“Now?” She glanced at the clock again. “It’s almost one in the morning. What about Drew and Philip?”

“A lot has changed since you left. I left Philip and went into therapy, a-and my parents have taken Drew for the summer so I can get my shit together. They’re taking great care of him.” Julia sounded bitter. “They’re taking him to s-swim lessons and riding therapy, and he loves it. He’s better off with them than he ever was with me.”

“I don’t believe that,” Molly said in a gentle voice.

“I do.” Julia laughed wildly. She sounded dangerously unsteady. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Molly.”

“Well, speaking for tonight, I don’t know that you should come here. It sounds like you’ve been drinking. You shouldn’t be on the road.”

“Yes, I’ve been drinking, but so what? Who cares!” Julia exclaimed. “I can get a taxi. Come on. I’ve got things I need to say to you, and I’ve had them bottled up inside for months. Please?”

Ugh. She let her head hang again as she considered. It might be one in the morning in Atlanta, but her body clock thought it was three hours earlier, and now she’d napped she felt wide awake. “Sure, come on over.” She gave Julia the address of the motel and her room number.

Julia promised, “I’ll be there soon.”

Once they disconnected, Molly climbed out of bed. She didn’t want to meet Julia in her pajamas, so she dressed in jeans, athletic shoes, and a comfortable pullover sweater. After twitching the bedspread back into place, she brushed her hair and ate a large handful of dried fruit and nuts.

A knock sounded at her door. Looking through the peephole, she saw Julia standing with one of the uniformed police officers. It had started raining at some point, and the parking lot was full of puddles.

The officer wore a severe expression. When Molly opened the door, she jingled a set of car keys. “When Miss Oliver pulled up, I came over to make sure everything was all right and smelled alcohol on her breath. Do you two know each other?”

Molly looked at Julia’s familiar Volvo parked at the wrong angle, and then she confronted a miserable-looking Julia. “You promised to take a taxi.”

“I know, but I didn’t want to wait for one,” Julia replied tearfully. “I thought, what could be the harm? Everybody would be in bed. How could I know there would be a cop car sitting in the middle of the parking lot?”

Molly bit back another sigh. She asked the officer, “Is there any way you can let this go?”