The stark apology knocked Alice’s world out from under her and then she was falling. Her hand flew to her mouth, trying to stifle the agonizing cry that rose, seeking an exit. Brutal despair ripped and tore, and tentacles of pain spread their way through her, leaving no cell untouched. They found the images of her longed-for babies—pictures she’d created in her mind years ago. Babies she loved. Children she’d woven hopes and dreams around as much for them as for herself. Children she loved so deeply she’d navigated the app-driven dating scene, sifting through every type of man, optimistically searching for the one she loved, who loved her and who wanted children too.

Meeting Tim whose online persona hid the liar within.

Her heart broke and the images of her little boy and girl pixelated slowly, square by square, disintegrating in front of her eyes then falling like a shattered pane of glass. Irreparable. Irreversible. Gone forever.

Chapter Eighteen

Jess checked her email, her eyes searching for a reply from Libby. Nothing. Again.

It was four days since Jess had sent her email. After corresponding with Libby this way for seven months, Jess knew the drill. Libby’s fastest response was forty-eight hours and her longest was seventy-two. Now she was agonizing over the best next step. If she re-sent the email, would Libby reset the clock and make her wait another two or more days? Would sending it weaken her already vulnerable position in this triad? But what if the first email was circling, lost in the ether of cyberspace and Libby had never received it?

Not knowing was doing Jess’s head in.

During all the years she’d known Libby, not once had she ever considered her capable of behaving without empathy. Of knowingly inflicting pain. But this was a side of her friend she’d never glimpsed before, let alone seen. A parade of words teenage Jess had once reserved for her mother, her mother’s friends and half the women in the town—mean and thoughtless bitches one and all—played in her head, every one of them directed at Libby. They demanded to be screamed until her throat burned and her voice was hoarse. The only thing stopping her was that Leo was in the house. She didn’t want to scare him.