I can see Dad’s face through the crack in the door, and he looks betrayed even though he should know better by now.

“What did you tell him?” Dad mumbles.

“I think you know.”

“You’re sick. Do you know that? I’m your husband.”

“And I’m your wife. But you were willing to take him from me. All you had to do was love him.”

I don’t understand what’s happening. Who is Dad talking about? Was he mugged, or did something else happen? And who is “him”?

“So you told Amy it was a mugging,” Mum says.

“What else could I tell her? That I knew the man who did this to me…that he accused me of…”

Dad’s face looks like it’s going to shatter. I can only see a slice of it through the door, but it’s enough to know something’s horribly wrong. He can’t finish the sentence because he’s sobbing, and I want to run to him. But I need to watch this play out.

“What did you tell him?” Dad asks.

“I didn’t tell him anything. It was an anonymous little birdy that told Simon Wells his daughter was getting friendly with a man who should know better.”

Simon Wells. I know that name. He’s Pippa and Evie’s dad. He owns the garage, and Mum flirts with him when the car has its emissions check.

What does Mum mean about one of them getting friendly with a man who should know better? Is Dad that man?

“I would never…” he whispers.

“But he doesn’t know that. And, seeing what he did to you, I’m assuming you didn’t get the chance to deny it.”

“Why?” Dad says. “What do you get from making up lies about me and an eighteen-year-old? Is that the kind of husband you want people to think I am?”

The bathroom is quiet for a while. All I can hear is my father’s frantic breathing. Then Mum clears her throat and says, “I don’t care what they think you are, Chris. But you should. Because, if I want to, I can ruin you. I can spread rumors about half the girls in the village.

“For now, it’s just one…and I’m assuming, after today’s incident, that Mr. Wells won’t want the police involved. But others don’t react with their fists. That’s why I picked him. I knew he’d punch first and think later. Evie is probably telling him right now that it’s made up. But, if enough people hear a lie, it starts sounding like the truth.

“If you ever threaten to break up this family again, I will make sure you are the only one who suffers.”

IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII II

Logan sits by his window as the sound of the night ripples through his room.