These days, the girls went out in pairs, same as before, but now they were always the same pair. They got to know each other. They didn’t always become friends, necessarily, but they knew each other’s routines, and they knew to look out for each other if anything got sticky. There was more thorough vetting of the clients now, and an increase in their fees, and the scheduling was all done online. Ronnie also organized regular happy hours for the dancers so they could bond with one another, as the girls at Kittens had done. Ronnie loved watching all of them at the bar as they compared their stories. A lot of them were in school, getting degrees. Some of them had kids, like Ronnie. Some of them were married. They knew one another now.

Ronnie knew better than to keep secrets anymore. Secrets ruined you. Though ironically, it was the secrets she and Lane were keeping that bound them together. Countless times she’d wanted to tell the other women what Lane had told her about that day in the hallway, with Piper—especially Lauren’s role. But she didn’t. It would open up a box that needed to stay closed. In the past. Did she ever glance at Lane across the room and think, I can’t believe it? Sure. But anyone was capable of rash actions. Anyone was capable of lying. Especially if the lies protected someone else.

The doorbell rang, and they turned. Arthur was already bolting through the house and flinging it open. “King!” he exclaimed. “Mom! It’s King!”

In ran King, a floppy-haired four-year-old. He’d also moved to the new preschool that Arthur and Esme attended, even though it was far less flashy than Silver Swans. Following him was his mother, Jane. She wore a whisper-soft cashmere sweater and jeans that accentuated her toothpick-thin legs, and she had cascading tendrils of honey-blond hair. Jane was the sort of woman who made you pause—sort of the way Piper used to. There was a perfection about her, something you were pretty sure you’d never live up to.

“Hello!” Jane called out to Andrea and the others, trilling her fingers. And then, “King! Take off your shoes!”

As though Jane had given some silent go-ahead, the rest of the mothers descended almost at once. It was practically all of them from Esme and Arthur’s old Silver Swans class, and a lot of other Silver Swans parents, and some new classmates. They crowded in the doorway en masse; Andrea flitted around them, taking their coats. Ronnie recognized a few from Trader Joe’s. Lauren was pretty sure she’d fire-breathed next to the mom in the corner at her awful prenatal yoga class. Andrea had even invited a few parents who sent their kids to St. Sebastian’s. There were so many of them, filling the space.