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Blackstone Publishing Read Kindle PreviewThe lives of the three Emery sisters were changed forever when Alex, eleven at the time, found their mother drowned in the bathtub of their home. After their motherβs suicide, the girlsβ father shut down emotionally, leaving Alex responsible for caring for Colleen, then eight, and little Riley, just four. Now the girls are grown and navigating different directions. Alex, a nurse, has been traveling in India and grieving her struggle to have a child; Colleen is the devoted mother of preteens in denial that her marriage is ending; and Riley has been leading what her sisters imagine to be the dream life of a successful model in New York City. Decades may have passed, but the unresolved trauma of their motherβs death still looms over them, creating distance between the sisters. Then, on a March night, a storm rages near the coast of northeastern Massachusetts. Alex sits alone in an old farmhouse she inherited from a stranger. The lights are out because of the storm; then, an unexpected knock at the door. When Alex opens it, her beautiful younger sister stands before her. Riley has long been estranged from their family, prompting Colleen to hire the private investigator from whom theyβd been awaiting news. Comforted by her unexpected presence, Alex holds back her nagging questions: How had Riley found her? Wouldnβt the dirt roads have been impassable in the storm? Why did Riley insist on disappearing back into the night? After her mysterious visitation, Alex and Colleen are determined to reconcile with Riley and to face their painful past, but the closer they come to finding their missing sister, the more they fear theyβll only be left with Rileyβs secrets. An unforgettable story about grief, love, and what it means to be haunted, The Ocean in Winter marks the debut of a remarkable new voice in fiction. Excerpt The room becomes so quiet, the stillness itself takes a shape like thereβs another person in the room. And the truth is, there is another person between us, a person made of silence: our mother. Finally, I speak. βTell me about that day.β It is the question I ask every time, and she knows I will ask it this time too. βI donβt remember it. What happened?β Alex turns toward me, looks away for a moment, and bites her lip. Eventually, she speaks. βRiley,β she says, her face still turned away from mine. βI donβt like talking about it.β βI know,β I say. βBut I canβt remember her. Why donβt I remember, Alex?β βYou were little,β she says. βIt was 1989, twenty-five years ago this spring. Can you believe that? April second. Whatβs that? A month from yesterday.β βTwenty-five years,β I say. βTell me again. I was too young for school, right? So, why wasnβt I with her?β βYou were at a friendβs house,β she says. βWe picked you up on the way home from school.β βWhat did you see when you opened that door?β I ask. βShe was in the bathtub, right?β βDonβt do this, Riley,β she says, rubbing her eyes. βTry to remember who she was. She was a gifted artist. She loved you, loved all of us.β Her face looks strained as she says this. βThanks,β I say. βThatβs a lovely little speech.β I stand up to stretch my legs, then look out the window behind Alex. The darkness beyond is so thick and uninterrupted, itβs like being blind. Alex has never forgiven our mother for taking her own life, so I donβt buy the she-loved-you business. I lean into the window, a small seat there, and crumple myself up inside it. I donβt want to meet her eyes when we talk about this next part. βYou were eleven, right?β She wonβt say no to me for very long. Nobody does. Then finally, βYes, eleven. We were walking home, and I had to pee,β she says, standing. Her tone is matter-of-fact. βThatβs why I ran ahead of you and Colleen. I remember crashing through the front door and dreading that Mom would be mad at me for making too much noise.β She pauses and wanders over to the wall beside the empty fireplace, arms crossed, her face twisted in a kind of half grimace. The pain of remembering is written on her face, the anguish of crawling through a tunnel between then and now to see that they are the same time, the same place. You have walked many miles for many years, but you have not progressed from where you started. This is always the truth. βI ran upstairs and opened the door to the bathroom. And then . . .β She pauses. I look over at her; she has no expression and sheβs staring at the wall, spellbound. Like sheβs watching it all happen again. βWhat?β I ask. βThe metal doorknob, cold in my hand,β she says slowly, stretching the fingers of her right hand. βI was still holding it when I saw what was in the bathtub.β She laughs a little. βI didnβt need to pee anymore.β I look over at her, and the anguish on her face makes me cringe. βIβm sorry, Alex, I just want to understand. Was she . . . completely underwater?β I hate asking her to revisit that place, but I feel and have often felt like I need to be walked through these moments. I donβt understand what happened, and I canβt make myself believe it; I need to feel it through the eyes of the sister who went through it. I am so sorry, Alex. Alex nods. She does not cry as she talks about this, but she used to. βHer eyes were open. Her mouth was open. She didnβt look real, but I knew she was gone. And then in one instant, I knew . . . I couldnβt let you and Colleen see her like that. And I knew that everything in our lives that was good and easy was over.β βDid you think it had been an accident?β I ask. She shakes her head. βI knew it wasnβt,β she says. βShe was wearing a bathing suit. Why would someone wear a bathing suit in the bathtub? She knew somebody would find her. She must have known, actually, that one of us would find her. And you know she didnβt like the idea of her children seeing her naked in the bathtub, but it didnβt bother her so much that we might see her dead in the bathtub.β βMaybe she wasnβt thinking clearly,β I say. βMaybe all she knew in that moment . . . was pain.β Alex shakes her head and looks steely eyed straight ahead. βYouβre probably right. And I guess the part weβll never understand is why there was so much pain.β βNo, I think we never will,β I say, but my words falter in my throat as I speak. βAlex, do you ever hate her for what she did?β She hesitates, then speaks. βI used to. I always thought she wouldnβt have done it if she loved us.β Alex stops for a few moments, and I look over at her. She has not moved; her eyes are still firmly on that spot on the wall. βYou know, she was thirty-five when she died. Iβm a year older than she was then. My whole life, I thought the world would end when I turned thirty-five.β βBut the world didnβt end,β I say. βNo,β she says. βBut thatβs how old I was when I found out that I would never become a mother. So, in a way, it did.β Start Reading THE OCEAN IN WINTER Now
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