Chap­ter 9: The rehearsal din­ner for Mar­garet and Aidan’s wed­ding had a dis­tinct theme: Lob­ster Night. The atmos­phere was light­heart­ed with check­ered red-and-white nap­kins, and each guest was giv­en a cus­tom-print­ed bib with the slo­gan, “MARGARET AND AIDAN’S WEDDING: A CLAWS FOR CELEBRATION!” This small yet amus­ing detail added an extra lay­er of charm to the evening, bring­ing laugh­ter and fun into the cel­e­bra­tion. As I took my place at the table, I found myself sit­ting along­side Tam­my, Mag­gie, Aidan, Errol, and Abi­gail. The seat next to me was left vacant, reserved for Cather­ine Gard­ner, though her atten­dance was still uncer­tain, cast­ing an unspo­ken ten­sion over the gath­er­ing.

Aidan, posi­tioned between Mag­gie and Abi­gail, took a moment to express his sor­row for Gwendolyn’s pass­ing. He explained how his office had tried, with­out suc­cess, to reach out to Gwendolyn’s fam­i­ly. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, they had strug­gled to find the right con­tacts, giv­en that Gwen­dolyn was raised by her late grand­moth­er. As the con­ver­sa­tion veered back to the din­ner, Mag­gie, always the one to deflect from sad­ness, tried to shift the focus onto the food, encour­ag­ing every­one to dig in and enjoy the meal. Mean­while, Tam­my, eager to dive into the lob­ster, didn’t hes­i­tate, while Abi­gail seemed hes­i­tant, find­ing the lob­sters a bit intim­i­dat­ing. Aidan, sens­ing her reluc­tance, took the time to explain the fin­er points of eat­ing lob­ster and shared sto­ries about New England’s famous lob­ster indus­try, eas­ing Abigail’s fears. With her curios­i­ty piqued, Abi­gail warmed up to the idea, and Aidan’s gen­tle approach helped her set­tle in.

The ener­gy in the room began to lift as the jug band struck up a cheer­ful tune, cre­at­ing a live­ly ambiance. Guests sipped their drinks with more restraint than usu­al, no doubt remem­ber­ing the pre­vi­ous evening’s chaot­ic events. The cus­tom­ary toasts began, with each guest rais­ing their glass to the cou­ple. As Mag­gie and Aidan kissed, Abigail’s applause rang through the room, an endear­ing moment that light­ened the mood and added an ele­ment of joy to the evening. Despite the fes­tive atmos­phere, my mind couldn’t help but drift back to a con­cern that weighed heav­i­ly on me, an unset­tling thought I couldn’t shake.

Errol’s speech was brief but impact­ful. He expressed his sad­ness at his wife’s absence, cit­ing her health issues, but went on to cel­e­brate Maggie’s qual­i­ties and the union she was about to enter with Aidan. His words, though sim­ple, moved the crowd, and my sis­ter respond­ed with a tear-filled stand­ing ova­tion. It was a touch­ing moment, yet it wasn’t enough to ful­ly qui­et the storm of ques­tions brew­ing in my mind. Not long after, Aidan’s phone buzzed with a text mes­sage, momen­tar­i­ly draw­ing his atten­tion away from the fes­tiv­i­ties. He quick­ly brushed it aside, return­ing to his con­ver­sa­tion with Abi­gail, but the dis­trac­tion lin­gered in the back of my mind.

As the evening wore on, I found myself strug­gling to stay focused on the speech­es and toasts. My mind kept return­ing to a dis­turb­ing issue that I couldn’t resolve—what was the truth behind the altered pho­to­graph involv­ing Dawn Tag­gart? Mag­gie had insist­ed that the image was manip­u­lat­ed, but I couldn’t shake my con­fu­sion about the moti­va­tions behind it. Who was involved, and why was it so impor­tant? Mean­while, Ger­ry and Sier­ra exchanged tips on main­tain­ing a suc­cess­ful mar­riage, but Aidan appeared dis­tant, as if his mind was pre­oc­cu­pied with some­thing far more press­ing. A key on the table next to him caught my eye, its pres­ence adding to the grow­ing sense of urgency with­in me. It sym­bol­ized something—perhaps the key to unlock­ing the many unan­swered ques­tions I had regard­ing the Gard­ners and their hid­den secrets. This mys­te­ri­ous object seemed to hold the answers, but it was unclear whether I would ever be able to piece the puz­zle togeth­er.