Once he’d gone, it took me all of ninety seconds to figure out Lily was staying at the Harbor Inn. The girl at the front desk, thankfully not Fiona, offered to connect me to her room, but I declined because I didn’t want to talk to Lily, I just wanted to know what she was up to. Seemed she had a similar idea, because as I hung up, the doorbell rang. It was her.
“Maya,” Lily said, and I noticed how her hands trembled by her sides, her smile tight, her gaze darting behind me and into the house. “Can I come in? Is...uh, is Ash here?”
“He stepped out,” I said. “I’m not quite sure when he’ll be back.”
Her face fell and she bit her lip for a second. “Oh. I know I’m early but I...I couldn’t wait, I...” She covered her mouth with a hand as tears leaked down her perfect cheeks.
I opened the door and stood aside, chose my next words carefully, my voice soft and coaxing, like the one the reporter had used. “Are you okay? God, what a stupid question. Why don’t you come in?”
Her face caved again. “Th-thank you so much.”
“Not at all.” I led her to the kitchen and gestured for her to sit as I busied myself with getting her a glass of water, which she downed in four gulps.
“Thank you.” Lily let out a sigh. “Maya, can I please ask you something?”
“Of course,” I said, smiling and nodding, making sure she felt comfortable.
“Was it Ash in the Facebook photo?”
“No.” I shook my head as I wracked my brain to remember what I’d told her on the phone. I’d given her a different name to throw her off. Fuck. What was it again? Gavin? George? Graham? Gordon. I gave her a sympathetic smile, my mind racing ahead. “I can understand why you thought it was Ash, he and Gordon looked so alike it was uncanny. When I first saw him on the beach I thought it was Ash and waved to him. That’s how we met.”
Her shoulders sagged, her entire body almost collapsing in onto itself. “It wasn’t him.”
“No, and I feel so bad for not realizing you were talking about my brother, but I had no idea. I was so preoccupied with his condition, I didn’t connect the dots. I feel so guilty.”
“But then why did you delete the picture?”
The directness of her question caught me a little off guard, but it didn’t take me long to recover. I shrugged. “It weirded me out, you calling like that. I reacted.”
At the realization she was to blame, Lily’s shoulders sagged some more, and her voice became soft again. “Why do you think he lied to me about his name?”
“Oh, wow... I really don’t know.”
“You have no idea why he left town and pretended to be someone else?” Her left eye began to twitch, and she pressed a finger over it. The dusky circles under her eyes told me she was exhausted, and upon closer inspection I saw she had sallow skin, too. She looked like a once-pretty princess who’d lost her sheen, and I wasn’t about to allow her to get it back.
“No, I really don’t. I’d tell you otherwise, I promise.”
“Does it have anything to do with Kate or Celine?” she said, and I felt my eyes widen. “Who are they?”
“It doesn’t matter, Lily. They’re in the past.”
“It does matter,” she said, looking me up and down, and I wondered if her tears had been a ploy to get into the house. “It matters a lot and if you don’t tell me, I’m sure someone else in town will. Fiona, or her brother, Keenan, for example. I hear he and Ash don’t exactly get along.”
The intensity of her voice and her newly found backbone surprised me. I’d expected neither, had pegged Lily as being a bit of a pushover and a little weak, realized I’d have to be more careful around her than I’d first thought.
I told her about Fiona, Keenan and Celine being siblings, and that Celine had been Ash’s high-school sweetheart. Once done, I took a dramatic pause before finishing with, “Celine disappeared when she was sixteen.”
“What do you mean, disappeared?”
“She left town. Ran away.”
“And who was Kate?”
From the way she said it I could already tell she didn’t want the answer. Ash hadn’t told her about either of them, and now that she had the opportunity to find out, Lily didn’t want the truth. She was scared. “Kate was Ash’s girlfriend. She died a little over two years ago.”
“Did she fall off a cliff?” Lily whispered.
“Yes, she did, it was horrible.” This time, as I recounted the story of Kate’s death, she let out a little gasp. “God, it was awful,” I said. “He loved her so much. He was going to propose.”
Lily’s face turned white, all the color sliding from her cheeks. “He never told me about either of them. Why wouldn’t he share something so important?”
I pretended to consider her question, leaned in and whispered, “Ash is a complicated man with a difficult past. Talking about exes is difficult enough, but with Kate dying... I don’t know, maybe he didn’t want to tell you because the police suspected him of foul play.”
“What did you say?”
I sat back, put a hand to my chest, talking fast. “Oh, well...he was a suspect for a while, and that’s a lot to admit to someone, don’t you think? But don’t worry. They couldn’t prove anything.”
She blinked three times, and I could tell she was working hard to process what I’d implied. That was strike one. “I can’t believe it,” she said. “Why wouldn’t he... Why didn’t he...”
“I imagine this is a huge shock for you, and really hard to hear, especially with the amnesia and him not remembering you. At all.” I sighed heavily and crossed my arms, shaking my head. “I wish he’d told you about them. He really should have.”
“I...I thought I knew him.
