The roads had begun to flood two miles from Welo Ridge. It was a lower-line area on the island and typically took on water when the rains were heavy. But Lily would not let the water or threat of a rough storm keep her from checking on her niece.

There had still been no message from Zee, at least as far as Lily knew. When she saw the anonymous text, and the pictures included in it, Lily tucked her cell in the inside pocket of the blazer she wore. It hurt too much to look at it.

Lincoln leaned forward, shifting in his seat to get a clear view of the road. The rain was coming sideways now and the limbs from the palms fell like crepe myrtle blossoms along St. Charles in the spring the further down the road they came.

“You sure about this? We might be going to a lot of trouble for no reason, Campbell. Your niece might not even be there.”

“Just be careful,” she said, leaning an elbow on the door as Lincoln rounded the curve on Kalahia Drive. Two streets away from the cottages, a thick swell of rain fell overhead, and Lincoln had to correct his rental to keep on the road.

Lily didn’t stop praying until they reached the driveway. Lincoln barely had the engine off before both he and Lily darted from the car and sped up the stairs leading to the second floor entrance.

“If they aren’t here…” Lily started, just barely remembering to keep the door open for Lincoln. She moved around the living room, looking for a note, for something that might tell Lily where her niece and Ano had gotten off to. “I just don’t know where they could be.”

She told herself the search would distract her. That picture flashed to the forefront of her mind when she stopped at the bookshelf next to the front window and caught sight of a picture of Ano and Keilen out on the beach. They were both shirtless, both with bright smiles and “hang loose” hand gestures as they hammed for the camera.

Keilen’s hand on her face. His expression fierce, one Lily knew well. He’d made the same face just the night before.

“I…don’t see anything at all,” she said, gritting her teeth when bile shifted and rose to the back of her throat. “I’ll check their bedroom.” She needed to be away from Lincoln. It wouldn’t do for him to see her emotional. He’d only hold it against her.

Lily shut the door behind her and she made it to Zee’s room, pacing around the bed, still looking, but consumed by those images. Despite her upset, she pulled out her phone, sitting on the bed to focus on the images again.

The picture was grainy and dark, but she could make out Keilen’s face clearly. Malini leaned against him, her fingers in his hair, arms around his shoulders and their mouths just inches apart. It was a cozy scene, them in the parking garage, so close, touching; it reminded Lily of how they’d been in high school, of how Malini didn’t care who saw them when they kissed.

She stared for a couple minutes longer, then she couldn’t look at it anymore. The ache inside her chest grew tighter, fiercer. Lily had felt this disappointment before. She knew loss, but this was something different. This stung worse. For all his professions of trust, needing it, wanting it, wanting her, Keilen was the one breaking promises. The reality of that made Lily feel sick.

Outside, a crack of lightning and thunder sounded, followed by a shrieking pop and all went dark. Lily dried her wet face, hating herself for how lost she felt and moved out of Zinnia’s room, coming to a halt when she entered the living room and found Lincoln leaning on the kitchen counter and Keilen, hair soaking, button up sticking to his chest and his abdomen, in the kitchen, rummaging through a stack of papers near the microwave.

“Lil,” he said, head shooting up when he saw her. The smile on his face fractured when he looked at her, and Keilen forgot his task, dropping the mail in his hands to walk toward her. “What is it? Zee?” He touched her arm and Lily jerked away from him. “Lily…”

She tore off her jacket, feeling a sudden wave of humidity in the room and threw it on the kitchen counter, doing her best to ignore the sting she felt coming off Keilen at her quick dismissal.

“Did you look on the patio?” she asked Lincoln, nodding toward the stairs below.

“Why would I?” he asked, slouching against the counter as though he were bored.

Lincoln returned his attention to his phone again, his thumb working over the screen as Lily fingered the papers on the coffee table, upturning several magazines and a dog-eared, well-worn paperback of Erin Morgenstern’s “The Night Circus.” It was Zee’s, an autographed copy Lily had sent for her birthday last year. Between the last twenty pages Lily found an old envelope, a return-addressed medical bill that someone had used to scratch down a phone number and address. Next to the address, in Zee’s handwriting was a doodle of her name and Ano’s written into the shape of a heart with long loops of filigree and embellishments. In the center was today’s date.

“I know where they went,” Lily jerked her attention to Lincoln, who nodded once, feigning interest. “Get an umbrella and let’s go—”

“Wait,” Keilen said, grabbing Lily’s arm when she tried to walk toward the door. His size had never seemed so intimidating before, and her heart jumped in reaction to the ferocity in his eyes. Sweat dotted his upper lip, and when she lowered her gaze, her eyes involuntarily took in how his wet shirt clung to his muscled chest. “What the hell is going on? You won’t even look at me. What happened?” She shook her head and tried to push past him, but Keilen countered, stepping in front of her path to the door.

Before she could answer, her cell rang, and Lily tried to reach for it, but Keilen blocked her path there too. Lincoln, though, didn’t have a problem answering it and, for once, Lily welcomed his meddling.

“Who is it?” she asked him, not bothering to attempt another escape from Keilen’s attention.

“Ellis,” he said, the name coming out in an exhale.

“Speak to him for me,” she said, folding her arms and Keilen copied her.

“I’ll take this outside and meet you in the car.”

She didn’t bother to acknowledge Lincoln’s exit; the anger and hurt brimming in her chest made her sense loose and her fingers tingle with the urge to lash out at him.

