In When You Loved Me by Beatriz Williams, a young widow returns to her family’s crumbling Winthrop Island estate, Windward, only to discover it is mired in massive debt. While investigating her father’s tragic death and uncovering long-buried secrets, she reunites with her first great love.
Published June, 2026, the story charts Lucy Cooper’s return to Winthrop Island—a picturesque but insular New England vacation destination—alongside her seven-year-old daughter, Elise. They are there to settle the estate of Lucy’s estranged father, Bud. Bud lived as a local eccentric, stubbornly obsessed with a legendary pirate treasure he believed was buried somewhere on their property. Upon arriving, Lucy is dismayed to find the crumbling Windward estate in financial ruin. Matters are further complicated when Ben Ressler, Lucy’s first love and a former NFL star, unexpectedly appears. Ben’s professional football career had recently been tragically cut short by a fatal, on-field collision, leaving him with his own profound guilt and grief to process.
The narrative shifts backward to 2012 to reveal the intense, fleeting summer romance shared between teenage Lucy and Ben. Their passionate, brief weeks together ultimately fractured Lucy’s friendship with her best friend, Laura Peabody, who had harbored a long-standing, all-consuming crush on Ben. Back in the present, Ben has taken up residence in a caretaker lodge on the Peabody family estate, placing him right next door to Lucy just as she begins to unravel the mystery of her father’s unsettling final days.
As Lucy navigates her rekindled feelings for Ben, she must simultaneously fend off an anonymous stalker who is actively sabotaging the Windward property and intimidating her. Searching for answers among her late father’s belongings, she delves into Bud’s historical research centered around the frozen winter of 1717. Through excerpts from a historical diary, the novel transports readers back in time to the tale of a wounded pirate and an enigmatic healer on the same island.
Gradually, the past and present intertwine as the legends of pirate plunder, Hephzibah and Ramsay’s centuries-old romance, and Bud’s fatal obsession merge. The diary entries and historical events ultimately serve as a metaphorical and literal map to the treasure Lucy truly needs: a path to heal the deep fractures of her past and a second chance at happiness with Ben. As Lucy and Ben confront their respective losses and the lingering shadows of their teenage romance, they must also outmaneuver a threat from a shadowy Peabody family member willing to do anything to claim the fabled plunder.