Her teary eyes flew open, and they immediately began searching the room for a sign that someone had been there with her. She sat up in bed, heart pounding, and threw her legs over the edge, running down the hall, through the living room, and into the kitchen. What she was expecting to see, she didn't know. She hoped to see her grandma still there, standing beside a plate of half-eaten mac and cheese. But the room was empty, as was the rest of the house. Her shaking fingers ran themselves through her messy ginger hair, and she felt like she had completely lost her mind.

It was a dream. Just a dream. But it had seemed so real. She could practically taste the mac and cheese in her mouth still. Could feel her grandma's warm arms around her. Could feel her breath tickling her cheek. She closed her eyes, trying to picture it. As if remembering it was enough to bring it back. To start it over. She tried to think back to everything her grandma had said. Something about going to the graveyard. The meteor shower. And how there was no such thing as goodbye.

She blinked back more tears, smiling at those last few words. Maybe it was a dream, but that didn't mean it wasn't real. And if she knew her grandma, she knew she would haunt her until the day she died if she didn't obey her wishes. So she ran to the bathroom, took a quick shower, got dressed in a white dress with patterned sleeves, and slid on a pair of white sandals. Then she rushed out the front door, making her way to the graveyard. It was a bit of a cloudy night, and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to see any meteors at all. But her grandma had promised her things would clear up, and eventually she'd be able to see everything clearly. So she decided to take Elsie Collins at her word, even though part of her doubted whether this was all just her being crazy or not.

When she reached the graveyard, she began walking directly to the place where the names of her family members were etched in stone. It was dark out, as most of the lights from the sky were covered by clouds. She frowned, wondering if this was pointless or not, and rested on the grass in front of her family's headstone. Her eyes scanned the sky, hoping for some sign that the clouds would break soon. No matter what happened, she really did want to see the meteor shower. And she felt a pang in her chest as she remembered who had originally invited her to the shower. It had been Zeke's idea. But now he was probably halfway out of town. Leaving her, and all of them, probably forever.

There's no such thing as goodbye. Her grandma's words echoed back at her, and she wondered if she would ever see Zeke again. Probably not, but maybe someday. If he beat his disease. Then again, she doubted he would ever come back to the island. Not after the fight they'd had in the hospital. She continued to stare up at the sky, seeing little breaks in the clouds here and there and watching closely for meteors. This was silly. It was a dream. An image her unconscious mind had sent her to torture her some more. To remind her of what she'd lost already. Of what she was losing now.

She closed her eyes, heaving a deep sigh, and decided to give up. It was too cloudy. There was no way she'd be able to see the meteor shower tonight. She shook her head in frustration and got to her feet, wiping the grass off her dress as she did. And just as she turned to leave, her jaw dropped when she saw a very familiar woman with long dark brown hair and deep, sad eyes walking toward her. Makayla was there, and she seemed just as surprised to see Emersyn at the graveyard as Emersyn was to see her. The two women stared at each other for a long moment, nether one knowing what to say.

"I thought you went home," Emersyn said, breaking the silence at last. Her mother gave her a tight smile and shook her head. "Oh. Well, what are you doing here?"

Makayla inhaled a sharp breath, running her fingers through her long hair anxiously. "I... I don't know, honestly. With everything going on the last few days... Kiel told me about your friend, and it just made me think...," she trailed off, and Emersyn was surprised at how flustered she seemed. Normally her mom looked so tight and put together. She rarely showed emotion at all, unless it was disappointment or anger. "I haven't been here since the funeral, you know. And I just... wanted to come and visit. I guess."

Latent anger boiled up inside of Emersyn. How dare this woman come and visit her father after everything she'd done. After all the lies and deception. After that awful affair. "Well, I was just leaving. So go ahead and take as much time as you need," she snapped, and her mother winced at the tone of her words. "Goodbye, Makayla."

She turned away from her mother and began heading toward the graveyard gates. But before she'd even taken two steps, her mom cried out, "Wait! Just... hold on a minute. Now that you're here... maybe we could have that talk we were supposed to have at dinner the other night?"

Emersyn froze. She couldn't believe the audacity of this woman. Her body began shaking with barely suppressed rage, and she whipped around to glare at her mother. Makayla's tense smile fell into a sad frown, and she averted her eyes from her daughter, looking down at her feet with apparent shame. "You want to talk? Sure, let's talk. Let's hang it all out to dry, Makayla. First, I was three years old when my father died. Three years old! And you left me! You forgot about me my whole life. I waited for you. I prayed for you to come back. To want to be my mother. And you just couldn't do it. Not until you had to."

Makayla grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut. "That's not exactly how it happened."

"That's exactly how it happened," Emersyn snapped back, and her mom flinched. "Exactly! And even when you did have to take me in, you clearly didn't want me. You showed no interest in my life at all. And I wanted you to love me. I changed things about myself so you would love me. I broke contact with everyone from home, because I didn't want any of them to distract me from you. And then we had that awful fight, and you told me how much of a disappointment I was to you. How disappointed my dad would've been in me."

