Page 80 of The Summer Guests

“You could call her that. More like a full-fledged associate. Brilliant mind. Green eyes, flame-red hair.” He paused. “You put a woman like her with three men, two of them married, and, well ...” He shook his head. “That was not a stable situation.”

It was becoming clear to her, now. Why Elizabeth was upset by the mention of Vivian Stillwater’s name. Why she didn’t want her sons to hear about the woman’s very existence.

“Vivian became involved with one of them,” said Susan.

Arthur sighed. “Correct.”

“George Conover?”

He looked at her. “And Elizabeth found out. A situation that obviously couldn’t continue. The wife and the mistress, both living here on Maiden Pond, both hovering around George. It fractured our tight-knit little circle. Mrs. Greene was appalled, of course, and she told her husband to fire Vivian. I agreed with her. So one morning, Vivian was just gone. She left no note, gave no warning, just packed up and left. We assumed she’d gone to stay with her sister in Boston, but she never showed up there. The sister called the police, and they spoke to Dr. Greene, asking where Vivian was. He didn’t know; none of us did.”

“The sister was the only one who reported her missing?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t think to call the police yourself?Anyof you?”

“Given the circumstances, we saw no reason to be alarmed. She’d left Purity under a dark cloud. She was theother womanwho’d almost destroyed George’s marriage. That’s what we told the police when they interviewed us, that Vivian was probably off somewhere licking her wounds, too ashamed to show her face. There was some talk of searching the pond, that maybe she’d drowned herself, but that didn’t make sense, with her clothes and car gone.”

“And then?”

“The inquiries just stopped. The police never came back to talk to us, so I assume they located her and closed the file.”

“Youassume? You didn’t ask?”

“We didn’t want to know. In truth, we were all relieved she was gone. Certainly, Elizabeth was. Oh, there were a few rough monthsbetween her and George, but as she said, she held that family together. And George, he was committed to repairing things. ‘The fixer,’ we called him. In any crisis, he was the one who’d take care of things, who’d mop up any mess. Then the boys were born, the family moved on, and the past was the past. But now it’s all come roaring back. Vivian Stillwater. George’s infidelity. You can understand why Elizabeth was upset to have this all dredged up again, half a century later.”

Yes, Susancouldunderstand that. She could imagine Elizabeth’s pain, her rage. Yet the Conovers’ marriage had survived the blow and gone on to produce two sons. Elizabeth had somehow come to terms with her husband’s infidelity, and in the end, it was death that finally parted them. Now that old wound had been ripped open again, and Susan had been the one to do it.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I had no idea.”

“This is why the boys can’t know about this. It would humiliate their mother. And it would destroy the memory of their father.”

“Don’t you think they already know? Hannah must have said something to them.”

“She was only eight at the time. All she remembers is that her father’s secretary disappeared, and the police came to the house. But she wouldn’t have known about the affair. At least, I hope she doesn’t.”

He turned into the hospital driveway and pulled up in front of the building. There they sat for a moment, the rain still beating down, the wipers scraping back and forth. Only a short time ago, she’d been angry at Elizabeth; now she felt sorry for the woman, and oddly respectful as well. Elizabeth had stoically lived by her own creed and suffered for it.Loyalty to family, above everything else.In the end, the Conovers had indeed endured.

“It would be kind of you, Susan, if you said nothing about this to Ethan. For his mother’s sake.” Arthur looked at her, his gaze so direct that she could not look away, could not defy his request.

“I won’t tell him. I promise.”

“Good.” He smiled. “Some family secrets are best left buried. This is one of them.”

She stepped out of the car and walked into the hospital. But just inside the entrance, she turned and watched through the window as Arthur drove away.

Some family secrets are best left buried. This is one of them.

She wondered how many more secrets there were.

Chapter 37

Maggie

Vivian Stillwater might have dropped off the face of the earth, but her sister had not.

Catherine Wedge (previously Stillwater, then Duguay, then Harrington) now lived in the Fair Winds Retirement Community outside Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The woman’s turbulent marital history, combined with her restless tendency to move frequently, between multiple houses in multiple states, had made locating her a complicated task. But locating people who didn’t want to be found was the sort of challenge that Ingrid relished, and she could always be counted on to find her man. Or, in this case, woman.

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