Page 58 of The Summer Club

“I do.” Andi reached for the photo, and Cora relinquished it. “I’d like to keep it. And I’d like to see the rest.”

Her brown eyes were intent with what Cora recognized as both worry and determination. But this was good. “They’re all yours,” Cora told her. “Why don’t you come down to the basement with me. I’ll show you where they are.”

They rose and went to the door, but Hugh remained. “You coming?” Andi asked.

“Not yet.”

Cora let Andi go ahead. She rested her hand on Hugh’s shoulder and it tightened beneath her fingers. “I’m sorry, honey,” she said. “I thought you’d like to see what he looked like. Maybe it would help make this feel real.”

Hugh’s tone was sharp. “Oh, it feels real.”

A fresh sadness rose up in her throat. Cora walked into the house alone.

Down in the basement, she showed Andi where the box was. “Would you rather bring that upstairs? It’s so dark down here, so damp.”

“I’m fine,” Andi murmured, and Cora knew to leave her alone. As she climbed the stairs, she looked back once. Andi had stopped sifting through photos, her attention grabbed by one in her hand. Cora couldn’t help but wonder which. Was it the one of her gazing at Robert?

Upstairs she went to her sunroom. Hugh was out on the porch with Martin. She would leave them alone too.

As she stared at her canvas, she felt as uncertain as the sketch in front of her, but also somehow lighter. It reminded her of how uncertain she’d felt leaving Vassar. Of accepting Charley’s crazy marriage proposal. Of holding the twins for the first time, that day in the hospital. She’d never felt so uncertain as she had then, one baby in each arm. Wondering how she’d breastfeed two. How she’d raise them. How on earth had she gotten to that place?

And then along came Tish, to meet them. Cora would never forget it. After the briefest of hellos, Charley had swept his mother down the hall to the nursery, leaving her in her private room to rest. But Cora could not. She pictured Tish staring at them through the plate-glass window and what Tish would think about her babies. If she’d come around. If their little faces—her only grandchildren—would make her heart turn. For what felt like forever, Cora waited in her hospital room for them to return. Finally, Charley poked his head around the door. “She loves them!” he said.

It was more than she’d hoped for. Cora’s breath caught. “She does?”

Charley was elated. “She says their names are great. And that they look big and healthy for twins. I think she’s happy to be a grandmother.” The look on his face made her almost believe it all.

“Where is she?” Cora asked. “Isn’t she coming back in?” She pulled the covers up about her.

Charley shook his head. “No, darling. She knows you’re exhausted. She said to give you her love and let you rest.”

Her love. This she could not believe. But then again, who knew? She’d heard that babies had that magical effect on people, especially grandparents.

“Why don’t you have a nap,” Charley suggested. “I’m going down to the cafeteria to get some coffee. Want anything?”

Cora shook her head, sinking gratefully into the pillows of the hospital bed. She was sated enough.

It had finally happened. In the innocent faces of her twins, Tish had softened. Now maybe Charley would have some peace of mind, free from his mother’s guilt. Maybe now they could try to be a real family. Something Cora so longed for, since childhood. Especially with her mother far away in Ohio, and now somewhat estranged, thanks to her father. She lay down, the smallest smile on her face. She was so sore, so tired, but now she could rest.

She’d just started to doze when she heard the door open. “Charley?”

She opened her eyes and rolled over. The afternoon light slanted through her window and her mother-in-law stepped into it.

Cora pulled herself up. “Oh, hello. I thought you’d left.” She was a mess, her hair unwashed and rumpled.

Tish strode right up to the edge of Cora’s bed and placed both hands on the railing. Her gold rings clanked against the metal. “If you think for one second that this changes anything, you are dead wrong.”

Cora blinked in confusion. Charley had just said…

“Right this moment, my son is supposed to be at medical school. At Yale.” Tish leaned in so close her Chanel perfume wafted over the bed. “But instead he is stuck here, with you. Taking care of your fatherless children.”

Cora recoiled. “You need to leave.”

Tish was not done. “You have ruined Charley’s life. You have bewitched him and derailed him from the dreams we worked to build! But worst of all, you don’t even love him.”

Cora fell back against her pillows. “Get out!” she begged. How could this be happening? Where was Charley?

“Do you hear me?” Tish hissed. “You will never be part of the Darling family. Never.”