But Zach’s faster than I am. He’s across the kitchen in two long strides and has my shirt in his hands. He spins to his right, yanking me away from the door. His strength and my body weight propel me. The room swirls around me, like I’m on an out-of-control merry-go-round. I hit the table, and he lets me go.

I’m unable to stop. I go over the table and fall on the other side, crashing against the floor. I scramble to get back to my feet, the cells in my body lit up with adrenaline like an overloaded circuit board.

But Zach is here above me, and before I can get to my feet, he knocks me back down, looming over me.

I don’t have my phone. Or anything like a weapon.

If I’d only packed a knife as I had when Madeline was here.

And Zach is younger and stronger than I am.

“You killed her,” he says. His voice is raw and husky. His eyes glazed and red. He looks like something forged in a furnace of anger.

“I didn’t even know your wife, Zach. You have to believe that.”

“Sophia saw you walking by the house. You watched her. You came by like you were walking your dog, but you were really watching her.”

“I was watching both of you.” I wish I could retract the words as soon as I say them. Zach isn’t in a state of mind to hear a nuanced description of my grief. Or to understand the reasons a man would watch another couple going about their mundane lives. “I had no reason to kill anybody. And I promise you, I didn’t.”

“It was Madeline,” he says. A wave of whiskey-tainted breath comes off him. “It started with her. I know you were the last one to see her before she left. And I know that’s a bad look for a college professor. It’s not that uncommon for professors to get involved with their students. I’m sure you and Madeline were doing it.”

“You’re crazy. There was nothing like that.”

“And Madeline told Sophia during one of their post-yoga bitch sessions, so you killed Sophia to silence her.”

“I didn’t. I didn’t know your wife except to see her from the street. Jesus, Zach, you have to know none of this is close to true. It isn’t.”

Zach goes on, ignoring me. “And that must have spooked Madeline for a while. But then what happened? Did it all get to be too much for her? Did she finally just have enough of whatever was going on between the two of you and run away? She let everyone think she was dead. You must have thought she was dead too, right? Or did you always suspect she’d come back into your life?”