Wondering what this had to do with Avery, Milly stopped stirring the leeks and took the phone from her friend. She saw a photograph of Nicole posing for photographers on a red carpet. She was wearing a figure-hugging dress that plunged almost to her navel and was slit to the thigh. Jewels sparkled at her throat, and her makeup was immaculate. But what really caught the attention was her famous, full-wattage smile.

“That dress is spectacular. You look happy.” Milly felt a twinge of envy as she handed the phone back. “As if you really are living your best life.”

“Right. This was taken three weeks ago at a time when I’d never felt more miserable. It took a team of people five hours to get me looking like that, and I wanted to cry the whole time.” Nicole’s voice was husky. “That photo tells you nothing about what was really going on. And those blue-sky yoga photos? She probably waited for that one blue-sky day and took a whole bunch of them together and changed her outfits. It’s not real, Milly. You should know that.”

“Maybe I do deep down, but being left in such a brutal fashion distorts your vision and hammers your confidence. Not just because I’m not a svelte yoga teacher, although that doesn’t help, but because Richard chose her.” The conversation with Zoe in the car had been playing on her mind. “He wasn’t seduced or tempted or led astray, he made a choice. And he could have chosen me. He could have chosen Zoe. His family. The life we’d built together. But he chose Avery.”

Tiger padded warily into the kitchen, lured by the smells of cooking.

“You’re saying that as if it’s something you only just realized,” Nicole said.

“It is. I wasted so much time being angry with Avery, blaming Avery. But she didn’t take anything he didn’t want to give. He made a choice.” Admitting that hurt. “It’s humiliating.”

“Why? This isn’t about you, Milly. It’s about him. He must have had some sort of midlife crisis. Blew something in his brain.” Nicole bent down to stroke Tiger, who was rubbing himself against her legs as if he sensed she was the only calm one in the room. “Would you take him back?”

Something in her tone made Milly wonder if there was something more behind that question. Was Nicole thinking of Justin’s wife?

“No. I don’t even like him at the moment. He has changed.”

Nicole glanced up. “What has changed?”