Staring into her teacup, she suddenly stops.

“What is it?”

“I remember her saying something about an affair before Aubrey was born, but she wasn’t specific. When I really put my mind to it, I can’t come up with anything that would point to anyone. Just a feeling.”

“A feeling?”

“Yeah, I remember her asking me what I would think if he ran off with a waitress.”

“A waitress,” I repeat.

“Yeah,” she says. “We kind of laughed about it. I told her that he’d never run off with someone beneath him. I don’t mean to be a snob, and I’m sure there are plenty of nice waitresses out there, but really, for Adam, it would be too big of a step down.”

“I know you said it was a feeling,” I say, “but do you think that Adam was cheating on her recently?”

Janna shrugs a little. “Honestly, I don’t know for sure. We talked about all kinds of things—my boyfriend of the moment, our jobs, her baby when Aubrey was born—but Adam wasn’t our focus. He was there, of course, like a shadow she could never shake.”

I take her words and rearrange them. “Did she want to shake off the shadow?”

She offers a faint smile. “I think so. She told me that he was a bigger control freak than her father at times, and if you’ve heard anything about Mr. Flynn—who I never met—you know that’s saying quite a lot.”

I don’t want to dwell on Mr. Flynn. Instead, I say, “A moment ago you said ‘some weird stuff’ in reference to Adam. What did you mean by that?”

She hesitates. “I don’t know. Kinky stuff, I guess. One time when Sophie and I went shopping in Bellevue, we took Adam’s car. When we put our stuff in the trunk, there was one of those sex dolls inside.”

I have no idea what she’s talking about.

“What kind of doll?”

She makes a disgusted face. “Those blow-up dolls that guys mess around with, I guess. Anyway, she was angry that it was still there. Said Adam told her it was from a friend at work. Bachelor party joke or something along those lines.”

I process that and set it aside before moving on.

“Lately, Janna,” I say, digging in, “how was Sophie? Happy? Troubled? Any feelings on that?”

“Better. That’s for sure. Things settled down after Aubrey was born. I think having a baby was good for her—good for them. They argued still, but they always had that little girl to come back to. Sophie was private, but not so much that I wouldn’t know.”

“So they were happy?” I ask.

“As happy as they could be.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

Janna offers me a second cup of tea, but I decline.

“Being happy takes a lot of work. With a demanding job and a child, at the end of the day, how much time is there to be happy? Me? I’m exhausted now. I can’t imagine how beat-up I’ll feel when Sophie is born.”