“Lily…”

“Today. In the parking garage. You were seen.” She figured there was no time or reason to delay the inevitable. She had to find Zee and make sure she was okay. But her disappointment in Keilen and his broken promise was great, her fury at his backstabbing greater. Any normal occasion similar to this and Lily could be cool, collected enough that her insults would be sharp and especially biting. There was no time for it today.

“Parking garage? What are you…” Keilen stopped, his face shifting, downcast features that told his shock. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“You were with Malini. Today.” She motioned toward his shirt, disgusted. “You were wearing the same clothes. You…you kissed her. From the look of those pictures, you more than kissed her.”

“That’s not what happened.” He dropped his hands to his sides, and Lily shot a glance at his knuckles. They’d gone white as he tightened his fingers into a fist. “You cannot be serious. Me and Mal…”

“You’ve never explained yourself about her. You never once told me how it ended or even when. You and I…there’s nothing—” That ache sharpened and when Keilen shook his head, when his expression moved from shock to amusement, any wells of patience Lily might have had, dried up. “You think this is funny?”

“I think this is ridiculous. You know me, Lil…I would never…” he reached for her, going still when she stepped out of his reach.

“No. I don’t.” Lily let reality crash inside her. It had been there in the distance, slumbering so that she forgot what she should expect. So that she didn’t remember what she’d always believed—fairytales weren’t real. Happy endings didn’t happen. Not for her.

“The truth is I don’t know you, Keilen. I didn’t know you when we were kids. Not really. I only watched and wanted. And I don’t know you now. I know nothing about you and Malini because all you’ve done since I got here was try to get me on my back.” It hurt to admit, it hurt worse seeing Keilen’s face drawn down, the anger tensing his features. “She was your wife and I was…” Lily drew in a breath, forgetting everything but the stinging ache of what seeing Keilen touching Malini, holding her, had done to Lily. “You and me…we aren’t any—“

“Don’t you fucking finish that sentence.” Keilen’s anger shot into his features. He looked lethal, the whites of his eyes brightened and a small patch of pink began to rush up his neck. “I was not with Malini. She came to me crying about being broke. She’s always broke, but I knew her mother‘s been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and the medical bills have been astronomical.” He kneaded his shoulder, jaw working as though he hated having to explain himself. “She came to me for a loan...she…”

Something old and petty burned Lily’s insides. “I don’t fucking care,” she lied, walking away, pacing to keep from watching his expression. “I should have known. It was so stupid of me to pretend that this,” she waved toward the large bay window, pointing at the dark skies over the beach, “this is not paradise. This is a dream. All this…it’s just not real…”

She felt hurt, mistreated, and her instincts told her to walk away. Disappointment was nothing new to her. There had to have been a reason the fates had kept her from Keilen all these years. Now it was happening again.

She wanted him to hurt as much as she had when she first saw those pictures. Keilen held Malini like it was normal. Like it was his place. Something sharp and coiling moved through her then, something that darkened her spirit and made her lash out. “Neither are we.”

For the longest time Keilen just stared down at her, like he’d never seen her before. There were no sweet sentiments moving his features to give him the friendly, genuine expression that normally colored his face. This look was shock, anger, and disbelief.

When he finally spoke, his cold, cruel tone and simple words lashed something deep and unyielding in Lily’s heart. “I thought you trusted me. You swore you’d trust me.” Keilen paused, fists unclenching as his eyes glistened, sharp with something that could have been wetness. “You’ve never let any of it go, have you? Your…your mom. Your brother—“

“You have no clue what you’re talking about.” She wouldn’t let him do this. He had no right. “You don’t get to psychoanalyze what I do or how I feel…”

“It’s true.” Keilen’s shoulders lowered and his hand went to his shoulder again and he massaged, a nervous habit Lily noticed he did when he was worried or frustrated. At that moment, she didn’t care which he was. The betrayal was still too fresh for her to feel anything but anger.

“The only truth is the one that shows who you are. I saw it. In a text. A stupid text.” Lily shook her head, the anger like a current over her skin every time that grainy picture shot to the front of her mind. “It was idiotic of me to even entertain the idea of some pathetic high school crush being more than what it was. Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Nothing?” he asked, his voice low. “Everything with me meant nothing?”

“Don’t pretend to be hurt, Keilen. If being with me meant anything to you, you would have avoided your ex-wife today.”

He took three steps and came to stand in front of her, breath sharp as he exhaled. “You’re pulling at straws that aren’t there, Lily. Makes me think you’re looking for an excuse to be off this island.” She didn’t answer, unable to do anything but watch Keilen’s expression as it shifted again until there was hardly any emotion at all. As though he wasn’t sure who she was. “You let me have you, Lil. You told me over and over again how much you’ve always wanted me, and now—“ He stepped back, head shaking as he looked at her. “You don’t know what the hell you want, do you?”

Lily didn’t know what to make of Keilen then. She looked for guilt and found none, though she was sure he’d been with Malini. She looked for compassion and only saw regret. She looked for love and found indifference.

That ache inside her chest became a twisting agony that only sharpened when Keilen walked toward the door.

“Never thought you’d be the one to rip me up from the inside. Never once did I think it would be you.”

He watched her for a second longer, just enough that Lily almost stopped him, but the damaged had been done and just like that, fate intervened, and once again Keilen was out of her life.