Where Are the Children Now?

Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook.Join our mailing list to get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UPAlready a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox. For William, Louis, Frederick, Emma, Katherine, Alexander, and Stella, the beloved great-grandchildren of the Queen of Suspense. PrologueShe could feel the damp evening winds coming in through the cracks around the windowpanes. Only a few years earlier, an incoming draft in this room—her childhood bedroom—would have been unthinkable. Her mother had a discerning eye for detail that would have twitched at the slightest imperfection in a home, especially if it affected the comfort of someone sleeping under her roof. And her father had been the best realtor on the Cape, the kind who had become an expert handyman over the years as an added service to his clients. But it wasn’t only the seams around the windowsills that had cracked lately in the Eldredge family.Eager to find sleep, Melissa stepped from the bed into her slippers and scuttled over to the window, not wanting to wake the rest of the house. After pulling the drapes closed, she took an extra blanket from the top of the closet, spread it over the bed, and then entered a reminder in her cell phone to have a handyman give the entire house a once-over before she returned to New York, just in case she could ever convince her mother to sell it.She was returning her phone to the nightstand when she got a new text message. Are you still awake?She smiled to herself, appreciating the fact that Charlie had stayed in constant contact with her in the four days she had been here. Barely, she replied.As much as they both traveled for work, he always checked in with her when he awoke in the morning and before going to bed at night. Any other ruffled feathers today?He was referring to the previous day’s “silly sibling dustup,” as her mother had called it dismissively. Given the seasonal nature of her brother Mike’s work, this was the first time he had been able to come back to the States since the funeral, and Melissa had driven up to the Cape to make it a family homecoming. All smiles and good behavior today. We visited the grave together.The historic cemetery down the road from Our Lady of the Cape Church was the setting of the country graveyard scene in the painting that hung over the piano in the living room, one of the numerous works of art that covered the home’s mellow, creamy walls. When her mother had painted that haunting row of headstones more than forty years earlier, the idea of someday burying her husband there must have seemed unimaginable.She paused, recalling Mike holding first their mother’s hand and then hers, as they stood at the foot of their father’s grave that afternoon. They were still family, no matter what. Family is family, Melissa added. She never used to utter a negative word about them until she started grief counseling. Every time the subject matter of the Eldredges arose—and what had happened in their past—she found herself growing quiet, but she was told that talking about your childhood was an essential part of therapy. Nevertheless, she felt guilty sometimes, wondering if she spoke too frequently during counseling about the small hiccups in the family to the exclusion of everything else that had been good. Today, at the grave, she had forgotten all about the occasional tensions and had been grateful once again for the wonderful life her parents had made possible for her.She saw dots on the screen, indicating that Charlie was typing a new text. Speaking of family, have I told you lately I can’t wait for you to be my wife? Only two more months.He had proposed to Melissa only two weeks ago, and she had immediately said yes. It had been her mother’s idea for them to get married on the one-year anniversary of her father’s passing, even though it meant a very short engagement. The ceremony would be smaller than small—just the bride and groom, immediate family, and a few friends.She found herself smiling as she typed a reply, as she always did when she thought about her future with him. I was going to wait until tomorrow to tell you, but I passed the cutest little winery today. I know we said the courthouse, but maybe…? She hit Send and then attached the photographs she had taken when they stopped on the way home from the cemetery to share a toast to her father.Only seconds later, her phone rang in her hand. An incoming FaceTime call from Charlie. “Well, hello there!” she chirped as his face appeared on the screen. He had close-cropped dark hair and clear blue eyes. And today, he sported a few days of facial hair across his square jaw.“Too much texting,” he said. “If we’re talking wedding details, I at least want to see my fiancée.”“You got the pictures I sent of the winery?”“I did, and it’s absolutely perfect. That view is unbelievable!”“But we already said we’d keep things simple and go to the courthouse.”“You were the one who was adamant about that.”Not long ago, Melissa had believed that she would have a big, formal wedding with a reception at an iconic New York City venue—perhaps the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park or the Rainbow Room overlooking Rockefeller Center. But when she had those dreams, she had imagined her father walking her down the aisle—and a man other than Charlie waiting for her at the altar. It didn’t seem right to transfer her previous bridal fantasies onto a different relationship. Still, though, there might be something in between a fairy-tale wedding and the city courthouse. A small outdoor event at the winery on