Chapter 1
Five minutes after her mother and sister pull out of the driveway, Hallie is lying on her bed, hugging Cuppy tightly, not bothering to wipe away the tears slipping down her cheeks. Chessy comes in and sits on the edge of her bed and asks gently, "Honey, do you want to talk?" But Hallie just shakes her head.
She knows that once, not long ago, talking to Chessy about her problems would have been good enough for her. After all, for most of her life, Chessy was the closest thing she had to a mother. But now, everything is different. Now Hallie knows that she has a real mother – her very own warm, wonderful, caring mother. After years of dreaming, wondering, and imagining what her mother would be like, she actually met her face-to-face. Spoken to her. Thrown her arms around her like she would never let go. How can she possibly go back to life without her?
The life she led for so long seems empty to her now. She hasn't been living with Dad and Chessy and Sammy anymore. She's been living without Mom and Annie and Grandpa and Martin.
It's enough to make her wish she had never gone to camp, never found Annie, never even gone to London and met her mother. Because if those things had never happened, she wouldn't be hurting so much now.
Hallie sniffles and lets out a hiccuping sob. A few more tears slide down and drop onto her pillowcase. It's all my fault, she thinks bitterly, because it was all my idea. She remembers that night in camp when she sat straight up in bed, giddy and flushed with excitement at the thought of switching places with Annie. My brilliant beyond brilliant idea.
-x-
Ten minutes after his ex-wife and daughter pull out of the driveway, Nick is rummaging around in his wine cellar. He has no idea what he's doing or why he's doing it as he yanks bottles off shelves, reads their labels in the dim light, and shoves them back in a different order. He just knows that he has to stay busy, that he'll do anything to avoid thinking about what just happened. After years of missing Lizzie, years of not knowing Annie, he came that close to getting them back – only to lose them. Again.
Nick's so preoccupied that he doesn't notice Hallie coming down the stairs. She's looking for him – He's the one person in the world who must feel as bummed-out as I do right now, she thinks – and she knew that he would be down here, but she's surprised by the loud noises of clinking glass. She's never heard her dad handle the wine bottles roughly. He's usually so gentle with them. As Hallie crosses the floor, Nick doesn't even notice her until she's standing right next to him.
"Hey, Hal," he says softly, turning to look at her. At the sight of her tear-stained face, he feels a rush of guilt – This is all my fault, he thinks bitterly – and a desperate urge to cheer her up. So he tousles her red hair and says, "You know, kiddo, when your eyes and nose get red, makes it seem like you're red all over."
Nick chuckles without smiling and watches Hallie hopefully for her reaction. But even for her dad's sake, Hallie can't pretend to be cheered up. Her expression remains mournful, and looking at her, the thought suddenly slams into Nick like a wall: My jokes aren't good enough for her anymore, he realizes. Life with me will never be good enough for her again. She needs her mother. And her sister. And her grandfather.
And just as suddenly, the idea appears in his mind, already perfectly planned, fully thought-out. Electrified, Nick grabs Hallie by the shoulders, which startles her, but he's so flushed with excitement that he doesn't notice.
"Hal!" he cries, and she stares at him in confusion, blinking her teary eyes. "What the heck are doing, Hal? Look at us! We're just standing here feeling sorry for ourselves, and we're letting – them – get – away!"
"You mean..."
"Yes, exactly!" Nick cries, interrupting her. He lets go of her shoulders and begins to quickly pace the floor of the wine cellar, thinking out loud. "This is exactly what she did eleven years ago." Nick feels guilty again as he realizes what he's just said. It sounds like an accusation, so he quickly goes on, "It was all my fault. I let her go, don't you see? That's what she said." He briefly stops pacing to point at Hallie, standing against one wall of the wine cellar. "Right there! Lizzie was standing right there, and she said, 'Nick, you didn't come after me.' Okay... Okay, so I didn't go after her the first time. Nothing to do about that. I didn't know she wanted me to, but now... now I do. Don't you see, Hal?"
"So..." Hallie answers slowly, not daring to believe what he's saying, because it sounds too good to be true. "So, you're going after her?"
"Yes. Yes, I'm going after her." Hallie starts to let out a squeal of excitement, but then Nick cries, "No!" and her heart drops into her shoes. "No, wait, correction. No, I'm not going after her. We're going after them. We're not letting them get away! Come on, Hal, get packed!"
Hallie's spirits rise again, but so many up-and-down emotions have almost left her speechless. "Packed? To go to the airport?" she gasps breathlessly.
"No, no, not the airport!" Nick waves his hand impatiently. He turns and flies up the stairs, two steps at a time. "We're going to London! You go get packed. Your Aunt Kate has a friend who works at the airport. I'll give her a call right now and book us a flight."
"Dad?" Hallie calls, rushing after him. Nick pauses briefly to look back at her, and they smile at each other as she says, "Dad, this is a brilliant beyond brilliant idea."
-x-
Fifteen minutes after Ms. James and Annie pull out of the driveway, Chessy is watching in wonder as Nick and Hallie tear through the house in a flurry of packing and preparation. Hallie is running up and down the stairs, throwing passports and pairs of socks into the duffel bag she took to camp. Nick, meanwhile, is talking a mile a minute on both his cell phone and the house line, asking about flight departures and time differences and the pound-to-dollar exchange rate. Their excitement has spread to Sammy, who runs back and forth between them, barking and wagging his tail.
Chessy tries to make herself heard over the madness. "Look, I'm just not sure this is a good idea," she says for the second time.
Hallie looks up from where she's just shoved several pairs of underwear, a baseball cap, and a shampoo bottle into her duffel. She's so frenzied with joy that she's hardly aware of what she's packing anymore. "Chessy," she says reproachfully, "I can't believe you don't want us to go. Whose side are you on?"
Chessy sighs. "This isn't allowed the plane, honey," she says as she takes the shampoo bottle out of Hallie's duffel. "And this isn't about sides, okay? It's not that I don't want you to go. It's just that it was your mom's decision to go back to London, and as a woman, I don't think..."
But before Chessy can go on, she's interrupted by Nick, who's hurriedly writing something down on a notepad but pauses to look straight at her. He's hung up the house phone and switched his cell to his other ear. "Chessy," he says, in the most serious voice Hallie's ever heard, "do not try to stop us. Hal and I are going to do this. We are going after Lizzie and Annie. We're not letting them go. Not again."
Listening to him, Hallie brings her hands up to chest, because her heart is beating so hard she thinks it might burst right out of her. As devastated as she felt a few minutes ago, that's how breathlessly excited she feels now.
"And if you let us go," Nick adds slyly, "we'll bring you back Martin."
Chessy's mood changes immediately. She turns on the spot and runs full-speed for the kitchen. "I'm going to make you some lunches to eat on the plane!" she calls over her shoulder. "Airline food is terrible, you know!"
-x-
Ninety minutes after Elizabeth and Annie pull out of the driveway, Nick and Hallie are in the air on a Concord plane bound for London. Hallie has the window seat, and she looks out at the sunlit clouds but doesn't see them. She's too busy imagining the looks on her mom and Annie's faces when they see them in London.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2!