Lauren looked at her screen again. “That school called me back. Left a message. I’m just looking at the transcription. They’re saying North Jovan isn’t a student at St. Sebastian. They’ve never heard of him.”

“Okay.” Ronnie felt a pinch of annoyance. This was what was slowing them down? She needed to get out of here. She needed to get to Esme. “They must have chosen another school, then. Somewhere else.”

“But I swear Piper mentioned that school,” Andrea said. “In the meeting. I swear she did.” She gave both of them an uneasy look. “Why would she lie about that?”

“Piper lies about a lot of things.”

Everyone whipped around. A man stood in the hallway, one hand carrying a sheaf of papers, the other holding a gun. Ronnie had no idea who he was, but he was smiling at the group like they were old friends. “She lies about a lot of things,” he repeated. “There is no North anymore. North is dead.”

Lauren drew in a breath, her whole body shrinking. “Graham,” she whispered, her voice small and doomed.

Thirty

Lauren’s husband stood five feet away. He wore a T-shirt she’d bought for him at a fancy boutique when they first got together. It cost over a hundred dollars, which Graham said seemed excessive, but she’d liked the way it hung on him. It still fit him nicely. The shirt was so achingly familiar that it made everything else about him right now—his frantic expression, his gnashed teeth, and that gun—even more incongruous.

“Graham,” Lauren whispered. “W-Where did you get that gun?”

“What are you doing here?” Graham shot back.

Lauren opened her mouth, but no words came. Ronnie stepped forward. “What do you mean, North is dead?”

Graham’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “He died when he was a baby.”

Fury rose in Lauren. Lies upon fucking lies. “What are you talking about? Why would Piper keep saying he is alive?”

“I don’t know!” Graham said. “But . . . she couldn’t bear it after he passed. She kept talking to him like he was still there; she would walk around the block with an empty stroller. It’s why we broke up. She couldn’t move on. It just got . . . too much. I was hurting, too. We had to part ways.”

This was all just too strange. “So you pretended not to know her to protect that lie?” she said, trying to work out his reasoning.

Graham shrugged. “I had no idea she was still doing it until a few weeks ago. I only started to put it together when I looked at the preschool website and after you came out of the breakfast. After all this time . . .” He shook his head. “I can’t believe she still thinks he’s alive.” Then he looked at Lauren. “I told you she’s crazy.”