Ella nodded. “If you’re there with me, I know I can make it through. Besides, I’m tired of running away from my problems. Maybe Greta is right. Maybe we can find a way forward, with empathy and love, no matter what.”
Doubt edged Ella’s voice and heart. Now that she’d lost everything, there wasn’t anything else to lose.
ChapterEighteen
That Monday morning, Stephanie was bug-eyed with adrenaline and panic. “Oh my gosh. I’m so glad you’re here!” She raced up to Ella at the Nantucket Community Music Center, grabbed her wrists, and said, “Somebody said that you’d moved back to New York City, and I almost had a heart attack. I thought, ‘Right before the Nantucket Jubilee? Is she insane?’”
Ella’s nose twitched with annoyance. Nantucket Island was a remarkable place with gorgeous coastlines, a marvelous history, and a real obsession with gossip. Probably, somebody had spotted her driving her station wagon onto the ferry and sent a lie across the island like wildfire.
“No way, Steph. I wouldn’t leave you high and dry like that,” Ella said.
“I should have known.” Stephanie’s laughter made her sound like she was insane. “Are you ready to get started? I have about forty-seven billion projects to complete before Friday.”
Ella threw herself into the last week of Nantucket Jubilee preparations with fanatical zeal, grateful to have something to take her mind off the panic of learning her real identity. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights that week, she returned to a mostly-dark Copperfield House and normally discovered Danny and Will in the upstairs living room, chilling in front of Will’s computer and chatting about music. Those nights, she heated herself up some soup and sat with them, calmed by the rhythm of their voices.
On Wednesday evening, as Ella prepared for bed, Julia and Alana appeared at her bedroom door. Both had damaged eyes. Ella hadn’t spoken to either of them much at all since the week before when she’d run out on their barbecue and fled the island.
“Can we talk?” Alana whispered.
Ella beckoned for them to enter her childhood bedroom. Together, the three of them sat cross-legged on the bed, waiting for the first to speak. Finally, Julia blurted out, “What’s going on, Ella?”
Ella’s thoughts staggered to a halt. She now recognized that both Alana and Ella’s faces were marred with confusion and sorrow.
“You don’t know?” Ella asked.
Both Alana and Julia shook their heads violently.
“Know what?” Alana demanded.
Ella heaved a sigh and hunted through her purse to discover the envelope filled with photographs of Joni. She then passed the envelope over and watched as her sisters’ faces contorted with even more confusion.
“Who is this?” Julia demanded.
“She’s my real mother,” Ella recited, terrified at how easy it now was to say.
Julia and Alana’s jaws dropped open.
“What are you talking about?” Julia shrieked.
“Shh.” Ella took the photos back and glanced toward the bedroom door. “I don’t want to talk to Mom about this anymore. It was hell.”
Alana and Julia ordered Ella to explain everything she now knew. Ella covered it as best as she could and then explained that the birth certificate had come in a manila envelope addressed to Ella at The Copperfield House the previous week. At this, Julia nearly flew off the handle.
“Who on earth knew about this?” she demanded.
Incredibly, this was the first time that Ella had considered this.Who had sent the envelope? And why hadn’t it had a return address?
“Other people on the island obviously knew about it,” Ella said finally. “Mom wasn’t pregnant in 1980, and then suddenly, she had a brand-new baby.”
“But Ella, even if they told everyone that they adopted you, who would go out of their way to send you that birth certificate?” Alana demanded.
Ella shrugged. “The Copperfields have enemies on this island. Maybe one of Dad’s ex-friends wants to get his own revenge.”
“Through you? That’s messed up,” Julia pointed out.
After another half-hour of whispered questions and shrugs of disbelief, Alana and Julia hugged Ella as hard as they could.
“I wish you would have told us what was going on,” Alana said pointedly as she stood up from the bed, wincing after so long sitting cross-legged.