Page 28 of Trick of Light

Rebecca tilted her head thoughtfully. In the water, Phoebe shrieked happily and splashed Tommy.

“I saw him recently at the restaurant,” Rebecca said after a pause.

Bethany’s heart surged. “Oh?”

“He looked at me like I was a ghost. Mom and I tried to be welcoming, but he got out of there just as quickly as he’d come. And his date? I’m pretty sure she wasn’t pleased with him for taking her in there.”

Bethany rubbed her forehead. Why did it bother her that Rod was on a date? She didn’t even know what he looked like anymore. She could only imagine his eighteen-year-old face and smile. How handsome he’d been. How proud she’d been to be his girlfriend.

“I’ll write him back. Soon,” Bethany offered although she wasn’t sure she could.

“Do whatever you want,” Rebecca said. “Nobody wants anything more from you right now.”

That night, Bethany and Rebecca led their troupe of children back home, where they showered and changed into pajamas and waited upstairs for the pizza to arrive. Esme got home not long afterward and kissed her grandchildren with tears in her eyes. When she returned to the kitchen, she rubbed her cheeks and collapsed at the table with a glass of wine.

“My heart is so full,” she said. She then reached across the table and took both of Bethany’s hands. After a moment, she deflated. “Oh, honey. Are you okay?”

Rebecca’s face echoed her interest. Maybe it was finally time to explain everything that had happened. To open herself up in a way that she hadn’t allowed herself to in many, many years.

Tentatively, Bethany began to describe what was going wrong in Savannah. She explained the gender divide in the medical community, the fact that Nick’s parents had never respected or even really liked her, the medical malpractice suits Nick had gone through since his career had begun, and the fact that she’d been selected for a position that Nick had “supposedly been born to have.”

“Ever since Nick was born, Dr. Bob Waterstone groomed him to take over where Bob left off one day,” Bethany explained. “I’m sympathetic to the stress of that, of course. And it’s not that I don’t think Nick is brilliant. I do in so many ways. But in being a surgeon, you have to have something else. A thick skin that Nick lacks.” She snapped her fingers as her heart raced. She hated speaking of Nick like this, especially when he wasn’t there to represent himself.

“Did you always know?” Esme asked quietly, “That he wasn’t up to this?”

“No! Not at all,” Bethany said. “Back when I first met him, I fell head over heels. I was sure that we would go into the medical world hand in hand and change things. It was only when I got wind of the fact that his father hid Nick’s mistakes that I understood the brevity of the situation.”

Esme and Rebecca were captivated, frequently asking questions to ensure they understood. For the first time since Bethany had left home, she felt genuinely heard. She felt loved.

When she got to the part about Nick not leaving his office for the past week, she burst into tears. Esme and Rebecca hurried to wrap their arms around her and pour her a glass of water. Bethany shook.

“He’s the father of my children,” Bethany whispered through tears, “and he doesn’t even respect me enough to explain what’s wrong. He just hides himself away and expects me to take care of the children, the house, and my career. I feel abandoned.”

“That isn’t a partner,” Esme said angrily. “What a selfish man.”

Bethany remembered her father, Victor. How easy it had been to abandon his family in the wake of Joel’s death.

She remembered Rod, too. What he’d done to her when things had gotten rough.

Were all men that weak?

“Have you heard from Nick since you left?” Rebecca asked.

Bethany shook her head. “Not from Nick or his parents. I don’t know how long that will last. Tommy is a male Waterstone. I imagine there’s a lot of pressure on him already to ‘become something.’ And I can’t imagine they’ll let us get away forever.”

“It’s 2024,” Esme said ominously. “I thought girls in Maddie and Phoebe’s generation would be saved from such sexist behavior.”

“It’s ingrained in our society,” Rebecca said. “Shelby and Lily aren’t immune at all. I hate it.”

“Not here,” Esme assured them. “In this house, women have all the respect they deserve. We Sutton women have been through too much to settle for less.”

It surprised Bethany that Esme referred to herself as a Sutton. But it was the last name that linked the three of them together. It was the last name Valerie still carried out in California. And it was the name that Joel had been buried with. It mattered.

“I hope you’ll stay as long as you need to,” Esme said, giving Bethany’s hand a final squeeze. “This home is your home.”

“I cleared my calendar for the next few weeks and took a formal leave of absence,” Bethany said softly.

Saying this aloud forced Bethany to face it fully for the first time. After fighting for this top spot at the hospital, it still amazed her that she was able to step away so easily. But the poison of that position seeped through her life. She couldn’t remain there, at that hospital, in that top spot that Dr. Bob Waterstone had held for so long. It was bound to destroy her.

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