“Well, I do. And you’re coming with me.” Julia stared at Annie until Annie shrugged and stood up.
“I’ll be right back.” With a glance over her shoulder at Serena, who must be so confused about why her friends were going to watch Julia pee, Annie walked into the bathroom and closed the door. “What was that?” she hissed at her friends in a whisper. “That was kind of rude.”
“Annie.” Izzy’s voice was quiet, the reception now stable. “How long have you known Serena?”
Annie’s voice was edged in impatience. “I told you: I just met her this afternoon. I mean, we saw each other yesterday at the beach, but this is the first time we’ve talked.”
“Why does she know so much about you?” Julia’s brows were knit together in concern.
“We’ve been talking for the last few hours. I told her a lot about my past. It was amazing. It’s as if we share a mind.” Annie shook her head. “What’s going on?”
Izzy frowned. “I don’t know. I just got this weird feeling. And I know Julia did too. She seems perfectly nice, but she seems too nice. Acting like she’s known you for years.”
“Izzy . . .” Annie started, but then she stopped. What was it that Serena had said that made her pause earlier? She frowned, and then it came to her: Serena had told Annie’s friends that Annie was volunteering at the humane society. But now that Annie thought about it, she hadn’t told Serena that. Had she? She’d told her about adopting Marley, but she didn’t remember saying anything about volunteering. But she must have; otherwise, how would Serena know that? And wait, had she told Serena what Brody had gotten Finn for his birthday? She’d thought she’d just been thinking about it, not saying it out loud. But how else would Serena have known that Finn had gotten a transformer car for his birthday? Was Annie once again doing things she couldn’t remember?
“What?” Julia was staring at her. “What’re you thinking?”
“Nothing.” Annie didn’t want to voice her suspicions out loud. It wasn’t even a suspicion. There had to be a good reason for all of it. She refused to believe that there was something sinister about Serena. There couldn’t be, not with the way they’d bonded. She trusted Serena, almost as much as she trusted Julia and Izzy. Which was saying a lot, since just a few hours ago, they’d been strangers.
“Annie?” Julia was looking at her with concern. And Izzy had his head cocked to the side, as if he were contemplating something. “Who is she? What’s she doing in your house?” Julia’s tone sent goose bumps up and down Annie’s arms.
“Don’t worry. Everything’s fine. Really. Um, I got to go. Check on this storm. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?” And with that, Annie ended the call before Julia or Izzy could protest. Annie needed answers. Her friends were right, even if she wouldn’t admit it out loud to them.
How did Serena know so many details about her life when Annie was almost positive that she hadn’t shared them with her? Or had she, and she was starting to lose it? She needed to know, for her own peace of mind. And there was only one way to find out. She had to ask Serena.
23
Annie marched out of the bathroom, her face resolute, ready to get to the bottom of this. There had to be a very good explanation. She trusted Serena, she really did. Maybe she’d told Serena these details when she was talking about the past and had forgotten. But that thought was scary too, because it would only reinforce that she was doing things she didn’t remember. Feeling a buzz of adrenaline rush through her body, she walked toward Serena, determined to get some answers.
But she halted when she found the woman huddled in a corner of the couch, her knees drawn to her chest. She’d bunched up her napkin and was crying into it, so softly that at first, Annie wasn’t sure what she was doing.
She went to her side. “Serena, what’s wrong? I’m sorry my friends were rude. We weren’t trying to hurt your feelings.” Annie touched her on the shoulder.
Serena raised her tearstained face. “It’s not you guys.” Tears dripped down her face and into her arms, which were crossed over her knees. She pointed to her phone. “I was just scrolling through my phone and saw pictures of my son. It made me sad.”
Annie sat next to Serena. “Your son? You have kids?” She hadn’t mentioned she had a son when they were talking about Finn.
Serena buried her face back into her arms so that her answer came out muffled. “I had a son. He died when he was almost a year old.”
Annie gazed at her new friend in dismay. What should she say? That had to be a parent’s worst nightmare. What words of comfort could she possibly give to someone who’d lost her baby? And this poor woman had already been through so much in her life. Annie’s head was fuzzy from the wine and this revelation, and she scrambled to find the right words.
“I’m so sorry.” That was all Annie could think of, hoping she could convey the depth of her sympathy with those three words.
“Thanks.” Serena picked up her head to look at Annie, her mascara pooling under her eyes. “He would have been four now. It was awful.”
“I’m sure it was.” Annie’s forehead wrinkled with concern. Impulsively, she reached out and hugged Serena, who clung to her for a moment. “Same age as Finn.” Her heart broke a little, thinking about losing Finn. “What happened? Do you want to talk about it?”
Serena pulled away and wiped her eyes with the napkin. “His name was Johnny. Danny and I were so proud of him. We weren’t married . . . I told you that. I got pregnant by accident, but we both wanted him. We were going to have such a great life together.” She sighed, the depth of her grief filling the room. “I found him in his crib a month before his first birthday. He wasn’t breathing. He was gone.”
“I’m so, so sorry.” Annie couldn’t think of anything else to say and winced at how trite the words sounded. “What a horrible thing to have happened to you.”
Serena turned tearstained eyes to Annie. “Danny blamed me. His whole family did. They think I did something to him, but I didn’t. It was sudden infant death syndrome. But Danny and his family said ninety percent of SIDS happens before six months of age, and Johnny was eleven months old.” She reached out and placed a hand on Annie’s arm. “I swear, I didn’t do anything. He had gone down for a nap, and when I went to check on him, I found him like that.”
“What a nightmare.” Annie shuddered involuntarily, thinking of what she would do if she ever found Finn unresponsive. As much as she had trouble bonding with him, she knew she would have been destroyed if that had happened to her son. She reached over and hugged Serena again. “I know words are inadequate, but I’m really so sorry for you.”
“Thank you.” Serena sniffed. “I’m sorry. I was just looking through my phone while I waited for you, and it hit me all over again when I saw the pictures.” Annie was about to ask to see them, but then Serena turned her phone facedown on the couch and took a big breath. “But I don’t want to be sad and bring you down.”