Page 5 of Nineteen Seventy-Six

Rory’s and Carolina’s faces paled as the story unfolded.

The affair, according to Catherine, lasted months, and by the time Charles broke it off, it was already too late to go on as if nothing had happened. Catherine hadn’t visited a doctor, because she didn’t believe there were any in New Orleans who would keep her counsel without telling either her husband or her lover, but based on how she was showing, when compared to her pregnancy with Oz, she believed she’d become pregnant around the second month of their tryst.

No, Colleen told them, there was no chance this baby was Colin’s.

No, Charles didn’t know. Could never know, just as Colin couldn’t.

“And soon,” she said, as she came to the end of everything she knew, “she won’t be able to hide it anymore.”

Rory looked away from them, out the window. His face was unreadable, but his body was tense. “Who else knows?”

“The four of us,” Colleen answered. “Catherine is currently staying with her mother, but she can’t for much longer. Her mother may already suspect, but soon it will be a lot more than a suspicion.”

“But she’s her mother! If I were in trouble, that’s who I’d turn to,” Carolina retorted. She looked at her husband. “Or you, of course, dear.”

“Your mother isn’t her mother,” Noah said. “She has her reasons, and whatever they are, we’re past that. Catherine approached Colleen for help because she’s out of options.”

“I didn’t realize the two of you were friends,” said Rory, in a tone bordering on accusatory.

“We’re not,” Colleen replied. She wrapped one hand around her empty belly, a habit she’d grown so used to that she now missed. She crossed her legs, one foot dangling, tapping the air. “I never approved of her relationship with Huck, even before she married your brother. You might remember that.”

Rory looked off to the side.

“She came to me, she said, because she sees me as a problem solver.”

“I can see that,” said Carolina, nodding. She craned her neck to listen for Clancy in the other room, but there was nothing but the action of the cartoon show.

“And how do you plan to solve this problem, Colleen?” Rory asked. He sounded almost amused. “Jesus,” he added, under his breath. “Jesus H. Christ. Colin would die if he ever found out. His heart would up and fail.”

“We agree,” Colleen said. She turned to Noah, who gave her a tight, encouraging smile. “That’s why we’re here.”

“We’ll help however we can,” Carolina said. She looked at Rory for support, but he’d gone somewhere else entirely, staring off into the corner with an intense look. “But short of magic, I don’t know how. We can’t turn back time.”

“She’s too far along to… ah, I hate to even suggest it—”

“Then don’t, darling,” Carolina said, voice hard. Sweeter, she said to Colleen, “You seem to have a plan in mind.”

“When I saw you both last, you said you wanted more children.” Colleen’s heart leapt forward into a dead sprint. No matter how many times she’d practiced this conversation in her mind, she knew it wouldn’t ever compare to saying it aloud. If she couldn’t convince them, then she had no backup plan for Catherine.

“We can’t have more children,” Carolina replied, peering down at her fingers, laced together across her emerald polyester skirt.

Colleen took a deep breath. “But what if you could?”

Over the next thirty minutes, Colleen laid out, through the meticulous choice of words and phrases, her proposal.

If they agreed, Catherine would fly to Boston immediately and take up residence in their third room, which was currently only occupied by Carolina’s sewing projects. Oz would come as well, or it would look as if she’d abandoned her son, which would raise far more suspicion. She’d stay there until she gave birth, and likely for a couple weeks after, to recover. During this time, Catherine would remain separated from Colin. By the time she returned to New Orleans with Oz, he’d have no indication she was ever even pregnant, and if reconciliation was in the cards, he’d never be the wiser.

Her child would remain in Boston with her new family.

“A daughter,” Colleen said, knowing how bad Carolina wanted a little girl, and using it without hesitation. She could be angry at herself for the blatant manipulation later. “I laid hands on her.”

Carolina and Rory would raise Catherine’s little girl as their own, Colleen promised. No one would ever know Carolina wasn’t pregnant; their life away in Boston provided the perfect foil for doubters, and her problems with the last pregnancy would easily explain why they’d kept the news to themselves until they were certain all was okay.

The secret would remain between only those in possession of the knowledge today.

At first they said no.

Then they asked if they could think about it.

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