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Back One White Lie Save as PDF
Chapters (59)
  1. COVER
  2. About the Author
  3. DEDICATION
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. FIFTY
  54. FIFTY-ONE
  55. FIFTY-TWO
  56. FIFTY-THREE
  57. FIFTY-FOUR
  58. Acknowledgments
  59. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Rachel licked a bit of wine off her lips. ‘She was. And she and John took care of it. I had heard some of the art students saying things about Claire and John, but I’d always chalked it up to teenage gossip – a stupid crush. The classes ended, and I stood by John, but then, one day, something he said about Claire, about the way he missed her, what a great student she was, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. When he was out getting supplies one afternoon – we were working on a project together, like I said, and I was in his cabin a lot – I checked his search history. He’d been too stupid to delete it. It was from about a month before, right when the talk about the two of them had really kicked into gear. John had searched for Planned Parenthoods in the area. Then he’d looked up one nearby on Google Maps. That’s when I knew.’

I shook my head, not able to process this. ‘Maybe he was searching for Vera.’

Rachel took another sip of wine. ‘Believe me. He wasn’t.’

I swallowed back the acid in my throat. ‘You told her?’

‘Vera? God, no. I couldn’t do that to her. I don’t know if she told you, but she’d had a miscarriage herself, before she and John moved here. I couldn’t tell her that a kid, a child, had been carrying John’s baby. But I did tell her that I had reasons to think the rumors were true. I didn’t tell her exactly why – I couldn’t bear to – but I tried to convince her that John wasn’t as honest as she thought he was.’

‘And that’s what tore you guys apart?’

Rachel raised her eyebrows. ‘I can’t blame her. It breaks my heart, but I can’t.’

I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around all that Rachel had said. It couldn’t be true. I pictured John loading canvas and two-by-fours into his pickup, chopping wood in the backyard. He was good. He had to be. Apart from that one stupid night with me, he was.

‘You should have told her,’ I said finally. ‘If you actually thought it was true. Wouldn’t she deserve to know?’

‘No,’ Rachel said. ‘I love her too much to do that to her.’

I loved Vera, too. Only this, if this was true, it was huge. This was life-altering. Awful. This changed everything. If Sam had known – or even suspected – of course he’d be angry. Irate. He’d want to kill the guy. Who wouldn’t?

‘Have you told this to the police?’

Rachel hesitated.

‘You have to,’ I said.