The Stillwater Girls

As Nic, Sage, and Wren wait for Brant to get home, Nic thinks nervously about whether it is ethical to encourage the young women to trust and feel comfortable with Brant when she herself is not sure about the future of her marriage. She and the sisters chat about how she met Brant and about the history of their relationship. When Wren asks why they have no children, Nic feels her throat catch as she explains. Sage, looking through a photo album of Nic’s tells Nic that Brant “looks like a nice person” (154). Nic notices an unreadable expression on Wren’s face and wonders—not for the first time—what Wren is thinking. She sees headlights and then hears a car trunk slam and knows that Brant has returned.

As they wait for Brant to walk in the door, Wren closely observes Nic’s body language. She concludes that Nic’s enthusiasm for Brant’s return is feigned. When Brant enters, Wren decides that he is handsome and seems nonthreatening. She keeps a cautious distance, realizing that she has a predisposition to like Brant because she wants to continue living in Nic’s house. Brant does not try to approach either Wren or Sage as he introduces himself. Wren notices that he has dimples like Evie’s, and that, as he kisses Nic’s cheek, Nic’s body tenses. Because it is already late for Sage and Wren, the sisters go to bed after meeting Brant. Once Sage is asleep, Wren gets back up, intending to sketch the woman from her memories. As she retrieves her sketch pad, she overhears a brief moment in a tense discussion between Nic and Brant. Brant tells Nic that he is worried that “this is going to make things worse” for Nic, and Wren realizes that Brant has reservations about her and Sage staying in the Gideons’ home (157).

Nic and Brant argue about Nic’s real motives in taking in the sisters and staying in New York for the winter; Brant tries to express concern about Nic’s state of mind, but Nic is sure he is just trying to divert her from finding out what he is hiding from her. When he strokes her hand, she feels nothing inside. He reminds her that they are supposed to work as a team and make decisions together. Nic settles into bed and turns her back to him; Brant wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her close, nuzzling her neck, and falls asleep. Unable to sleep herself, Nic gets back up. When she goes downstairs, she sees a flashlight outside. She sees someone standing at the edge of their driveway and runs upstairs to wake Brant. Brant gets his gun from the closet and Nic calls 911. Brant reports that the person has vanished; he tells Nic she should try to get some sleep and that he will wait downstairs for the police. Nic is sure that Brant does not believe she really saw anything and feels that she has been “sentenced to bed like a child” (164).

When Wren watches Brant’s easygoing, open behavior in the morning, she wonders about the snippet of conversation she overheard and whether he can really be so good at hiding his real feelings. Wary of him, she forces a cheerful smile and greeting; she wants to stay on his good side so that she and Sage will have a safe place to stay until they can locate Mama and Evie. Nic loads a plate full of delicious food for Wren. Sage tells Brant that Wren, like him, is an artist. He asks whether he can see her drawings; she tells him that her latest drawing is not ready for an audience. He offers to show her his studio and tells her that she can use it whenever she likes. Wren is grateful for the kind gesture. The police knock at the door, startling everyone. Brant and Nic go out to talk to them. Wren holds Sage’s hand thinking that, no matter what happens, they will always have one another.

Nic and Brant speak privately with Deputy May. May tells them that a woman’s body has been found in the woods. Based on Wren’s and Sage’s descriptions of their mother, the police suspect it is her body—but they are running DNA tests to confirm this. Evie is not with her. Brant and Nic agree that, until there is some confirmation, it is best not to mention this development to Sage and Wren. Deputy May comments on how resilient young people are and asks Nic how she herself is doing. Nic is puzzled by the question and simply says that she should be getting back inside.

Wren spends time drawing in Brant’s studio. She listens to music on an old cellphone from a playlist that Brant made for her. She thinks about Brant’s beautiful photos lining the walls and his advice that there is nothing wrong with being proud of your own work. Brant has also given Wren the gift of some watercolors and brushes, and she is finding it increasingly difficult to stop herself from liking and believing in him. Wren’s current drawing is a portrait of Evie. She misses her sister and hopes that creating a close likeness will help the police find Evie. Brant comes into the studio; his warm smile vanishes when he sees the drawing of Evie. He asks Wren who it is, and she tells him. He pales and makes an excuse to leave the room.

