She should simply tell the truth, but their relationship was still tender and vulnerable, and she was afraid that if she did that, what they had might be destroyed forever. She couldn’t take that risk. Their friendship meant too much to her. If the last few months had taught her anything, it was that.

“I was in a bad place.” That much was true. “Things were difficult.”

“But then, why didn’t you reach out to me?” There was a small furrow of confusion between Milly’s brows. “Since when haven’t we done that?”

“You had enough problems. And I was barely holding it together. I sort of retreated. It was a survival thing.” There was more. So much more, but she wasn’t ready to divulge that. “But you’ve heard my sad story. Now I want to hear yours.”

For a moment she thought Milly might linger on the topic of their estrangement, but her friend sighed and eased her hands away.

“Mine is nowhere near as glamorous as yours. But if you think you were a fool, you should try being me. When Richard said he was working late and traveling, I believed him.”

There was so much she wanted to say, but Nicole forced herself to just listen.

Milly glanced toward the house to check there was no sign of Zoe. “It had been going on for six months before he told me. Six months. And I didn’t know. Can you believe that? I felt like such an idiot.”

“Milly—”

“No, don’t say anything. There’s nothing to be said. I should have guessed, but I was busy getting on with what I thought was our shared life, and I didn’t notice that my husband was contorting himself into various positions with Avery that clearly had nothing to do with yoga.”

“Do you still love him?” Nicole held her breath as she waited for the answer.

“I don’t think so, although it’s complicated because of Zoe. You can’t completely sever a relationship when you have a child. I remember how broken up I was after my dad walked out, and I don’t want Zoe to feel that. I want her to know we both love her, and just because we’ve decided that we can’t continue being married, our relationship with her will never change.”

Nicole felt an ache in her chest because she knew it wasn’t Milly who had decided that, it was Richard. “You’re a wonderful mother. Zoe is lucky to have you.”