They’d called Graham in again to ask him some more questions—this was the visit Graham told Lauren about on the cacio e pepe night, the one where he purportedly deflected the blame to Andrea and Ronnie.

“He didn’t bring up Andrea or Ronnie,” Allegra said. Lauren was baffled, but only for a minute. Of course he didn’t, she realized. Because I never told him anything. He’d been toying with her memory like it was a ball of yarn. Inventing a slip in her memory that would seal the deal for her to check into the mental facility. Making her think it was her idea after he’d said that she should be the one to decide. And she’d fallen for it.

“We said we didn’t buy his alibi,” Allegra went on. “Said he’d better start telling the truth. Asked if maybe he’d found his ex’s presence a bit of a nuisance and wanted her gone. Asked if he’d specifically chosen Silver Swans to get close to her. Graham denied that, said he had no idea Piper was living here when your family moved in. And then he said that he was pretty sure you had figured out Piper was his ex.”

“That’s not true!” Lauren said. “I had no idea they were together!” She explained how she’d found the recipe book, the picture. Allegra said they didn’t believe anything Graham was saying at that point. He was grasping at straws. They just needed to figure out what he’d done.

Lauren took a careful look at the day Graham made her the pasta. He’d been so calm and collected at that meal—and meanwhile, the cops were closing in. It was another reason why he made up a memory that didn’t exist. He made Lauren doubt her loyalty, her sense of time and truth—going to the rest cure wasn’t just to fuck with her; it was to prove her instability to the police. To exonerate him. If Lauren had gone to the wellness place, it would have only proven Graham’s theory that she was crazy. The police might have even bought it. How close she’d come to doing exactly what he wanted!

After Graham left the police station the morning before he made her pasta, the cops had come to Lauren’s door to corroborate his story—they wanted to know if she’d found out he’d once dated Piper, and so on. But Lauren had hidden in the bedroom; she’d been afraid they were calling about Ronnie and Andrea. Allegra even cruised by Lauren’s house, intending to pay a visit—but caught her just as she was pulling out of the driveway to go to LA to confront Graham. “I followed you,” Allegra said. “All the way to his workplace. Gained access to the premises with my badge.”