Chapters (51)
- Cover
- Praise for Sara Shepard
- Also by Sara Shepard
- Dedication
- PART ONE
- —
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- PART TWO
- Piper
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Piper
- Eighteen
- Piper
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Piper
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Piper
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Piper
- Thirty-Four
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
Footsteps padded down the hall. Ronnie glanced up, expecting Esme, but then Lane himself appeared in the doorway. “Sorry, I just forgot my . . .” He stopped. His gaze drifted to the open drawer, and then to the key in Ronnie’s palm. The color drained quickly from his face. “Ronnie,” Lane whispered, his eyes darting again to the key. “Oh.”
It was all Ronnie needed to know. She held up the key. “Is this to Piper’s desk?”
Lane’s mouth opened and closed, like a goldfish. He took a step toward her, but Ronnie stood and moved to the other side of the bed to form a barrier. “Did you hurt her? Should I be afraid of you? Do Esme and I need to leave?”
“Oh God, oh God no,” Lane blurted. He was crying now, the tears spilling out of him. “Ronnie, the day after we talked on the balcony, do you remember? I went into her office. Something you said bothered me—I wanted to make sure she wasn’t judging you for some reason, like maybe because we weren’t married. And . . . okay, there was this file on her desk. It was about . . . you.”
Ronnie blinked hard. “So you did know there was a file.”
“Yes, but only for a day.” Lane looked wrecked. “I swear, only for a day.”
“You knew about Topless Maids before I told you.” It explained, then, why Lane had seemed shaken but not nearly as wrecked as she’d predicted—he’d had time to wrap his head around it.
But then she realized what else he might have known. A hand fluttered to her mouth. She took another step immediately. “Oh,” she whispered.
Lane knew right away what she was thinking. “Honey, I was going to talk to you about all of it. Really.” He ran his shaking fingers down the length of his face. “But I wanted to talk to Piper first. Get an explanation for why she had this big dossier on your past. I stewed over it for a while, but then I couldn’t wait another minute. I found her in her hallway that next day.”
“The same day I was there.”
“Yes, but I mean . . . I didn’t know. I tried to talk to Piper, but . . . but she wasn’t listening. She tried to push past me. She didn’t want me there.”
“So you attacked her?”