I could see the tops of their heads as they sat, side by side, hunched over at the table. I looked up into the sky—cloudless, and the color of slate—and felt my eyes burn with tears. After weeks of fruitless searches, stakeouts, drive-bys, my deepest darkest fears had been confirmed.

The familiar piercing ring of a cell phone went off. I jumped. My eyes darted to the kitchen window and saw Donald and Adrienne both sit up, patting themselves. Realizing it was neither of theirs, they looked at each other. Then both turned to look out the window.

Suddenly aware that it was my cell phone that was ringing and desperate to make it stop, I crouched down, crawled away from the house toward the driveway, reached into my jacket and flipped open my phone.

The Caller ID box lit up: it was Gayle.

Calling from the car, from her cell phone, eager to find out what was going on.

Before I could run, or hide, or otherwise disappear into the night, I heard the back screen door slam and feet running down the stairs. Donald appeared, looming over me, his face stern and half in shadow. Adrienne was just behind him. I felt paralyzed with dread.

He stared at me, his eyes cold, his mouth open. “What are you doing here?”

I stood up and stared back, unable to speak.

“Were you following me?”

Silence.

“Spying on us?” He looked up at the window, and the bushes, and back at Adrienne, incredulous. She crossed her arms, looked down, and didn’t say anything. Then they both stood there, waiting for an answer.

I didn’t have one.

“Were you out here lurking and listening and—?” He was having a hard time finishing the sentence; he simply could not comprehend what had driven me to do what he was slowly realizing I’d done. His eyes widened, and the veins in his neck grew visible. “Jesus Christ, Elise. What are you, crazy?”

“You’ve misunderstood this whole thing,” Adrienne said to me, an enigmatic smile on her lips.

I continued to stare, say nothing.

“Why are you doing this?” Donald went on. “Why, on earth, would you follow me like a criminal, when I’ve given you absolutely no reason to do so?”

“No reason?” I replied at last. “How can you say that? There’ve been plenty of reasons. I mean, look where you are right now. Here. At Adrienne’s. Sneaking around behind my back.” I put my hands on my hips. “And where were you yesterday? Around lunchtime? When you were supposed to be in school? And she,” I said, glancing over at Adrienne, but not deigning to address her directly, “was supposed to be at work?”

“Really, Elise,” her voice was thick with condescension. “You’ve misread everything.”

He looked furious, turned his head. “Shut up, Adrienne.”

I was on a roll. I’d caught him completely off guard and he was nervous.