Imani’s eyes welled. Melissa watched her tears fall for a moment before Imani wiped them away and turned her attention to the hovering detectives. “What will happen now?”

Detective Calvente awkwardly smoothed the button-down covering her chest. “Philip will have to answer for what he’s done.”

Imani pressed her hand to her heart, as if she could stop it from shattering by holding it tight enough. Her bottom lip quivered. But as she made eye contact with Melissa, it stopped. “I’m so sorry,” she said again.

Melissa caught Detective Calvente’s sideways glance at her friend, as if she was expecting her to admit to something. “You didn’t know,” Melissa emphasized.

“I should have figured it out sooner.” Imani looked at the ceiling, blinking away tears. “I guess I’ve only ever seen one part of Philip, or maybe I only allowed myself to see one part of him. It was like he was this ink blot on a folded paper, and I assumed that the side out of view matched what was in front of me. But it didn’t. And I never opened it up, you know?”

As Nate’s wife, Melissa knew exactly what her friend meant. Love wasn’t blind, but it involved blinders. She’d seen Nate as the debonair director whom all women wanted long after his appeal had faded, and he’d begun using his influence to force himself on unwilling girls. She’d kept courting his attention as if he’d still been the artistic genius she’d married.

A sob escaped Imani’s pressed lips. Melissa continued clutching her hand. They’d both been in the dark about their husbands. Now their spouses were gone—one dead, one destined for prison. But they were alive. Together, they would find the light.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

TONYA

Six Months Later

No more secrets. Tonya mentally repeated her new motto as she watched Layla twist the fine threads of the friendship bracelet on her wrist. Her daughter’s nervous fidget was the only sign of the momentousness of what they were about to do—what Tonya was poised to give up.

She reached out to Layla’s head and tucked a clump of wavy hair behind her ear. Sunlight glinted on the copper strands in Layla’s blond mane, reminding Tonya of the sea at dawn when water took on the sky’s red and gold hues. In the past couple of months, the sun had also added freckles to her kid’s nose, which was finally unmasked thanks to Layla’s twelfth birthday and the vaccines that were now widely available for anyone of middle-school age and up.