The Cousins(37)

I’m not really an architecture guy, but even I can appreciate how dramatic everything is. Not to mention massive. The place looks almost as big as Gull Cove Resort. For one person. My chest tightens, and once again, there’s nothing on earth I want more than to keep Anders Story from ever making his way back here. I hope he dies before he sets foot in the oceanfront palace he grew up in. Even if I have to kill him myself.

“Unbelievable,” Milly breathes, and my murderous thoughts evaporate. Mostly.

“I wonder what it’s like inside?” Aubrey says wistfully. The more time I spend around Aubrey, the more I think she couldn’t care less about the money. She just wants somebody in this messed-up family to give a shit about her.

“Guess we’ll find out Sunday,” Milly says, putting her foot back on the gas. Her words are casual, but her voice is tense as Catmint House disappears from view. Milly’s feelings about the Story family are harder to read. When she told Aubrey and me on the ferry that her mother bribed her with a diamond necklace, my first thought was: She’s shallow. She likes chasing shiny things, just like Anders Story. But she could’ve easily joined the über-rich Towhee crowd—that smarmy senator’s kid Reid Chilton obviously has a hard-on for her—and she hasn’t.



We drive a few more minutes in silence until Milly turns into a driveway, so long and winding that we can’t see the Baxterses’ huge colonial until we’re halfway down it. “Ooh, nice,” Aubrey says as we approach. “I saw online that this place used to belong to a whaling captain. It’s a historic landmark.”

“You saw online?” I echo, amused. “Doing a little light stalking?”

She shrugs. “Hazel seems to know a lot about us. It’s only fair.”

Milly eases the Jeep next to a black Range Rover and shifts into park. “So you guys will do all the talking, right?” I say as we climb out of the car.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Milly says airily. “It depends on what kind of questions Hazel asks, doesn’t it? Uncle Anders is a fascinating branch of the Story family tree.”

She’s enjoying my discomfort way too much.

Aubrey presses the doorbell, and we hear a muted “Be right there!” and the sound of footsteps before the door swings open to reveal Hazel. “Hi!” she says, stepping aside to let us in. Her eyes rove across each of us in turn, and I quickly drop mine. “You guys are right on time. I thought we could do the interview in our living room, if that’s okay? Granddad is already there.”



“Sure,” Aubrey says. We follow Hazel down a hallway that’s filled with what look like family pictures spanning several generations.

“Do you live with just your grandfather?” Milly asks.

“No, my mom lives here too. She moved back in after she and my dad got divorced a couple of years ago,” Hazel explains. We pass a formal parlor, and I’m glad we’re not talking there because all the chairs look like they belong in a museum. This conversation is going to be uncomfortable enough as it is. “She travels a lot in the summer, though. It works out, because I’m home then to spend time with Granddad.” She lowers her voice. “We have a live-in nurse, but his dementia seems to get worse with no family around.”

“You said he’s doing better today, though?” Aubrey asks in a hopeful whisper.

“Totally,” Hazel says as we step into a sun-filled room. It’s much more casual than the rest of the house, with couches lining the brightly painted walls. Her grandfather is sitting in a corner of the biggest couch, a wooden tray with a teapot and a cup in front of him. As soon as he lifts his eyes, I can see the difference from the guy we met downtown. His gaze isn’t sharp, exactly, but it’s a lot more focused. “Granddad, the Story kids are here,” Hazel says, crossing in front of him and pouring more tea into the cup. “This is Aubrey, Jonah, and Milly.”

“So nice to see you again, Dr. Baxter,” Milly says brightly. Aubrey echoes her greeting, while I shove my hands in my pockets and look at the floor. Operation Invisible, commenced.

“My goodness.” Dr. Baxter’s voice is faint. “I thought I must have misunderstood you, Hazel. But they really are here.” I look up then, catching an expression of mild alarm on his face before he forces a stiff smile. “How wonderful. Please excuse me for not getting up to greet you properly. I’m not as steady on my feet as I once was.”



“Do you guys want anything to drink?” Hazel asks. I shake my head as Milly and Aubrey murmur “No thanks,” and Hazel gestures around the room as she settles in next to her grandfather. “Have a seat wherever.”

I sit as far from Dr. Baxter as I can manage, but Aubrey does the opposite. She perches at the edge of the sofa that’s at a right angle to Dr. Baxter’s, so there’s just an end table between them. “I’m Adam’s daughter,” she says with a friendly smile. “He talks a lot about how you helped him get back in shape after he blew out his knee in high school.”

“Oh well.” Dr. Baxter wets his lips. “Adam was a very determined young man. Yes. He certainly was.”

Aubrey looks like she wants to say more, but Hazel picks up a notebook from the cushion beside her and speaks first. “So, I’m really curious,” she says, flipping the notebook open and pulling a pen from its spine. “What was it like growing up knowing that you would’ve had a completely different life if your parents hadn’t been cut off?”