Sources close to the Coster family say that Sutherland resisted Avery’s decision to call off their planned wedding, even going so far as to accuse others of sabotaging their relationship. Several people who knew the couple recall his certainty that their already-completed wedding program—designed by Meg Mackworth, the lately-in-demand “Planner of Park Slope”—contained a hidden message that the marriage would be a “mistake.” “Who thinks there’s a hidden message in their wedding program?” one source we talked to said. “Clearly, the guy has a screw loose. I’m pretty sure it’ll come out that he’s the one behind this so-called fraud.”

No, I want to shout at this stupid, wrong rectangle, immediately defensive of Reid. I can see it, how this angle will take off, how it will spread like wildfire. Of course the numbers won’t be interesting. Of course the breakup with a beautiful, beleaguered socialite will be.

But this isn’t how it went!

Or at least, it isn’t . . . quite how it went, not so long as Reid has been telling the truth. About him, about Avery, about the feelings between them.

And he has been, right?

Except . . . Reid never told me he’d shown anyone else those hidden letters. Reid never told me anyone else knew about them at all.

Don’t panic, I chide myself. He promised he’d explain.

I take a deep breath, deciding this could be so much worse. Sure, my name is tied up in this, but no one will believe this accusation about a hidden message. It’s like this so-called friend says: Who would think that?

Then I read the next paragraph.

Maybe Sutherland does have “a screw loose,” but there’s at least some evidence to suggest he wasn’t paranoid about Mackworth’s program. We got ahold of one of these never-used programs, and once you start looking for it, the “mistake” is pretty clear. Did The Planner of Park Slope know something Ms. Coster didn’t? We’ve reached out to Mackworth—who we hear is still in touch with Sutherland—via her website, and to the shop where she used to peddle her secret-code scribbles, but so far, haven’t heard back.

Beneath it, there’s a photo of the program, marred with red circles around every letter featuring one of my cleverly drawn, traditionally whimsical characters.

There it is, for the whole world to see. The word, the pattern, the code.

The mistake.