They were supposed to be friends. That was the deal when they had started, the ground rules they’d put out before themselves. Or rather, Cora had put out—they had sex, but they would stay friends.

It all felt like Cora was standing at the bottom of a pool slowly filling with water. Every time she thought the water had stopped rising, it sloshed into her mouth, leaving her spluttering.

Her session with Doctor Massey had been productive, had helped her put into words all the things she never felt she could with Alec. Words she hadn’t managed to say when she and Alec had seen her together. She had another appointment for next week, and Cora wanted it to be sooner. She wanted to spew out everything she’d kept in her chest and not said for years.

At the end, with very little time to spare, Cora had looked Doctor Massey in the eye, relieved about confidentiality agreements, and told her she’d had an affair.

That had at least gotten a blink out of the woman. And one question. Why?

Cora had had nothing to say that. Should she make an excuse? Or should she lie? So she simply said, “I don’t know.”

“I think you do,” Doctor Massey had said.

And they’d had to end the session. The next week, she had said, Cora was going to have to answer that question.

So Cora was going to have the session next week and then tell Alec.

It was final. She wanted a divorce. She had wanted one for longer than she would probably ever admit to herself. Today, in the session, Cora had talked about the way their relationship had started, the passion that had made Cora feel safe but had slowly started to feel more like ownership. Alec’s constant desire to be with her, to have Cora there when he wanted, had become less like safety and more like isolation.

Sometimes, she’d told Doctor Massey, Alec made Cora second-guess herself so much that Cora had started to take what he said as gospel. There were times Cora had been so sure of something, yet by the time they finished the conversation, she would believe him when he said she was mistaken.

After talking about something that left her feeling scrubbed raw, Cora had wanted to talk to her friend about it, had wanted to talk to Frazer. But Frazer wanted…space.

Outside, the rain came down in buckets, the sound of it filling Cora’s car when she parked outside Lisa’s house. Her fingers were white knuckled on the steering wheel. Shivering, she pressed her overheated forehead against her cool hands.