“That’s the sea. Not a lake.” Fox is sitting in the living room directly in front of the kitchen area. The couch and love seat fill most of the space, which has a perfect view of the abnormally large TV and the backyard.

Joy stares at him for a beat. Usually, people don’t catch her references that fast. Mildly impressive. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember asking you, or your bushy yet wonderous eyebrows, for your opinion.”

Fox opens his mouth and closes it again.

Joy turns back to Malcolm. “Which room is mine? I obviously need to change.”

“Upstairs. End of the hall.” His tone is oozing suspicion—she can even see it in his eyes. But he doesn’t ask.

“Are my—”

“By the closet.”

“And the—”

“Straight and to your left.”

“Great,” Joy says. “Really love it when you answer my questions before I’m finished asking, by the way. Ten out of ten.” As she’s leaving, she catches Fox touching one of his eyebrows. When he realizes she’s watching, she grins at him and he drops his hand, quickly turning away.

Upstairs, her room has a queen-size bed, a private bathroom, and as promised by Malcolm’s psychic interruptions, her purse and suitcases are there, arranged in a row from largest to smallest, in front of the closet. Joy strips off her clothes, hopping into the shower to rinse her braids and get the lake water off her skin.

Showers are the perfect place to think. The water pressure is divine and perfectly lukewarm, complementing the hot summer air outside. Joy inhales and sighs as the smell of lavender and mint fills the bathroom as she lathers the soap on her loofa.

What in the hell is she going to do?

The accusations in Caroline’s goodbye letter slammed into Joy’s ego like a runaway freight train because she wasn’t completely wrong. Even now, thinking about it made her stomach roil with guilt. Malcolm did put Joy first. Not always, but enough to be noticeable. Like the time he nursed her back to health when she got the flu on the same night Caroline threw a party to celebrate her promotion at work. Or the time Joy’s Christmas flight home got canceled and he volunteered to drive with her across the state instead of spending his first couple’s holiday with Caroline. Tricky situations like that happened often. Sometimes, Joy asked. Other times, Malcolm offered. In the end, it was always at Caroline’s expense. Their intentions weren’t malicious or deceitful, even if they looked that way. Malcolm wouldn’t choose between them, so Caroline chose for him.

If Caroline was right about that, Joy thought that maybe, perhaps she was also not wrong about Joy being the spawn of Satan, sent directly from hell to ruin Caroline’s life.