Chapter 3

Aunt Debbie joined us with Brooke's boyfriend, Mason. Pam brought her husband, Rick. By Saturday morning, the family had turned our invitation into a free reunion weekend.

On the drive, Mom offered an apology with all the responsibility carefully removed.

“I misunderstood last night. But your sister wasn't herself.”

Debbie nodded. “If Theo ends up with Sloane, he's still family. You wouldn't be losing him completely.”

Theo was beside me with his headphones on. He had chosen the music himself. I was grateful he couldn't hear them.

In my first life, Sloane had produced a vague letter about an attachment-related problem after sleeping with her best friend's boyfriend. Every adult in the family treated it as permission.

Three years after Theo, she climbed into the bed of the lecturer I was dating. I woke to find my relatives discussing how best to let the two of them be together.

They had called my tears selfish.

At the lodge, Theo's family had reserved a private house with nine bedrooms. Mom and Dad took an upstairs suite. Debbie, Brooke, and Mason went to the third floor. Pam and Rick chose a ground-floor room beside the one Theo and I initially picked.

The bedroom doors had old privacy latches. The connecting bathrooms were clearly marked, but everyone seemed much more interested in the hot tubs than the room plan.

At lunch, Pam grinned at Sloane.

“Behave at the spa, honey. Willa doesn't like sharing.”

“I'll try,” Sloane said, looking down.

“She shouldn't have to apologize for being ill,” Mom told me.

“Of course not,” I said. “I just hope she knows whose room she's going into. There are a lot of men here.”

Rick looked Sloane up and down.

Pam laughed. “If it happens, it happens. We're not as uptight as you.”

After the spa, she complained about the room's water pressure. Theo offered to swap. She accepted in front of everyone.

Sloane was upstairs. She missed the exchange.

Theo and I moved into the room on the left. Rick turned on the shower in the middle room.

I stayed beside my boyfriend and listened.