Note: Readers have written, asking what happens to Savannah, who was six years old when “The Comfort of Lies†ends. This epilogue was in the original manuscript—I thought some readers would enjoy seeing how my lovely girl (I adored her every minute of writing the book) made out. Someone talked me out of including it (too much of a tying it up with a bow?) but I sort of miss it. So–below is the fast-forward for “The Comfort of Lies”
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Don’t read this before reading THE COMFORT OF LIES, unless you like your ends first!
“SAVANNAH AT FOURTEEN”
Tonight, my parents—all six of them—were going to be together for the first time. Half of me felt a weird sort of excitement; the other half was ready to throw up. Worry jangled everywhere in my body, from a fizzy full feeling in my throat to the tips of my fingers. What would it be like, having my real parents (which truly, my adoptive parents are) and my real, but not real, parents (honestly, that’s what my birth parents felt like) plus, what I guess I’d call my sort-of-stepmother and stepfather, all with me at the same time?
There’s no doubt that my life’s complicated.
At the age of five, I met my biological mother and father for the first time. My memories from that day are probably just stories stuck in my head from what Mom and Dad told me, but there’s one crystalized moment that I swear I remember: I’m was on my father Peter’s lap. Tia, my biological mother, handed me a picture showing her when she was hugely pregnant. With me.
There I was.
Right inside.
I wanted to peer through her belly with x-ray eyes and see tiny me floating there.
Afterwards, Mom says I asked about that photograph so often she finally had to ask Tia for a copy.
It’s been on my dresser ever since. I guess at times it was hard for her and Dad to see it, but they never said anything.  Sometimes I traced the outline of Tia’s belly, trying to squeeze my mind into a time when we were connected. It’s not like I wanted to live with her, but sometimes it seemed strange that I didn’t. You curled up inside someone for nine months, and then boom, you’re born and given to someone else. And she’s in my live now and has been since I was five.
Did I know? Do babies come into the world recognizing their mothers, knowing their voice, their smell? And if that’s true, do they miss them when they’re given to a new parent? I wonder if I began missing Tia when my mom—Caroline—held me.
I grew up differently than other kids. Maybe everybody feels that way—my mother says we’re all the stars of our own show—but how many kids have a million parents applauding every moment of their lives? There are times it’s great; I probably got more birthday presents than anyone I know—which by the way, drove my mother and father nuts. But sometimes it overwhelmed me to be spinning from parent to parent, trying to be the girl each one wanted.
The Comfort of Lies, a novel about the collateral damage of infidelity, reveals the darkest and most private thoughts of three women.
Three Mothers. Two Fathers. One Child.
Five years ago, Tia fell into obsessive love with a man she could never have. Married, and the father of two boys, Nathan was unavailable in every way. When she became pregnant, he disappeared, and she gave up her baby for adoption. Now, she’s trying to connect with her lost daughter and former lover.
Five years ago, Caroline, a dedicated pathologist, reluctantly adopted a baby to please her husband. She prayed her misgivings would disappear; instead, she’s questioning whether she’s cut out for the role of wife and mother.
Five years ago, Juliette considered her life ideal: she had a loving family, a solid marriage, and a thriving business. Then she discovered Nathan’s affair. He’d promised he’d never stray again and she trusted him. But that was before she knew about the baby.
Now, when Juliette intercepts a letter containing photos meant for Nathan, her world crumbles again. How could Nathan deny his daughter? And if he’s kept this a secret from her, what else is he hiding? Desperate for the truth, Juliette goes in search of the little girl. Her quest leads to Caroline and Tia and before long, the women are on a collision course with consequences that none of them could have predicted.