“You know how much we feel for you and Keith,” she’d said, her eyes darting around nervously as we sat in my living room a few months back. “But we can’t make a habit of centering the Bowl around one of our close and personal friends. The optics of that… Well, you understand, right?”

Of course I did, but it didn’t make hearing it any easier.

As the lie came out of my lips, Keith blinked and stared at me in confusion. Then his forehead scrunched up, and he pulled himself into an upright position and shook his head.

“What?” he hissed loudly.

I cleared my throat again. With him watching me so carefully, the lie was difficult to get out. “Tammy called me. They’ve all agreed. They want you to be the recipient of this year’s annual benefit. Which means—”

“Paula—”

“—which means we can afford it, Keith,” I said firmly. It was a risk, since he could easily call them to check, but then again, Keith hadn’t been in touch with anyone from the la-di-d’artists in nearly a year. I knew he’d be happy to let me send thanks for both of us if I offered. “It won’t cover everything, but it’s a step in the right direction. We will be able to afford the surgery with Dr. Reveno. There’s no sense in fighting this. They’ve already decided. I’m calling Dr. Bryant in the morning.”

“I don’t…” he started, but he shook his head again and dropped his body back onto the pillow. I could see that he wanted to protest, but behind that, I could see something else brewing. Something I hadn’t seen on his face in a long time and that made me feel better about the lies I’d just told and the ones I would have to tell in the upcoming weeks.

Hope.

Chapter 10

I opened the settings in my internet browser and deleted my search history.

Then I deleted the cookies.

Then I turned off the Wi-Fi and restarted my computer.

It was the third time I’d done it that night. It seemed that I couldn’t be too careful when it came to searching for things like how to blackmail someone or is all blackmail illegal?

I’ve seen the movies where the criminal is brought to justice years later because of some file they opened on their computer back in the 1990s.

I’d be damned if I was going down like that.

Before tonight, the worst thing anyone would’ve found about me was a search about how many glasses of wine a night made you an alcoholic. Now, I was seriously contemplating doing something that was not only embarrassing—it was immoral.

Illegal.