Lily’s hand seized on the gun, but she didn’t pull the trigger. Instead, she exhaled, slowly, and once more searched the woods for any sign of Sean or Mickey. She didn’t want to hear whatever came next. Nor did she, like she originally fantasized, want Silas to hear it. But more than anything else, she didn’t want her children to hear it.

Silas nodded.

“I know.”

“Oh, but do you, really? Because I didn’t just fuck her, Silas. I fucked her a lot. In every hotel—and then motel—within a twenty-mile radius of your home. I even fucked her in your car once. The minivan with the TVs in the back. Did you know that?”

Silas shook his head.

“Did you know she fell in love with me? And the best part—oh, my favorite part: I got her to come to a grief group for Sarah’s anniversary. Your own wife, Silas. I got her to fall in love with me by talking about Sarah. If that isn’t poetic justice, I don’t know what is.”

Gavin took a step toward Silas, who still stood with Philip’s letter in his hands.

Lily noticed the cold of the air for the first time then, against her wet skin.

Silas looked up at Gavin, the note falling to his side in a clenched fist.

“Why are you talking in the past tense? What did you do to her?”

“Pssh.” Gavin exhaled through his nose, disgusted. Or, at least, disappointed. “There’s more to the plan! Isn’t that right, chickadee?”

“Dad,” Ruth said cautiously. Lily was surprised to hear her voice, the same voice she had heard all summer. A voice she had envied for its confidence, but that now only sounded so very young.

Gavin ignored her. “You took away my most precious person in the world, Silas Harrison. So now you will lose your most precious person. You will live what I lived.”

“What did you do to my wife?”

Gavin laughed. “Lily? Oh God, Silas. Come on. It doesn’t take a therapist to recognize she’s not the most precious person in your life. No, I had my fun with Lily, but she was just a means to the end. She provided access, so I could complete step two. Well, she and my lovely daughter, here. Ruthie, can you tell Silas what he should be asking?”

“Dad,” Ruth said again, and Lily barely registered Gavin’s cruelty as she looked Ruth’s way and, instead, saw Sean.

He had one arm around Ruth’s neck, his pocketknife against her throat. He was mostly in shadow, but she could see his arm was steady. Her breath caught.

“Put down the gun or, I swear, I’ll kill her.”