Her mother shook her head. "I shouldn't have said that."

"No, you shouldn't have," Emersyn growled, her anger reaching a boiling point. "And to be honest, you shouldn't even speak about my father. You don't deserve to. Not after everything you did to him."

This surprised Makayla, who finally looked up at her daughter. But her eyes weren't filled with shame anymore. They were filled with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Denying it to the end. Classic Makayla Collins. "I found your journal, Makayla. And I know all about the affair. About how you cheated on my dad, got pregnant, and had an abortion. And you said you never wanted to be a mother anyway. Which, honestly, explains why you never actually were a mother to me. I can't believe I wasted so much time praying for you to come back to me. Pointless. What a waste of time."

She turned to leave, deciding she had nothing else to say, when her mother shouted out, "I never had an affair on your father!" Emersyn rolled her eyes and turned back to her mother, ready to argue more. But Makayla didn't seem nervous, like someone had just outed her darkest secret. She looked genuinely confused, like she had no idea what she was talking about. "Emersyn, I have no idea who told you I had an affair on your father, but I can promise you, that... that never happened. I would never have done that. Ever."

Emersyn's blood ran cold, and she wasn't sure she believed her. "But... but the journal said...." She trailed off, unsure what to say. Her mother's words had been so clear in the journal. How could she have been so mistaken?

Makayla shook her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said sincerely. "I met your dad when I was twelve years old and fell so madly in love with him. Everyone around us called it puppy love, but we knew better. It was the real deal. It was real from the start. We dated all through middle school and high school We went to prom together. He pulled me outside on prom night and brought me to a place in the high school courtyard that he had decorated with lights and flowers to spell the words 'Will you marry me?' I said yes, and we were married three weeks after our high school graduation.

"And as far as me never wanting to be a mother, well... I don't know where you got that idea from, because I wanted a baby so bad. I wanted to try the day we got married, but your dad convinced me to hold off until we graduated from college. Obviously, we didn't wait. We had you a few years later. But it was because he'd decided he didn't want to wait anymore. You weren't an accident, Emersyn. You were very much wanted."

blinked, shocked by her mother's words. "Okay, so what happened then? Why did you leave me, if you wanted me so badly?"

Pain flashed across her mother's face, and she turned in the direction of the headstone. "Your dad died. You probably don't remember that day, but we were on our way back home from watching a meteor shower when we saw a house on fire. Your dad was a volunteer fireman, so he ran inside to save the family. I begged him not to go inside the house. Pleaded with him. But he promised me he'd be right back. So I let him go, and then I watched the house fall on top of him. And just like that, I was a young widow with a three year old little girl to take care of. A single mom, something I never thought I would be.

"I spent weeks in bed at your grandparents' house," she continued, and Emersyn saw her eyes were glazed over with tears. "It was like I'd lost my will to live. And I kept snapping at you, because you were three years old, and you just didn't understand the pain I was going through. I'd just lost the love of my life. So your grandma convinced me to take a break. Said she would look after you while I was gone. And I was only planning on being gone for a couple weeks. But then that turned into a month. Which turned into a year. I started doing drugs and drinking to mask the pain I was feeling. And I told myself I couldn't come back to the island until I was clean. So I spent years working on myself. Building myself back up into someone who would deserve to be your mother again.

"I went to rehab. Got clean. Started going to therapy. And decided to go back to college. But no matter what I did, I truly felt like I wasn't good enough. What kind of mother leaves her own daughter, right?" Emersyn didn't have anything to say to this, because she'd asked herself this same question for years. "But I believed you were better off without me. I was a total mess. And I had no right to come back unless I had gotten myself together completely.

"And then I was told your grandma was sick, and she couldn't take care of you anymore. I was heartbroken about Elsie, but I was excited to have you back. I went out and bought as much stuff as I could to decorate your room. I put posters of things I imagined little girls liked all over the walls. I painted the room pink. Tried my best to make the space special for my little girl. But when I met you again, I was surprised to see that you weren't a little girl anymore. You were a young woman, who had suffered more than I could've imagined. Who looked so scared to be away from the only place you'd ever known as home. So I went back to the apartment and took everything back to the store, thinking we could decorate your room together when you finally moved in.

"But when you got there, you looked so hurt," Makayla said, and Emersyn could see a rogue tear sliding down her cheek. "And I wanted to hold you and tell you it was going to be okay, but I didn't know how. You were nothing like the little girl I remembered. You were different. So I tried to mold you into this version of you I thought you should be, ignoring how bad it made you feel in the process. And then you dropped out of school, and I said those horrible things to you. Things I never should have said, because they weren't true. Your father would be so proud of you. It's me he'd be disappointed in. Because I left you to figure it out on your own. And Emersyn, I am... so... unbelievably... ashamed."

