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“She’s just angry. She’ll come to her senses
when she realizes that Jon actually remained faithful.”

“Go home, Aryl. Forgive each other and let it
go. It’s not worth it to let it destroy your marriage.”

“That’s so much easier said than done,” Aryl
said, reaching for the brandy, but Caleb snatched it out of the
way.

“I’ll pour you one for the road, and you can
drink it on your way up the stairs.”

“Well, maybe we should think of a way to help
Jon out of this mess?”

“Aryl. It’s my week. Go home.”

“It’s your week and you’re the only one who’s
not in trouble. How do you rate?” he said, seeing himself to the
door.

∞∞∞

The next morning, the men were exhausted on
the walk to work. Jon and Aryl slept poorly from silent tension
that hung heavy in their homes, and Caleb had hardly slept, trying
to make the most of the safe week.

“You know she’ll come around, Jon,” Caleb
said out of the blue. Jon didn’t answer, still angry at him for
slamming the door in his face.

As they walked into the shipping yard, there
was a restless look on many faces and a nervous bustling as
everyone hurried about their work. Caleb noticed it right away and
suggested Aryl go talk to Roman to see what was going on. Aryl went
to his office only to find him in a meeting. Roman looked very
upset and was extremely animated in whatever he was trying to
convey to the suits.

Aryl walked back out to the work area and
stopped a couple of guys.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking around
at all the uneasy faces and the noticeable lack of day workers
being let in the side gate.

“There’s talk of layoffs. It’s got everyone
on edge. Saturday work isn’t going to resume any time soon either.”
They continued on their way and left Aryl with a fresh worry to add
to his pile.

∞∞∞

Jonathan and Aryl quietly worked together.
Close to lunchtime, Jon turned to Aryl.

“You know, I was thinking about the night I
got jumped. I was pretty lucky, I guess, with Sven being there and
all.”

“Yeah, I guess you were,” Aryl agreed.

“But what if there’s a next time? And what if
I’m not so lucky?” Jonathan asked calmly.

“There isn’t going to be a next time, Jon.
Don’t worry about it.” He went back to pulling bags of flour off
the top of the pallet.

“But what if there is? I got to thinking; I
wondered what would happen to Ava if something happened to me? I
never really thought about that before.”

“Nothing is going to happen to you, Jon.
Except maybe get fired for talking when you should be working,” he
snapped.

“Okay, but what if?” He went back to slinging
bags of flour while he talked. “If something did happen to me; I
get jumped, hit by a bus, an accident at work. It would be nice to
know that Ava would be taken care of. I mean, you would, right?
Take care of her like a sister until she remarried?” Jon asked
outright. Aryl was visibly uncomfortable with the topic.

“Of course, Jon.”

“I mean, I’d do that for you. Take care of
Claire like a sister, if anything ever–”

“I know you would, Jon. And I would take care
of Ava.”

“You promise?”

“Yes, I promise, Jon. Now please get back to
work before you get us both fired.”

“Okay.” Jonathan doubled his pace. “Hey,
don’t say anything to Caleb or anyone about this, okay? I guess I’m
just a little paranoid with what happened recently.”

“I won’t say anything,” Aryl promised. “Lemme
ask you something. Say, for example, after Ava found out about
Elyse, she then told you about something similar that she had been
hiding. How would you feel?”

“I’d probably feel a little strange if she’d
kept a woman in Paris.”

“I’m serious, Jon. Say you stepped out and
begged her forgiveness, but then she told you about her stepping
out as well. You’re both guilty. What would you do?”

“Jump up and down, thank my lucky stars.”

“Dammit, Jonathan, I’m serious!”

“So am I. If it were even, it would be over.
We would have to forgive each other to be forgiven. All the chips
wouldn’t be on her side of the table. I wouldn’t be stuck trying to
figure out a way to convince her of something I have no way to
prove. I’d take even ground any day. She says she’s going to
Maura’s after Christmas,” he said. Aryl searched for what to
say.

“She’ll come around, Jon. She’s just angry.
Caleb and I can talk to her.”