Nic takes Wren and Sage grocery shopping. She tells them they can have anything they want, and both girls are very curious and full of questions about the food. In the end they choose mostly familiar produce and cooking staples. Each young woman adds a box of breakfast cereal to the cart, pleasing Nic. Sage takes her up on her offer of candy in the checkout aisle, but Wren is uninterested. Nic asks Wren if she is enjoying Brant’s studio space, and she says that she is. Nic is surprised to see how much warmth Brant seems to be bringing out of the usually quiet and watchful Wren. Wren admits that she overheard part of Brant and Nic’s conversation on the night Brant returned home, and Nic reassures her that Brant is happy to have them as guests. The cashier recognizes the sisters, excitedly chattering about the “Stillwater Darlings,” the body found in the woods, and her feeling that the forest is a creepy place full of “crazies” and “baby snatchers” (176). Nic shuts the conversation down, but when they reach the parking lot, Sage asks what the woman meant about a body in the woods. Nic admits that a body was found but says that it has not been identified. Wren asks how long it will be before this happens, and Nic promises to tell them as soon as she knows anything more. As she is unloading groceries, Wren comes rushing back out of the house to tell her that her drawings have all disappeared.

Wren is positive that Brant has taken her drawings, and she asks Nic when he will be home. Nic tells her that she is sure he will be home soon. She says that she cannot imagine why Brant would have taken the drawings and asks whether Wren is positive she did not misplace them herself. She tells Wren that they will ask him when he returns, and that, if he did take them, he is sure to have a perfectly good explanation for doing so. Wren hears something in Nic’s tone, however, that makes her wonder if Nic believes her own words.

Eager to continue her investigation of what Brant is up to, Nic takes her phone into a spare bedroom and calls her cell carrier to get information about the most recent calls placed on Brant’s line. She learns that, exactly as on the previous Friday mornings, Brant called the unknown 212 number earlier that day. She is overwhelmed with worry, imagining confronting Brant with what she knows and finding out something that will break her heart. She calls the number, but the person does not pick up the call. She is prompted to leave a message for someone named Beth. She marches into her bedroom and looks for the photograph of the child, but it has been removed from Brant’s drawer. She decides that the time for gathering evidence is over and that she needs to confront Brant. She feels sick to her stomach and terribly sad.

Wren lies on the couch in the living room, reading a thriller. It is her first encounter with the concept of kidnapping, and she finds herself wondering about whether Mama is capable of doing something like this. She is growing more confident that her early memories of another house and another mother are real. For one thing, the house she remembers is a modern house, with a number of separate rooms, a telephone, and modern furnishings. She reasons that she would not have been able to make up such a memory as a child, because until she arrived at Nic’s, she had supposedly never seen any of these things before. Brant arrives home, and she immediately confronts him about her drawings. He tells her that he took them to have them framed as a surprise for her. He tells her that they will be ready on Monday and she can come with him into town to pick them up. She apologizes to him for the way she reacted; given everything she has recently been through, she reasons, she may be prone to suspecting others’ motives right now.

After Wren returns to reading in the other room, Nic watches Brant as he heads for his studio to get some work done. Atypically, he keeps checking his phone. This arouses her suspicions, since he always works with his phone in airplane mode. She asks him whether he is expecting a call from Beth in New York. They move into their bedroom to keep the conversation private from their guests. Nic sees panic on Brant’s face. He tells her that he always intended to tell her the truth, as soon as he thought she was ready to face it. He explains that he has taken money from her trust because he has already used up all of his own money. Nic, still thinking that he is talking about having an affair and a secret child with a mistress, decides that she will never speak to him again when this conversation is over. She asks him why he would have stayed with her all these years, and he tells her because she is his wife and he loves her. She mocks the idea of Brant caring about his vows to her, and suddenly Brant is confused. He asks her what she is talking about, but before she can clarify, Wren knocks on their door and announces that Deputy May is at the door.

Wren and Sage take a seat on the couch. Deputy May and social worker Sharon Gable gently explain that the body found in the woods did, in fact, belong to their mother. Sage buries her head in Wren’s shoulder and sobs. Wren herself feels numb and wonders if she is too angry at Mama to feel sad about her death. Wren asks whether they have found Evie, and Deputy May says they are still looking. Sharon says that there is more news. She reveals that the DNA testing they have been doing has also revealed that Sage and Wren are not biological sisters and that neither is Maggie Sharp’s biological child. Wren comforts Sage, telling her that no matter what the DNA says, they are still sisters. Wren finally voices her worst suspicions, asking if Maggie kidnapped them. Deputy May and Sharon admit that this is a possibility. If they were kidnapped, there may be families still looking for them. They explain that Maggie died from blunt force trauma, probably very soon after she left the cabin with Evie. Wren is overcome with worry when she thinks about what may have happened to Evie.