Now You See Her by Joy Fielding Read Free Book Online Page A

things, she gets the house, which, incidentally, she now has up for sale.”
    “What some agents won’t do to secure a listing.” Everybody has a story, Marcy was thinking, marveling at what he’d just told her.
    “Grief makes us do funny things,” he said.
    Marcy agreed silently. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be glib. Are you all right?”
    “Let’s say I’m recovering. Like an alcoholic, I guess. I don’t think we ever fully get over the death of someone we love. We just learn to live with their absence.”
    “Do we?”
    “Do we have a choice?”
    Marcy turned her head, grateful to see the waiter approaching with their food.
    “Careful, it’s hot,” the waiter warned as he lowered their dishes to the table.
    “Looks good,” Vic said, inhaling the steam rising from his plate.
    Marcy immediately tore into her shepherd’s pie. “It’s delicious,” she said.
    “I think I should apologize,” Vic said.
    “For what?”
    “For monopolizing the conversation all night.”
    “It’s been fascinating.”
    Vic shrugged. “Tell me more about you.”
    “Not much to tell. My husband left me for one of the golf pros at our country club. Her handicap was lower than mine,” she added, feeling the smile she tried to muster wobble precariously on her mouth.
    “How long were you married?” Vic asked.
    “Going on twenty-five years. This trip was supposed to be a second honeymoon to celebrate our anniversary. Didn’t quite work out that way.”
    “So you came by yourself. That’s very …”
    “Stupid?”
    “I was going to say brave.”
    “I don’t think that’s a word too many people would use to describe me.”
    “Then it’s amazing how wrong people can be.”
    “Yes.” Marcy agreed. It
was
amazing how wrong people could be.
    “Do you have any children?” he asked.
    “Yes. Two.”
    “Boys? Girls?”
    “One of each. Darren’s nineteen, very tall and handsome, thinking of going into dentistry, like his dad. He’s working as a camp counselor for the summer.”
    “Sounds like fun. And your daughter? What’s she up to?”
    “Devon is twenty-one, or no, actually, she’d be almost twenty-three now,” Marcy said, correcting herself immediately.
    Vic cocked his head to one side, smiling to mask his obvious confusion. “Devon is the girl you thought you saw this afternoon?”
    “I
did
see her.”
    “Your daughter is here in Ireland?” This time there was no attempt to hide his confusion.
    “She’s traveling through Europe for the summer,” Marcy said. “I didn’t realize we’d both be here at the same time, not until I saw her this afternoon. I guess she must have changed her plans at the last minute. That’s a lie,” she added in the next breath.
    “I kind of figured.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “That’s all right. You don’t owe me any explanations.”
    “My daughter supposedly drowned in a canoeing accident about two years ago,” Marcy said, watching Vic’s brow furrow and his eyes narrow. “Twenty-one months ago, to be precise. Except they never found her body. And I know,
I know
, she’s still alive, that for whatever reason, she faked her death.”
    “Why would she do that?” Vic asked, as Peter had asked earlier.
    “To get away. To start a new life. Start over.”
    “Why would she want to start over?”
    “Because she was so unhappy. Because she’d gotten herself into some trouble … I’m sorry. Can we not talk about this anymore?”
    “We can not talk about whatever you’d like.”
    Marcy continued, unable to stop herself. “Everybody else is so positive she’s dead. But I know what I saw. I saw my daughter. You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
    “I think a mother knows her own child.”
    Relief washed across Marcy’s face like a cool breeze. “God, you’re a nice man,” she said.
    “And you’ve had a very eventful day. Come on. Finish up. I’ll take you back to your hotel.”
    Marcy reached across the table, took Vic’s hand in hers. “I have