I squinted at a photo in the top corner of the front page. “Hey look. Nicky, isn’t that Andy Webb from high school? I heard he’s starring on a new cop show.”

“Probably not for long,” she smirked.

“What do you mean?”

Nicole took the paper and opened it up to a fuzzy full-page photo of Andy and another man locked in a romantic embrace.

“Holy shit,” I exhaled.

“Quite the career killer.” She chuckled. “Wonder who tipped them off?”

“Jesus.” I eyed her suspiciously.

She turned the page. “Here’s the spread on you.”

There were several photos from Circle and one picture of me as a baby in my mother’s arms with Anna standing off to the side. An arrow pointed to her with a caption that read, “The new Mrs. Goldstein.”

“Tacky,” I said, “but no big deal.”

Penny turned the page. “Uh-oh.”

We hadn’t seen the worst of it. Standing in front of a banana tree looking bloated and haggard was Merilee. She had on my old leather jacket over a purple-flowered muumuu. In quotes over her head were the words “I’M BROKE!”

“Oh dear,” Penny sighed.

On the opposite page were photos of me at sixteen with Merilee, Bea, and Mirabelle—pictures from my trip to Hawaii captioned, JACKIE’S SECRET FAMILY.

My mother had sold me out.

I caught myself as the table spun from under me.

“Are you okay?” Penny asked as Nicole put an arm around me.

I shook my head, signaling our waiter as a group of well-dressed ladies carrying shopping bags settled in at the table next to us. “It’s Jackie Gold!” one of them whispered.

“May I bring you something else?” the waiter offered.

“Stoli rocks,” I managed to rasp.

Penny and Nicole exchanged glances. “Jackie, it’s early, honey,” Penny chided gently.

“They’ll stick with their Diet Cokes,” I said to the waiter, ignoring their looks. “Boy, what a stinky steaming turd!” I said, holding up the pictures. “You gotta figure she got at least fifteen grand. Too bad I hadn’t been topless, right? A picture of my teenaged boobs? Wow. That could have bought her a house!”

“Jackie, shhh. Take it easy.” Nicole moved her chair closer to mine and put her arm around my shoulder.

“She even used Mirabelle!”

“Who is Mirabelle?” Penny whispered.

“Jackie’s half-sister,” Nicole whispered back.

I didn’t need to turn around to know the women next to us were hanging on my every word. The waiter returned with my drink. I held onto his sleeve while I downed it, then handed back the empty glass and told him to bring me another. I could feel myself starting to lose it. I hid my face and prayed those ladies weren’t packing cameras.

“God, Nicole. How could she?” I whispered from behind my napkin.

“What do you want to do?” Penny whispered to me.

“What can I do?” I whispered back.