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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

Heat rose to my face. ‘How do you know?’

Her eyes fixed on her teacup, fingers tracing the edge, before catching mine.

‘When Rachel refused to tell her, I told Vera myself.’

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FORTY-FIVE

Why would Vera lie?

I was still trying to make sense of it when Maggie left my cottage a few minutes later.

Vera had been so shaken when I’d told her Claire was pregnant, so much so that it had sent her into a spiral, careening toward that awful night.

I hadn’t imagined it – Vera had told me, only this morning, that it had been a shock.

What’s more, she’d told me she’d never doubted John’s fidelity. She’d judged me when I dared to doubt him. When I had confessed to her about John waking up in my bed, her response hadn’t been what I’d expected at all. She’d made it sound like their marriage wasn’t perfect, but it was open and honest, strong in its way. Above the fray, above these rumors.

Her words flashed at me, sending a chill down my spine.

If they paint me as this woman scorned, that’s motive, Lucy.

It’s always the wife, that’s what I’d told her, only I’d never truly considered it myself – not beyond a passing thought.

She was Vera, my Vera. She wasn’t perfect, but she was good. She wasn’t capable of something like this. She loved him.

Only …

Vera was the one who knew exactly where John would be, who had never given a real explanation as to why she went over to the cabin the morning she found him. According to our plan, he was supposed to contact us. He was supposed to be deep into the Adirondacks by then.

Vera was the one who’d called me stupid when I suggested we tell the police the truth about our plan.

Vera had known that Claire was pregnant – or at least had known about the rumor – but had told me, point-blank, that she hadn’t.

Looking back on that night, at the one-eighty she’d taken when I’d told her, it almost felt like she could have been overdoing it, hamming it up to show me just how shocked she was.

But Sam had been arrested. Sam’s the one who did it.

Unless …

Unless Vera had been furious about John’s infidelity, about the fact that he got a teenager pregnant. That was enough to send anyone over the edge.

Unless she’d capitalized on my neediness, my fear, to lure me into their plot. Made it look like John had disappeared and then killed him – then made it look like I’d killed him.