Dana circled the bed and came to stand beside Beth. “What’s going on?” she whispered.
“Rafi.” Beth blanked the phone. “Checking in. Wants to know if there’s anything he can do. You okay?”
Dana shook her head, and Beth put her arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “Me neither,” she whispered.
The silver lining of all this was that Dana barely protested when Beth said they should go and let Jeannie eat and rest. Also, thankfully, Jeannie did not kick up any more fuss about being left alone. Probably it had something to do with the doctor promising she’d be put on an “enhanced pain-management schedule.”
She also didn’t seem to notice that Beth had taken her little flip phone. But she would.
They caught a cab back home. As soon as they pulled away from the curb, Dana laid her head on Beth’s shoulder. By the time they’d gone a block and a half, she was snoring.
Beth smiled and looped one arm over her daughter’s shoulders. Moving carefully, she pulled her own phone out with her free hand and thumbed it until she brought up Kinseki’s email and the photo he’d sent with it.
It was a screenshot captured off Facebook, and it showed a selfie of a slender white woman. She’d had her face done at least once, and her hair was dyed ash blonde. Beth was pretty sure both her scarf and her bag were Hermès, which meant she had plenty of money to spare.
And there, behind her, was a blur in the shadows, but a blur Beth recognized. It was Todd, grinning, with his eyes fixed on Ms. Pace Martin.
Beth shut off her phone and leaned her cheek against the top of Dana’s head. Oh, Dangerface. What do we do now?
Beth supported, guided, and cajoled her half-awake daughter into the apartment and her bedroom. Dana toppled face-first onto her bed, the picture of teenage drama in exhaustion. Beth smiled at the fierce love that rose in her.
Dana grabbed the corner of her bedspread and rolled herself up in it.
Beth turned off the light and went into her study and closed the door.
I should wait. She flipped open her laptop and brought up Kinseki’s email. Her nap in Jeannie’s hospital room had done very little to clear the fog out of her mind. Sleep, shower, food…get my head together first.
But she did not have time. Everything was shifting around her, and she didn’t know enough to make a new plan yet.
One thing she did know for certain: Wherever Todd was, he was not just sitting around waiting for her call. Hers or Jeannie’s.
And there was still Doug, and all those calls, lurking in the background. She did not have time to get her head together.
Beth squinted at the number Kinseki sent in the email. She punched it into her phone and tried to think through a message for the voice mail she was sure she was about to get forwarded to.
So she was caught by surprise when a woman picked up on the third ring.
“Hello?”
“Um, yes,” Beth stammered in her professional voice. “I’m trying to…trying to reach Amanda Pace Martin. My name is”—Which one?—“Star…”
“Star?” cried Amanda Pace Martin. “Oh my gosh, hi! I’m so glad to finally get to talk to you! How’s your dad doing?”
Beth was suddenly and absurdly glad this was not a video call. She in no way wanted this woman to see the expression on her face.
She swallowed hard and fought to think up something generic. And fast. “Um, yeah, he’s good. Really good.”
“Oh, good.” Amanda Pace Martin sighed happily. “I miss him so much, but I’m only out here in London one more week, and then I’m home for six months! He’s been so sweet and supportive about it too. He calls me every day and sends flowers. Oh gosh, I still have to thank him for the roses! It’s just so…oh, I don’t know, like, old-school romantic!”
“Yes, he’s always been like that.”
This was surreal. She literally could not think about what she was hearing. All she could do was react. The truth. Jeannie had been telling the truth.
“I’m just so glad he finally felt like he could tell you about us being together. He said losing your mother hit you really hard.”
“Uh, yeah. Yeah. I still can’t believe she’s gone.”
“You must know your father is so proud of you. He talks about you all the time. My daughter, Star, speaker to billionaires! How’s the weather out in San Francisco?”