Page 11 of The Summer Swap

It had been decades since anyone had mentioned that painting. She’d assumed—hoped—it had been forgotten.

But clearly not. Someone was asking questions.

Cecilia couldn’t breathe properly.

“Mom?” Kristen’s voice held a note of alarm. “Are you okay?”

“She’s not okay,” Winston said. “This party is too much. A huge public event when she’s still grieving—maybe it wasn’t such a great idea, Kris.”

Cecilia barely heard them. What was she going to do? How had a journalist ever found out about it? Neither she nor Cameron had spoken of it for years. They’d agreed that destroying it was the best course of action. He’d promised her he would get rid of it. So many years had passed that they’d been confident that the painting was forgotten.

Except it clearly hadn’t been forgotten.

A chill came over her and she rubbed her arms, trying to warm herself.

Why would someone be asking about that particular work now, after all this time?

If Cameron had done what he’d promised to do, then the painting shouldn’t still exist.

But what if he hadn’t? He’d made other promises he hadn’t kept.

“Mom? Are you all right? Do you remember a painting by that name?”

Feeling distinctly unwell, she assembled her features into an expression she hoped was suitably vague. “My memory isn’t what it was. I forget things.” If only. There were some things she would have been relieved to forget, and The Girl on the Shore was one of them. “If it once existed then your father must have destroyed it.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie. He was supposed to have done just that.

But she couldn’t squash the anxiety that the painting might still exist.

Winston frowned. “Could it be in a private collection?”

“Definitely not.” Kristen shook her head. “If that were the case then we would have a record of it. What does this journalist look like? I’ll go and talk to him.”

“Slightly shorter than me. Fifties? Glasses. Academic looking. He asked to talk to you, but I didn’t know where you were.”

Kristen’s cheeks turned pink, and she dropped her phone. “Sorry.” She stooped to retrieve it. “Right. I’ll talk to him.”

For the first time since his death, Cecilia wished Cameron were here. He would have dispatched the journalist with a few sharp words.

Her feeling of anxiety increased. “Why do we have journalists here?”

“Because we are celebrating Dad’s life and work. He’s probably an art editor, rather than a journalist.”

That explanation did nothing to soothe Cecilia’s anxiety. If the person asking the question was knowledgeable about art, then that was even more concerning.

“Uncle Winston!” Another voice came from outside her room, this time it was Todd, Kristen and Theo’s son.

Cecilia was relieved to see a friendly face. She was close to her grandchildren and considered that she’d been a better grandmother than she ever had been a mother.

Grandchildren were a second chance.

At twenty-eight years old, Todd was handsome, good-natured and very much his own man. Cameron and Theo had wanted him to study law, but Todd had chosen to major in environmental studies and sustainability, and nothing they said had changed his mind. There had been several uncomfortable family dinners during with Cameron had bellowed at him, and Theo had lectured him on secure careers and giving back to society (and also having a guaranteed income for life). Everyone had been tense except Todd, who had carried on calmly eating his dinner and asked for second helpings. Fortunately, his younger sister, Hannah, had stepped up and announced her wish to study medicine and be a surgeon just like her father, which had taken the heat off Todd.

After Todd had graduated, he’d worked for a year for a Fortune 100 company trying to polish their green credentials before leaving to work for an artisan carpentry company that used reclaimed and sustainable materials. He’d trained as a carpenter and now he worked for himself, accepting commissions, and sometimes working freelance for the company who had originally employed him.

Cecilia admired his quiet strength. He listened respectfully to his parents’ views and then went ahead and did what he felt was right for him, undeterred by their strongly expressed opinions.

Todd was living the life he wanted to live. He was something of a hero to her.

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