Chapter 2
For several seconds, nobody moved.
My sister Lauren’s name glowed on Michael’s phone while it vibrated against Diane’s dining table.
I stared at it.
Then I stared at my husband.
“Answer it.”
Michael reached for the phone.
I grabbed it first.
“Sarah,” he said quickly. “Don’t.”
That one word told me more than any confession could have.
I answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then Lauren spoke.
“Michael?”
My throat tightened.
“No. It’s me.”
Another silence.
A longer one.
I could hear traffic behind her.
Then she whispered, “Sarah?”
“Why are you calling my husband on Sunday night?”
Michael stepped toward me.
I moved away.
Lauren exhaled shakily.
“I need to talk to Michael.”
“About what?”
“It’s complicated.”
I laughed once.
It sounded ugly even to me.
“Apparently Thursdays are complicated too.”
“Sarah, please.”
Diane folded her arms.
Her anger had disappeared.
Now she looked almost satisfied.
I hated that expression.
She had wanted this.
Maybe not the slap.
Maybe not tonight.
But she had wanted me to know.
“Where does Michael go every Thursday?” I asked.
Lauren said nothing.
“Answer me.”
Michael reached for the phone again.
I turned my shoulder.
“Sarah, I can explain.”
I looked straight at him.
“Then explain.”
His younger brother, Kevin, pushed his chair back.
“I think we should leave.”
“No,” I said. “Nobody leaves.”
Diane’s sister stared at her plate.
Michael’s father had died three years earlier, and since then Diane had treated every family dinner like her private courtroom.
Tonight, she had accidentally put her own son on trial.
Lauren finally spoke.
“We meet sometimes.”
My stomach dropped.
“Sometimes?”
“Sarah—”
“Every Thursday?”
She started crying.
That was my answer.
I ended the call.
Michael reached for me.
I stepped back so quickly I hit the chair behind me.
“Don’t touch me.”
“It isn’t what you think.”
“Then what is it?”
He looked around the room.
I followed his eyes.
Every person there suddenly found something interesting on the walls, the table, the floor.
That was when another realization hit me.
“You all knew.”
Kevin looked up.
“Not everything.”
“What does that mean?”
His wife touched his arm.
He stopped talking.
I looked at Diane.
“You knew my husband was meeting my sister behind my back.”
Diane lifted her chin.
“I knew Michael was unhappy.”
I felt something inside me go cold.
“So you helped him?”
“I protected my son.”
“From what? His marriage?”
“From you.”
Emma suddenly appeared beside me.
She had been sitting at the smaller table near the kitchen with two cousins.
Her eyes were huge.
“Mom?”
I immediately lowered my voice.
“Get your coat, sweetheart.”
Michael stepped forward.
“Sarah, please don’t leave like this.”
I stared at him.
“How would you prefer I leave after learning you’ve been sneaking around with my sister?”
“It wasn’t an affair.”
Diane laughed under her breath.
Michael spun toward her.
“Stop.”
That frightened me more than if he had yelled.
I looked at him.
“What does she know?”
“Nothing that matters.”
Diane’s smile returned.
“Ask him about Oak Brook.”
Michael’s face changed.
I had never seen fear arrive so quickly.
“What’s in Oak Brook?” I asked.
“Mom.”
“What’s in Oak Brook?”
Diane leaned closer.
“The apartment.”
My knees almost buckled.
Michael swore.
Kevin stood.
“Mom, enough.”
I stared at my husband.
“Apartment?”
“It belongs to a friend.”
“Which friend?”
He didn’t answer.
I already knew.
I grabbed Emma’s coat and my purse.
Michael followed us into the hallway.
“Sarah, give me ten minutes.”
“You had every Thursday.”
He flinched.
“Please.”
Emma was watching.
I would not destroy her world in Diane’s entryway.
Not tonight.
I crouched and zipped Emma’s coat.
“Go wait by the car where I can see you.”
She hesitated.
“Are you coming?”
“Right behind you.”
She ran outside.
I turned toward Michael.
He looked like the man I had married and a stranger wearing his face.
“I’m going home.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No.”
“It’s my house too.”
“Then find somewhere else to sleep.”
His expression hardened slightly.
That tiny change terrified me.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I don’t know what you’ve done yet.”
I looked at Diane behind him.
“But I know enough not to sleep beside you.”
Diane spoke from the dining room.
“Always dramatic.”
I turned.
“You slapped me in front of my child.”
“You slapped me back.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes widened.
“And if you ever put your hands on me again, I’ll call the police before you finish raising your arm.”
Nobody spoke.
I left.
My hands shook so badly I had to sit in the driver’s seat for a moment before starting the car.
Emma quietly buckled herself in.
Halfway home, she asked, “Is Aunt Lauren in trouble?”
I gripped the steering wheel.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because Dad told me not to tell you when I saw her.”
Everything inside me stopped.
I pulled into an empty pharmacy parking lot.
I turned around.
“When did you see Aunt Lauren?”
Emma looked scared.
“Thursday.”
“Which Thursday?”
She shrugged.
“A lot of Thursdays.”
I could barely hear my own voice.
“Where?”
“At the building with the fountain.”
Oak Brook.
The apartment.
I swallowed hard.
“Was Michael with her?”
Emma nodded.
“He said they were planning a surprise for you.”
I closed my eyes.
“What kind of surprise?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
Then Emma said something that made my blood run cold.
“He said if I told you, our family might break apart.”
I stared at my daughter.
Michael had not only lied to me.
He had made my eight-year-old carry the lie.
My phone buzzed.
It was Lauren.
I almost ignored it.
Then I saw the message.
PLEASE DON’T GO HOME UNTIL WE TALK.
May you like
Another message appeared immediately.
THERE’S SOMETHING IN YOUR HOUSE MICHAEL DOESN’T WANT YOU TO FIND.