“Nah. It won’t do any good.”

∞∞∞

Claire spent the morning working on the
mural. She had finished Shannon’s angel, wrapped it in brown paper,
and set it against the wall by the door. She had run out of black
paint but she found that the cooled embers from the previous
night’s fire worked well as a substitute for the paint. She spent
the entire morning extending the storm front until it completely
surrounded the lighthouse and loomed over the beach cottage
menacingly. She amplified the torrent of the white-tipped waves to
show them churning and swirling out in the open ocean, thrashing
the sandy shore and painted the crashing water higher around the
rocks at the base of the lighthouse. The once vibrant light from
the beacon was made dimmer and extended now only a few inches
before being swallowed by the storm.

After admiring it for a few moments, she felt
satisfied and then decided to visit Ava. She debated all morning
whether or not to go, knowing that Ava needed a shoulder right now,
but also knowing she would learn details about Elyse that she
wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She washed the black soot off her
hands and changed out of her painting smock.

∞∞∞

Claire sat with Ava on the couch while she
cried and told Claire everything.

“You honestly don’t believe him? That nothing
happened?” Claire asked.

“No. And even if I did, he felt sorry for me
the same way he felt sorry for her, and I can’t live with that.
Ruth said he was always taking in pitiful things he felt sorry for.
It’s no wonder he acts like he does around me and then dreams about
her,” Ava said with a sniffle.

“I don’t think it’s you, Ava. I think it’s
this life that makes him act this way.”

“I wrote Maura and asked her if I can go to
her after the holidays. I want to go now, but I won’t interrupt her
family’s Christmas.”

“Ava, are you sure you want to do that?”

“Yes,” she said, resolved.

“All because he didn’t tell you about an
arrangement he had long before you?” Claire asked.

“Yes. And for the reason that I will never
know what really happened on that last trip.”

“I know Jonathan. He wouldn’t lie to you,
Ava.” Claire said with confidence, but Ava didn’t answer. “This
affects Aryl and I as well, you know,” she said quietly.

“How?”

“On the trip with Ruth. When things didn’t go
well with Elyse. Aryl was there, and at some point, I guess Elyse
found him. She was all broken up about Jon. Aryl told me they spent
the night together,” Claire said through her teeth. Ava’s mouth
fell open.

“What?”

“And then I told him about Steven.”

“You didn’t!”

“I did. And he was furious. I’m not sure
anything will be the same after this. He didn’t say anything to me
all evening or this morning.”

“I guess all the cats are flying out of the
bag this week,” Ava said sarcastically and sat back, crossing her
arms. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. All I can think of is this
woman, who from thousands of miles away, managed to completely
disrupt two homes.”

“Destroy is more like it,” Ava said
gravely.

“Don’t you wonder what she looks like? All
morning I wondered. And the more I tried to imagine her, the more
furiously I painted. I had to try to think of something else when I
realized my whole wall was almost black with storm clouds.”

“I need to come see your mural. I haven’t
seen it in a while,” Ava said. “And yes. I wonder what she looks
like.”

“I guess we’ll never know,” Claire said. “I
doubt the men would give us an accurate description.”

“But you know who would? Someone who saw her
several times.” They locked eyes.

“Arianna.”

∞∞∞

“You’re the only one who will tell us the
truth,” Ava said sitting at the table, waiting for answers. Arianna
procrastinated by making tea as slowly as she could before sitting
down at the table with her friends.

“Yes, but last time–”

“Last time I got mad at you. I know. What
happened isn’t your fault. I just felt betrayed that you never told
me.”

“Would you have told me?” Arianna asked.

“Yes. Absolutely.”

“You would have looked me in the eyes when I
was the happiest I had ever been, when I was completely in love
with someone so perfectly compatible, you would have told me?" Ava
looked down, seeing her point. “I couldn’t, Ava. Even if Jon hadn’t
begged, pleaded with me, and made me swear that I wouldn’t ever
breathe a word of it to you, I couldn’t have done that. He was so
happy, and you two were so perfect for each other. I decided the
first time I ever saw you together that I could never ruin
that.”

