Page 46 of Against the Current

“It’s certainly possible,” Jackie said, taking a bite of bacon. It was crispy and greasy and delicious. Her butter melted in an ooze on her biscuit.

“It’s a lead, at least,” Ryan said.

Jackie was feeling more and more ridiculous. “It’s a lead!”

Who did they think they were? Sherlock Holmes and Watson?

But everything changed after they called Quinn. They were parked outside the diner, watching the rain fall and listening to the phone ring. Quinn didn’t answer, so they left a voicemail asking her to call them back. Jackie took a breath and suggested they drive by some of the houses they’d lost clients to. Ryan started the engine and took them around, past iconic mansions that would surely hold some of the most luxurious parties ofsummertime 2025. Meanwhile, Jackie wasn’t sure if she would ever find a way to retire.

“Why don’t we go to Sarah Strong’s real estate office and ask her directly?” Ryan suggested.

Jackie’s heart pumped. “Why would we give ourselves away like that?”

“We don’t have anything else to lose,” Ryan said.

Jackie sat and wrung her hands on her lap. Ryan mapped the route on his phone and drove them through the pattering rain to Sarah Strong’s office in Oak Bluffs, where a sign out front advertised her as the top-selling real estate agent on Martha’s Vineyard. The office didn’t have a parking lot, and Ryan spent a little while searching for a spot.

Suddenly, Ryan gasped and pressed his foot hard against the brake.

“What is it?” Jackie cried.

Ryan stuttered. “Sorry. I thought I saw something.”

“What did you think you saw?”

Ryan shook his head and pressed the gas again. “I don’t know. A squirrel, I guess. I’m sorry.”

Jackie continued to look at Ryan. She wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t believe him.

But why would he lie?

Ryan found a spot down the road next to a big oak tree and cut the engine. His face was white.

“Ryan, what did you see?” Jackie asked.

Ryan shook his head and fixed a smile on his face. “Nothing. Let’s go talk to Sarah.”

They got out of the car and locked it. Jackie pulled her hood over her head and glanced from side to side. She felt as though they were being watched. They hurried down the sidewalk. They’d parked farther away than Jackie had thought.

Suddenly, Ryan called out. It took Jackie a minute to realize what he was saying.

“Trisha! Trisha, hey!”

Jackie stopped short and gaped at Ryan from beneath her hood. “Trisha?”

Jackie followed Ryan’s gaze across the street to find none other than her daughter-in-law peering back at them from beneath a rain hood of her own. Trisha was pale as snow. She raised a hand in greeting and tried to smile.

Suddenly, the heavens opened up, and it started to pour.

Chapter Seventeen

March 2025 - Nantucket Island

It wasn’t for another three hours that they were back at the Sutton Estate and changed into dry clothes. Ryan poured himself a cup of coffee and looked at his wife across the kitchen, where she stood at the counter slicing onions to make homemade hummus for the kids’ after-school snack. Her hair was still a little damp.

She was a mystery to him. Had it always been this way? How many times had they lied to one another during their marriage? Had everything been built on falsehoods?

What about their fourteen years in Chicago? What had Trisha been lying to him about then?

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