James nodded. “I know. Parker called.”

“I assumed he would. You two have always had each other’s backs.”

“He’s a good friend. Probably better than I deserve.”

A wave of uneasiness passed over me. That didn’t sound like a man who’d helped his friend cover up a crime. I took the plastic ring Parker had given me out of my pocket, and set it on the coffee table.

“Why don’t you start by telling me about that,” I said, nodding toward the ring. “I’m assuming that’s the ring you gave Hannah. Am I right?”

James stared at it and nodded. “I didn’t know Parker kept that.”

“What happened that night?”

“Why?”

“Why?” I repeated.

“Yes, why? Why is it so important that you know? Haven’t we been happy together, for all these years? I think we have. We love one another, we have a wonderful daughter. We have so much to be grateful for. Why are you so set on dredging up something that happened before we even met?”

“Because I know you’ve been lying to me, and I need to know the truth,” I said simply. “I need to know what happened that night.”

“That night.” James shook his head. “I should have known it would come back to haunt me someday. I did love her, you know. God, I was head over heels in love.”

I flinched at his words, but I don’t think James noticed.

“But it wasn’t a good love,” he continued. “It wasn’t healthy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hannah was amazing. She was smart, and gorgeous, and so much fun to be around. But she was also so insecure. I could never understand why, but it was true. And it made her . . . needy. I knew I was never going to be enough for her. No man could have been.”

Uneasiness started to roil in my stomach.

“James, what are you saying?”

He held up a hand, stopping me. “I’ll tell you what happened that night. But I need to start from the beginning. You know most of it by now: Hannah and I had been seeing one another for a while. I was a resident, so I was working long hours, but we spent every free moment I had together. And for a while, that seemed to work out. Hannah was happiest when she was being adored, and I certainly adored her. I would have done anything for her.”

My stomach continued to churn. I wondered, almost absently, if I was going to throw up. Had James ever loved me like that? Our love had never felt like something we had to fight for—it was always comfortable, easy, constant.