Kaylee was an important part of getting it right. Clare couldn’t envision telling it, diving into the guts of it, if she didn’t know what happened. Clare stared at the photo of Kaylee and her family, evidence of how she had moved on with her life. Had Kaylee really moved on? Before Clare could change her mind, she clicked her mouse—Friend Request Sent—and sat back in her chair staring at her screen.

For the first time in years, she didn’t know what would happen next.

Chapter 6

Eileen

Eileen waited with the hordes of other people in the last boarding group outside the gate. Stunned, numb, unable to believe she was about to get on a flight to San Francisco while still clutching explicit photographs detailing her husband’s affair with Lauren Andrews.

Lauren and Eric had worked together at the same consulting company for years. Dave, Lauren’s husband, had left the photos and the note.

Eileen had been to their home twice—once for a Halloween party, where Lauren had dressed up as a belly dancer, and once for a Memorial Day office barbecue. Surrounded by other people, she obviously couldn’t take the photos out of the envelope right now to check, but she was pretty sure every picture was from inside Lauren and Dave’s house. There was no way Dave had taken them himself without Eric and Lauren knowing; the photos looked like they were probably stills from an in-home security system. Did Lauren know her husband had installed a camera security system throughout their home?

Obviously not.

Actually, Eileen suddenly thought, wouldn’t it be more likely that it would be a video surveillance system? She felt ill all over again. Of course, because who had a single-shot photography home surveillance system? Which meant Dave had watched entire videos of Eric and his wife fucking, repeatedly, throughout his home. The envelope she held were just a few of the choicest shots Dave had prepared to… What? Why had he made them? Why had he left them on Eric’s car? Was Dave trying to blackmail Eric? Leaving it on Eric’s car, obviously Dave had not intended Eileen to see it first, or—oh God, their kids.

Because that had almost happened. How close had her kids come to ripping Dave’s message open themselves? What if she’d been five seconds later getting out of the door this morning? She tried to imagine Ryan and Paige’s reactions—no, she couldn’t. Cameron begging to see too, clawing at the photos, Eileen trying to process what the photos meant in front of her kids—with them. All while the smug neighbor bitch across the street bearing witness before sliding into her Mercedes.

Eileen handed her boarding pass to the gate agent.

“Have a wonderful flight, Ms. Greyden.” The woman smiled at her.