick. I’m so worried about you.

But there was no answer. Maybe Nick could sense her fear? Maybe he was already talking to his father about a strategy, explaining that Bethany had been in the wrong. Maybe they’d already called a divorce lawyer. A medical lawyer. Maybe, by next week, Bethany would be out on the street.

Bethany filled her lungs and raised her chin to watch a baseball game on the overhead television. Before Victor left Nantucket, he’d taken her and Rebecca to several baseball games, hoping they’d take up softball someday. Eventually, Joel fell in love with baseball, and Victor had dreamed of having a real, prosperous athlete in the family. Bethany had only done sports for her college application. Her heart had never been in the game.

When Bethany had first told Nick about Joel, she’d expected him to run away. She’d expected him to be freaked out by her intensity.

Why had he stayed? Why had he married her? Why had they had three children?

Amanda texted to say she wanted to keep the children overnight. “Nick needs time to himself,” she explained, as though she still knew her son better than Bethany ever could.

Maybe she did, Bethany thought.

As she downed the rest of her margarita, her phone buzzed with another text from an unknown number. This was strange. Bethany kept her number under wraps, as she was a sought-after surgeon in a big city—and desperate people in terrible pain were apt to reach out to her and beg her to help them immediately. She needed to rely on the systems in place. She needed to respect her own schedule for the sake of her family and sanity.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Hey. I’m sorry to write to you like this. It’s been years—far longer than I would like to admit. But it’s important. Would you be up for a phone call this week? There’s something important that I need to talk to you about. Let me know.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: It’s Rod, by the way. I should have opened with that.

Bethany’s heart thudded. She felt outside of her body. Her phone fell from the counter and bounced across the floor of Chili’s until one of the servers set down a big basket of chips and picked it up for her. “Good thing you had a case on it!” she said. “Not a single crack.” Bethany just blinked at her. She felt her nerves escalate.

Chapter Ten

Bethany drove in circles around her neighborhood, her vision blurry with tears. An image of Rod floated in her mind’s eye, drawing her deep into the past, into terrible memories. Sometimes, she burst into a single sob, then pressed her lips shut and turned up the radio. If her neighbors were paying attention, they would gossip about her. They would ask, “Wasn’t there always something strange about Bethany Waterstone?”

After nearly an hour of wasteful driving, Bethany pulled into the driveway.She imagined Nick in his study, hiding himself away as the house shook with the opening of the garage door. Once in the kitchen, she listened intently as the house shifted around her. It was dark and gloomy, and Phoebe’s bright drawings on the fridge seemed almost ghoulish by comparison. It seemed bizarre that a happy family had ever once congregated here.

Again, Bethany removed her phone from her pocket, checking to make sure she hadn’t imagined Rod’s text. But there it was, calling out to her from a distant past. What did he want from her?

Of course, when Bethany had been in Nantucket, she’d thought of him. Somebody had mentioned in passing that he hadn’t lived on the island for a few years. That he’d gone to college. She’d felt her heart blister with joy for him. It had been inexplicable. She’d shoved the conversation into the dark part of her mind and told herself to forget.

Bethany drank a large glass of water and tiptoed upstairs to stand before Nick’s closed study door and weigh whether to knock. An orange light beamed beneath the doorway, and she could hear faint music. If she wasn’t mistaken, the air had a tint of alcohol to it, as though whatever he drank over there was so intense that it permeated the air. Her heart beat dully. She pressed her knuckles against the wood as tears spilled down her cheeks. She imagined herself whispering, Nick? Nick, what happened to us? But instead, she knew she would shriek with her true fear. Was it my fault your patient nearly died?

Her biggest fear, she knew, was being a bad doctor.

Overwhelmed with panic, Bethany scurried downstairs, leaped into her car, and drove to the Waterstone mansion. She needed to see her children. She needed to wrap her arms around little Phoebe and listen to one of Tommy’s never-ending stories. She needed to indulge Maddie, who was so sure she was a little adult already. She needed to be reminded of her own tremendous love.

Amanda opened the door wearing a cruel smile. “Isn’t this a surprise?”

Bethany hovered on the doorstep, wondering if Amanda would let her in. Amanda placed her hands on her hips. From the living room came the sound of a superhero film, one that Tommy was obsessed with and that the girls tolerated. There was the smell of popcorn.

“You look worse for wear, my dear,” Amanda said although she didn’t sound particularly worried. She sighed. “Come in.”

Bethany walked to the edge of the living room, watching as the ghoulish light from the television danced across her beautiful children’s faces. During this part of the film, the superhero battled a man he’d previously thought to be his best friend in the world. Sorrow over the betrayal was etched across his face, even as he used his superhuman strength to defeat him.

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