She opened the latter and read that he was sorry, but he was happy and he hoped that someday she would forgive him. Evidently, tears could be replenished at the drop of a hat—or maybe in this case, the opening of a message.

Jody got a fistful of plastic grocery bags from a cabinet drawer and headed back down the narrow hallway. Like a bolt of lightning, it hit her—Lyle had to have taken money from their savings to pay for their little weekend honeymoon.

Strewing bags the whole way back to the living room, she started to cuss instead of cry. Her hands shook as she typed in the right codes for her online banking account. Yesterday, there had been more than three thousand dollars in the joint checking account. Now there was only a thousand. And the savings account was gone, all but for one hundred dollars.

She sank down to the floor and leaned her head on the sofa, hoping to stop the room from spinning. There wasn’t a thing she could do about it. She and Lyle weren’t married, and they’d opened the joint accounts years ago. But come Monday morning, she’d be at the bank when it opened, and the meager amount still there would be transferred to one in her name only.

Her phone rang and she almost didn’t answer it. No way was she talking to him again—not right then or maybe ever. But then she saw Mitzi’s picture.

“I need you and Paula. It’s an emergency,” her voice quavered.

“Are you sick? Did someone die?” Mitzi asked.

Jody started to sob uncontrollably again. “Just come out here, please.”

“We’ll be there in five minutes. Don’t do anything stupid until we get there,” Mitzi said.

“Okay,” Jody blubbered.

She was still sitting on the floor, staring at her phone, when Mitzi and Paula burst through the front door. “Look.” She held it up. “He didn’t sell the property to Quincy. He was having an affair with a younger woman. And he took all our money to take her on a honeymoon and God knows what else, and all I’ve got is a travel trailer. It leaks and it doesn’t even have a bathroom. I gave up everything for him! His sister even came from Houston for the wedding. I gave up steaks and fried chicken so I’d be thin like he wanted, and he married a chubby woman who dresses like a hooker. I became a vegetarian!”

Mitzi sat on the floor with her and took the phone from her hands. “Who is this a picture of?”