Chapter Four

Rosalie's POV

I took an overnight bus out of Philadelphia. Just before dawn, I got to Harbor Point, a little seaside town in Maine.

Marian Foster's bakery was still on the hill down by the docks. The bell over the door was new, but the smell from the ovens was exactly the same as when I was a teenager.

She'd been Mom's friend for decades, and her hair had gone completely white.

She saw me standing at the door with a half-empty duffel bag. She didn't ask a single question. She just pushed the door open a little wider and let me in.

Before I could say a word, I started crying.

When I married Silas, Marian was the one who fought it the hardest. On the morning of the wedding, she was still arguing with me over the phone.

"Rosalie, there's always another way to get the money. Don't bet your whole life on this."

"Wives in families like that look like they have it all. But everything they eat and wear is handed to them. The day they decide to stop giving, you won't have any say in it."

Back then, I just thought she was being stubborn. Now I knew she'd been right about every word.

In the first couple of years, Silas used to say he liked that I wasn't like the spoiled daughters from other families. I was happy with whatever he gave me.

Then Tessa showed up at his side.

She'd chat with people in the family and mention that I grew up in a bad neighborhood. That Mom and I had lived on welfare when I was a kid. That I'd never seen real money, so I needed to learn how the Cranes did things.

After that, every dollar I spent and every piece of clothing I wore needed someone else's okay.

Marian waited until I'd mostly cried it out. Then she slid a cup of warm milk in front of me.

"You still remember how to bake?"

I just stared at her.

"My helper moved back home last month, so I'm short a pair of hands. We start at four in the morning. You in?"

When I didn't answer right away, she raised an eyebrow. "What, you got used to sleeping in at that big mansion? Can't get up anymore?"

I wiped my face and couldn't help smiling. "I can get up. This time I'm doing it for me."

"Then quit crying," she said, getting up to turn off the oven. "There's an empty room upstairs. Go get some sleep. First thing tomorrow, I'll teach you how to knead dough all over again."

At first, I was always a step behind. My dough overproofed, and my sourdough came out too hard. The baking sheets left red burns all over the backs of my hands.

But my body seemed to remember more than my head did. In less than a month, it all came back.

Regulars in town started asking specifically for the bread I made. The old fishing captain who delivered our fish even told Marian, right to her face, that the sourdough here was better than hers now.

Marian just huffed. But when she turned around, she quietly slipped a pay stub into my apron pocket.

On Saturday morning, the shop was packed. Lily, the high school girl who helped out on weekends, was working the register. I was carrying out a tray of fresh croissants to put on the shelves.

The bell over the door rang, and I heard a familiar voice.

"Rosalie?"

I looked up. Tessa was standing in the doorway in a sharp beige suit with a tablet in her hand.

Her eyes went from my flour-covered apron to the fishermen waiting in line at the counter.

"I was wondering why you suddenly wanted a divorce. Guess you never really changed. You ran right back to a place like this to hang out with people like them."

She even took half a step back, like she was afraid the flour would get on her shoes.

Everyone in line turned to look. I set down the tray and stopped smiling.

We got up before dawn to work. Sure, we smelled like flour. But she had no right to look down on us for it.

"Tessa, are you following me or something? Why do you keep showing up everywhere I go?"

Tessa's face stiffened. Then the door opened behind her again.

"What's going on?"

Silas walked in, still damp from the sea air. He'd probably just come back from looking at the land over at the harbor.

Tessa's eyes went red right away, and her voice turned soft.

"It's nothing... The Donna's been gone over a month without a word. When I saw her, I just wanted to talk her into coming home. I didn't think she'd take it the wrong way."

That was when Silas noticed me behind the counter.

He frowned with a look that said, I knew it. "Giving Tessa attitude again? If you want to come home, fine. Apologize to her first."

I didn't bother answering. I turned around and started putting the croissants on the shelf one by one.

Lily leaned over and whispered, "Who is that?"

"My ex-husband. He thinks he's always right, and he's never respected anyone in his life."

Silas's face went dark. "Rosalie! How long are you going to hide out here and keep this up?"

"You ran off without a word for over a month. Your mother's still lying in that hospital, and you haven't even asked about her once. Do you actually want me to cut off her treatment?"

I turned back and looked at him. I just felt tired.

"Go ahead. It's not like it'd be the first time."

The look in my eyes got to him. He couldn't tell if he was more angry or more scared.

He pulled out his phone right there, and Tessa went pale.

"Silas, don't..."

He brushed her hand off his arm. "If I don't teach her a lesson today, she'll never learn how to be a Crane woman."

The call went through fast. He gave the order to his right-hand man, his voice cold.

"Have the hospital stop all of Rosalie's mother's treatment. Right now."

There were a few seconds of silence on the other end before the man spoke.

"...Rosalie's mother?"

"Don, didn't she pass away last month?"