“I didn’t want you to worry.” I paused. Today had been harrowing and eye-opening. And it seemed like a good day to tell the truth. So I was going to. “First of all,” I said, “the Bible verse, if you read all of it, is about how we don’t need to take our own revenge because the Lord does it for us. I saved it to remind myself that it’s not my responsibility to settle the score.”

“Ohhhh,” Charlotte said, looking sheepish. “But you can see how once I found out you were on Bill’s list…” She trailed off. Then she picked back up. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Because I didn’t want you to be suspicious of my kindness toward you.”

Charlotte didn’t respond.

“Look, Grace isn’t totally wrong that I had something to do with all of this. I kind of did. Because I did seek you out,” I said, focused on Charlotte. “I didn’t follow you into the bank that day, but I planned to find you, to invite you here. It wasn’t random, and I should have told you that.”

“But why?” Grace asked quietly.

I shook my head. “Because, for all these years, I’ve felt like I had some curse on me that made all my husbands die. If I could only right this huge karmic debt, I could make things good again. I have spent most of my life trying to earn some sort of invisible forgiveness for crimes that I didn’t willingly commit. If I could take in and love the wife and the child of the man who had stolen the only bit of security I had ever had in this life, then I was really doing something. Surely that would be enough to make things right.” What I didn’t add, because it made me sound so pathetic, was that everyone would know I wasn’t guilty. Everyone would quit talking about me.

All eyes were on me now, staring in disbelief.

“It seems to have worked,” Merit said.

“What? Don’t give in to my mad ravings. Tell me how crazy that is!”

“It’s not crazy,” he said.

Iris shook her head. “Nope. You took us in, Jeremy came back, your name is cleared, your karma is righted.”

“And we’re definitely going to get your money back,” Charlotte said. “So, I agree with the kids. The plan worked.”

Julie laughed. “Y’all are all nuts.”

“We’re all nuts, and we found each other!” Grace said.

“Alice,” Iris said tentatively. “Maybe it isn’t any of my business. But do you think that will make you feel better about moving in with Elliott? Now that you know you aren’t the Black Widow?”