Hard, choking sobs escaped Makayla's throat, and she fell to the ground, burying her face in her hands. Emersyn was stunned to see her mother like this. So broken. And in all the years she'd sat by the window at the front door waiting for her mother to come back, she never imagined that maybe there was a reason she wasn't. For so long she'd thought her mom didn't come back because she wasn't good enough. But it was the opposite. She didn't come back because... because... she thought she deserved something better.

Moonlight broke through the clouds, and when she looked up at the night sky, she saw the clouds had finally broken. A vast sky full of stars appeared above them, and her jaw dropped as she saw the glowing streaks of light passing by all around them. Her grandma had said that when the clouds cleared up, everything would brighten up, and she'd be able to see everything more clearly. And everything was, indeed, coming into focus for the first time in a really long time.

Emersyn sucked in a breath and took a few tentative steps toward the crying woman on the ground. Then she got down on her knees and reached for her mother's hands, pulling them away from her tear-streaked face. "I thought...," she swallowed hard, afraid to say what was in her heart. But her mother had just spilled her soul to her, and so she felt she had to do the same. "I thought I wasn't good enough. That you didn't love me the way I was, so I tried to be different. But then I felt so depressed, because I wasn't being myself. And what was worse, I believed you wouldn't love me if I showed you who I really was. When I dropped out, and you said everything you said, it just confirmed it all for me. That I was the reason you never came back."

Her mother shook her head. "Emmy, no," she said, wiping at her eyes. "It was never you. And about the things I said... I saw your art in the trashcan. I stopped by your house to check on you and saw your pieces. They are so beautiful. I can't believe how talented you are. I'm... I'm so proud of you. And I love every part of you. I just want you to succeed. To have a great life. Because after everything you've gone through... after everything I put you through, you deserve it." She looked Emersyn in her green eyes, took in a tiny breath, and said, "I love you, Emmy. I hope you can someday forgive me for leaving. Just know that not a day went by that I didn't think about you. You are my life. My brightest star."

Emersyn's eyes filled with tears as she threw her arms around her mother, and for the first time, her mother returned her embrace. They sat on the ground together for a long time, holding onto each other under the passing meteors, the stars twinkling above them. And Emersyn knew her dad must be looking down at them and smiling. Finally, after over a decade of being broken, his family was starting to come together again. It was everything Emersyn had ever wanted. Ever needed. And she felt a weight she'd been carrying since she was three years old lift off her shoulders. Her mother loved her. Her mother wanted her. And that was all she could've ever asked for.

But there was still one question remaining. Emersyn pulled away, wiping her eyes and snot with her sleeve, and said, "Okay, so that journal wasn't yours then?"

Makayla shook her head, cleaning her face with her sleeve as well. "No. I honestly have no idea what journal you're talking about."

"I couldn't read all the entries," Emersyn said. "Most of them had faded. But they were all signed with the initials MT, so I assumed it was yours. Makayla Townsend? And it talked about how she'd had a love affair with a man named Ed."

Her mom furrowed her brow, clearly confused. But then it was like a lightbulb had gone off over her head. "Oh! I know who the journal belonged to." Emersyn's eyes widened. "I bet you anything it was Mona's journal."

Mona. That name. Why did it ring a bell? "Mona?" she asked, trying to think of where she'd heard that name before. "Who is Mona?"

Makayla chucked. "Mona Thatcher. She was a girl who was here for one summer back when we were all in our early twenties."

Emersyn's heart started pounding in her chest, although she didn't quite understand why. "Okay, so if the journal belonged to this Mona Thatcher, then who was Ed?"

Her mother smiled at her, and despite the questions still racing through Emersyn's mind, she couldn't help but grin at the sight. She'd never seen her mom smile like that before. Like she had no worries. And Emersyn realized she wasn't the only one who felt weightless after their emotional conversation. "It wasn't Ed. It was ED. Initials." Emersyn raised her eyebrows, even more confused, but somehow still feeling excited. She felt like she was on the cuff of a major discovery, but she didn't know what it was. "ED stood for Ezekiel Daniels."

Ezekiel. Mona. Thatcher. It was all coming together, and for the first time she was starting to get the full picture. But she had one more question that needed to be answered before she could see the whole image. "Who is Ezekiel Daniels?"

Makayla made a face, as if the answer was right in front of her. "Ezekiel Daniels is your Uncle Kiel."

Ezekiel. Mona. Thatcher. Kiel. Zeke.

And BAM! The puzzle came together in Emersyn's head. And suddenly she knew she had all the answers she'd been looking for the whole summer. All those hours spent cleaning gravestones, looking for Zeke's dead father. And the reason they'd never found him was because his father wasn't dead. He was very much alive.

And Zeke had been living with him all summer.

Chapter Thirty-Six

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