I’ll get this promotion, he told her silently.

He grabbed the phone just as it started ringing again.

“You’re gonna want to get to the morgue,” Kia said when he answered. “We found Violeta Williams.”

NATE RUSHED to get ready, shoveling down a bowl of Rice Krispies and slugging a cup of instant coffee. He grabbed a banana from the fridge to eat in the car and noticed Emma had written I’m bananas for you in black ink across the peel. He smiled. It was something she’d done when they first moved in together, and a tradition they both did occasionally.

He pulled the regular coffee from the refrigerator and scooped a spoonful into the automatic coffeemaker, setting the timer so it would be ready when Emma got up. As he moved to put the coffee back in the fridge, his hip knocked Emma’s purse off the kitchen island, spilling the contents across the floor.

He cursed and gathered up her phone, her wallet, a piece of gum, a few scraps of paper, shoving it all back in her purse. He caught sight of one of the receipts in his hand: for an Americano, a mocha, and a blueberry muffin at the hospital’s café.

At first he was confused. Emma didn’t allow herself sugar. He scanned the date. Last week, the day Josh had gotten his blood drawn for the first phase of treatment.

Who had Emma been having coffee with while their son was in the hospital?

A terrible thought entered Nate’s mind, dread leaching through his core.

Was Emma cheating on him?

He immediately dismissed it. She could’ve met one of her colleagues for coffee. It was her workplace, after all. Or maybe she’d had coffee with his mother. He dismissed that thought too. He couldn’t imagine Emma and his mom sitting down for coffee together.

He shoved the receipt back in Emma’s purse and hurried to his car, but he couldn’t get it out of his head. He remembered how he’d felt like she was lying to him when her phone rang the other day. And now this receipt.

But their son was sick. They were struggling to figure out a plan for how they would pay for his treatments. Of course she was bound to act a little bizarre. They were under unimaginable stress right now.

Emma wasn’t the type to cheat. He knew her. He knew her.

Didn’t he?

NATE WALKED through the front door of the hospital, smiling warmly at the woman on reception. He recognized her from high school but couldn’t remember her name. She fluttered her fingertips at him.

Nate took the elevator downstairs to the morgue. He hated the morgue. The antiseptic smell never quite covered the stench of death. The harsh lights and gleaming metal surfaces couldn’t distract from the blue-tinged bodies.

Here, death was on display.