Tears spilled down Julia’s pale cheeks. “I am so, so sorry. If I could take it all back, I would. I never meant to hurt you. None of it was ever about you, at least not until the end.”

“You always did say you envied us.” Molly felt herself grow distant, as if she were watching herself talking with Julia from a great distance.

Julia eagerly latched on to that sentence. “That’s exactly it. It all got tangled together in my messed-up head. I felt trapped in my marriage, and I always needed to be available for Drew, and I never found time for myself. That turned into looking for ways to escape. I began drinking too much. I still drink too much. Then, after a few months, the affair started to make me feel sick. I thought I could keep it separate from our friendship, but I couldn’t. You deserved better. You deserved to know.”

“It lasted a few months?” It took a few moments before she could speak again. “And instead of facing up to what you did, you pretended to lose your panties so I would find out that way.”

She felt like an idiot. All the supposition she had gone through when she had held that imaginary conversation with Austin’s mistress. She had been right on some things, but mostly she had been wrong. Austin had acted against his “type,” and she had never once suspected Julia.

Julia wiped her cheeks and searched Molly’s face. “I can’t tell what you’re thinking or feeling right now.”

Mindful of how thin motel walls were, she bit out quietly, “How do you think I feel? I’m over what Austin did. That’s old news. But you did that in my bed, and you met for me lunch afterward. I was gutted that week. You looked me in the eye, and you never said a goddamn word. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I know.” Julia started crying again. “I just didn’t want to lose you.”

“You know what I keep hearing you say? It was always about what you wanted, what you needed.” Breathing hard, Molly stared at Julia until the other woman’s gaze fell. She said, almost conversationally, “I’m tired of people trying to take things that don’t belong to them.”

Austin and Julia with their infidelities. The witch who had done so much damage to Josiah and others.

Julia straightened. “Just because I’m ready to apologize doesn’t mean you’re ready to forgive me. I understand that.”

Molly stared at her like she was a bug. “You think?”

Julia flinched. “I deserve everything you’ve got to say, and you deserve the chance to say it. I only hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I still don’t want to lose your friendship.”