Emma twisted the towel around her fingers. “She told Zeb she saw you somewhere when you were supposed to be at work. Maybe more than once. And that she’d noticed you acting strange, being secretive with your phone, telling little lies to her dad. I think she started trying to investigate . . .”

“Where?” There was a tight vibration inside Steph’s skull. “Where did she see me?”

“One time was during a driving lesson. She saw your car heading out of town.”

Steph felt like she was falling.

When you were supposed to be at work.

Telling lies to her dad.

Heading out of town.

“Zeb said she talked about getting her own car,” Emma went on, “as soon as possible, so she could follow you—”

“Follow me?”

“I think so. I don’t know much more, I’m afraid . . .” Emma’s head jerked as if she’d just remembered something else. “Except she mentioned a plan. Apparently she got upset, said there were parts she wasn’t proud of . . .”

“Was the plan to follow me?” Steph was short of breath and it distorted her voice. “Was that what she meant?”

“I don’t know. And I’m sorry I didn’t share this earlier. It’s just . . . all those people. I thought you’d want to know first.”

Steph raked a hand through her hair, pulling at the knots. The sneaking doubts that had chilled her as Paul had left the church were now surfacing as waves of nausea. Everything was shifting, reshaping.

It was she who Freya had felt let down by, her side of the triangle that had given way.

Not Paul. You.

Freya had been trying to follow her. For a moment Steph was sure she was going to be sick. As if she could tell, Emma passed her the towel. Steph held it over her nose and inhaled.

“She really told Zeb all of this?” she asked. “In that one night?”

“It seems so.”

“Where is Zeb?” Some part of Steph was trying to discredit the information, digging for a hint that Zeb was unreliable. Trying to shift the focus to Emma’s relationship with her child instead.

Because if this was true, it meant she’d failed in ways she couldn’t even comprehend right now. And Paul had absorbed the blame, was out there acting on it, when perhaps this was all on her. She had done this to their family and had refused to face up to the possibility.

“He’s staying with his dad,” Emma said. “They’re . . . getting to know each other.”