“Did you know about Aryl as well?” Claire
asked.

“No, what about him?” Arianna asked and
sipped her tea. Claire filled her in on Aryl’s confession, and
Arianna’s eyes grew wider and wider.

“Claire,” she straightened, intent on saving
at least one marriage today. “He was always so good on all the
trips with us. I felt sorry for him with couples all round, and he
missed you so much. There was even one time,” she began with a
laugh, “when a woman did approach him. She sat down next to him at
our table, clearly enamored with him. Well, he went on so much
about you that she got bored and left on her own. He talked about
you all the time, Claire. I don’t know what happened on that last
trip, but I can reassure you, I saw nothing out of character from
him all the other times,” Arianna promised. Claire was grateful for
her reassurance and remembered times when her friends in Boston
would groan and complain because of the amount of time she spent
talking about Aryl.

“We came here for a description,” Ava
reminded Arianna.

“C’mon, no good can come of this. Just please
go home and try to make things right. Leave the details alone.”

Claire was willing to do that as her heart
was already softening. She just wanted all of this to be over, but
Ava was insistent.

“I need to know.”

“You’re not going to like it, Ava. I wish you
wouldn’t make me do this,” Arianna begged.

“I know she’s more beautiful than me. That
won’t be a shock,” she said, casting her eyes down in
humiliation.

“No. It’s not that. That’s the thing. She
looks just like you, Ava,” Arianna said with an apologetic
tone.

“What do you mean she looks just like
me?”

“She has dirty-blond hair, light-brown eyes,
she’s the same height as you, and even her build is the same. Of
course, she wore wigs and a pound of makeup, but her natural look
is very similar to yours.”

She sat dumbstruck at Arianna’s table; her
tea growing cold in her hands. Part of her was relieved that there
was nothing to be jealous of in a physical aspect, but this
revelation planted the seed of doubt that Jonathan didn’t really
love her so much as he loved how she reminded him of Elyse.

∞∞∞

This new insecurity preoccupied her thoughts
the rest of the evening, and she didn’t acknowledge Jonathan when
he came home, as they ate, or as she went to bed early, leaving him
on the couch with his far off gaze. He silently watched her walk
into the bedroom and then fixed his eyes on the fire again.

He went over the small list he had compiled
in his mind. He had gotten Aryl’s promise to care for Ava today,
and he would easily get Caleb’s tomorrow. He knew how, but he still
needed to figure out when and where. He could take a walk one
evening, slip into an alley and hide behind a dumpster, but the
small, tattered shred of dignity he still held turned him from the
idea of being discovered by strangers, gawking with pity. No, he
wouldn’t hide in an alley, he would do it here. He needed Ava to be
gone. She couldn’t be allowed to find him. The only time she would
be gone for any amount of time would be Christmas Eve. She would be
at Maura’s for dinner and mass. It would be easy to make an excuse
to catch up, and then leave a clue for Aryl to find later, so he
would prevent her from coming home.

It all fell together in his mind as he went
over the final details of his plan. He felt a wave of relief wash
over him with his final decision. He only briefly worried about
what would come after, knowing the widespread belief of what
happens to the souls of those who take their own lives. He
remembered the truth Charles spoke on the night he was attacked. He
loved Ava more than his own soul. So, he supposed it didn’t really
matter what happened after the fact.

He peeked in the bedroom to watch her sleep.
She would, in time, remarry into better circumstances and be happy
again. He was sure of it. He quietly readied for bed and lay down
at peace with his decision. It would all be over soon.

∞∞∞

Caleb trudged home, completely worn-out. He
had worked at a rapid pace all day, working through lunch and
breaks. Aryl had started feeling poorly earlier that morning, and
Caleb had tried to do some of his share of the work, so the
supervisors wouldn’t notice the lag. It wasn’t wise to stand out in
a negative way or you risked being let go. With the plan Aryl had
cultivated and organized this last week, Caleb knew neither one of
them could afford to miss a single day of work. Aryl had everything
worked out down to the penny, and it looked more promising than
anything they had talked about previously.