The rehearsal din­ner for Mar­garet and Aidan’s wed­ding cel­e­brat­ed Lob­ster Night, com­plete with hand wipes, check­ered red-and-white nap­kins, sou­venir lob­ster crack­ers, and cus­tom-print­ed bibs that read “MARGARET AND AIDAN’S WEDDING: A CLAWS FOR CELEBRATION!” The seat­ing arrange­ment placed me at a table with Tam­my, Mag­gie, Aidan, Errol, and Abi­gail, with an emp­ty chair reserved for Cather­ine Gard­ner, whose atten­dance was uncer­tain.

As Aidan set­tled between Mag­gie and Abi­gail, I expressed my con­do­lences for Gwen­dolyn. Aidan explained that Gerry’s office was try­ing to con­tact Gwendolyn’s fam­i­ly, but they faced dif­fi­cul­ties since Gwen­dolyn was raised by a late grand­moth­er, leav­ing them unsure of who to reach out to. Mag­gie attempt­ed to shift every­one’s focus back to the din­ner. While Tam­my was eager for lob­ster, Abi­gail hes­i­tat­ed, find­ing them intim­i­dat­ing. Aidan encour­aged her, empha­siz­ing New England’s rep­u­ta­tion for the best lob­sters. When the lob­sters arrived, he patient­ly demon­strat­ed how to eat them, engag­ing Abi­gail in con­ver­sa­tions about geog­ra­phy, a sign of his affec­tion.

The atmos­phere was relaxed, fea­tur­ing a jug band play­ing light­heart­ed tunes. Atten­dees enjoyed beer respon­si­bly, like­ly mind­ful of the pre­ced­ing night’s mishap. The tra­di­tion of toast­ing the cou­ple added a fun ele­ment, with Abi­gail applaud­ing enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly after each kiss shared by Mag­gie and Aidan, find­ing joy in the rit­u­al.

Errol’s speech was brief, acknowl­edg­ing the absence of his wife due to health issues but cel­e­brat­ing Mag­gie’s qual­i­ties and her mar­riage with Aidan. His heart­felt words drew a stand­ing ova­tion and emo­tion­al respons­es from many, includ­ing my sis­ter. Short­ly after, Aidan received a text, which momen­tar­i­ly dis­tract­ed him, but he quick­ly returned to engag­ing with Abi­gail about geo­graph­i­cal won­ders.

As the toasts con­tin­ued, I found it chal­leng­ing to con­cen­trate; my thoughts kept revert­ing to a lin­ger­ing mys­tery involv­ing Aidan and an altered pho­to­graph with Dawn Tag­gart. Despite my under­stand­ing that Mag­gie regard­ed the image as manip­u­lat­ed, I was puz­zled over the moti­va­tions behind it and the capa­bil­i­ty of the indi­vid­u­als involved. Mean­while, Ger­ry and Sier­ra shared their mar­riage secrets, while Aidan sat dis­tract­ed, indi­cat­ing pre­oc­cu­pa­tions of his own. Lying beside him was a key, sym­bol­ic of the answers to the ques­tions that haunt­ed me.