62 pages • 2 hours read
Nora RobertsA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of death by suicide, and physical and emotional abuse.
Cleo finishes her latest oil painting, a mermaid holding a glass sphere that contains another mermaid, and so on. Sonya is amazed by the intricate detail. Cleo promised the painting to Owen in exchange for a ship he promised to build her. Sonya teases Cleo about her flirtation with Owen, but Cleo feigns indifference.
The women meet Owen and Trey for dinner at a restaurant. When Sonya tells Owen about the finished painting, he demands it. Cleo teases that the painting will take six months to dry. In the meantime, she wants to see the sketch for her ship. Trey stays over at the manor that night; he and Sonya make love.
The clock chimes at 3:00 am, and the piano plays again. Sonya wakes up, pulled by something, and Trey and Cleo follow her. Sonya goes to the music room, where she can see the memory tableau of the first Owen Poole with his second wife and his daughter Lisbeth. Owen’s wife plays the piano as Lisbeth and Owen watch. Lisbeth tells Sonya how happy her parents were when she got engaged to Edward.