“You don’t believe me, Piper?” Trisha taunted her. “Ask her. Ask her why she’s gained a stone in the past few months, and why Dooney insisted she be in your wedding party. Ask her what her friendship with Dooney really entailed. I dare you.”

“What are you talking about, Trisha?” Piper snapped. She was visibly shaking. She looked at Sunny, who burst into tears.

“Excuse me, I’m not feeling well.” Sunny sobbed and ran from the room.

“To baby Dooney,” Trisha said. She raised her wineglass high and downed the contents in one swallow. She was the only one to drink.

Dooney’s parents rose from their seats and left the room, looking as if they’d just been slapped. Piper’s parents tried to get their daughter to follow but she shook them off, approaching Trisha instead.

“How could you do this?”

“You should be thanking me,” Trisha said. “You look like a fool, mourning a man who’s been having an affair behind your back with his ‘special lady friend.’ That’s what she is, you know. Not the childhood friend he pretended she was, but rather, she’s his mistress, she has been for a long time, and now she’s having his baby.”

Piper drew herself up. “I don’t believe you, but even if I did, this was how you thought to tell me? You wanted to humiliate me on the night that should have been one of the happiest of my life?”

“Sorry. It just felt like the right time for the truth,” Trisha said. She didn’t bother pouring the wine into her glass but drank it straight out of the bottle. Classy. “After all, aren’t most murders done by the person the victim is closest to?”

“Are you accusing me of murdering Dooney?” Piper asked. Then she laughed. It was a brittle sound that made my shoulders rise up around my ears. “What about you? You’ve been in love with Dooney for years but he never gave you the time of day. He never even looked at you. Not once. You’ve been furious with me ever since we started dating and you’ve been livid since he proposed.

“That’s why I don’t believe you for a hot second about Sunny and Dooney. This is just some twisted lie you’ve cooked up to hurt me. Well, you can’t, Trisha. The man I love is dead, and there is nothing you can do that can hurt me more than that. And if I find comfort in anything, it’s knowing that you loved him but he never ever loved you. He thought you were pathetic.”

“That’s not true. He liked me. We were friends,” Trisha said. She looked stricken. Piper had clearly struck a nerve.

“Oh, no, you weren’t,” Piper said. “He used to make fun of you behind your back. Do you want to know what he called you?”