“That’s Ted’s ex-wife, Phoebe. She and Holly met at the breakfast this morning,” Zanne said.

Erin put her hand to her mouth. “Outside the bathroom. Holly couldn’t wait to get away. I had no idea! Ted was married before?”

“Apparently.”

So Ted’s two wives had shared more than cursory conversation. There’s always an opportunist lurking around, Holly had told Ted this morning, before she left for the marina. She’d meant Phoebe. Phoebe had pressed the postcard into her hand, and Holly had crammed it into her tiny purse, putting it out of sight. Had Holly seen her at the party? Or worse, talking to Ted? And now Holly was gone. Disappeared in the middle of the party she was hosting. She was behaving unpredictably at a time when she and Ted both needed to be predictable, above reproach. And if reporters were following her... No. It was not good.

Mark tucked his head into the solarium. “Holly’s gone?”

His office was down the hall and he’d been listening.

“We lost her,” Erin warbled.

The Stablers didn’t get lost. Ted and Holly didn’t understand how carefully their family’s movements were tracked throughout the day, responsibility handed off from staffer to staffer as they passed from one activity to the next. He’s awake, someone would email, and Katya would know to start Ted’s breakfast. In the shower, someone would write, and Raj would go to the gym to wipe down the machines he’d used. Leaving piano, and Steve and Julia would check Google maps to predict Zoe and Holly’s arrival at home. Coming up the driveway, and the math tutor would head to the children’s study with his flash cards and manipulables to wait.

“Why’d she take off?” Mark asked. “Because of the ad? I’ve seen a few people who guessed that Ted and Holly are the Hollywood Couple, but I’ve also seen votes for Kim and Kanye, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ryan Murphy, and half a dozen of the Real Housewives. I get that it’s embarrassing, but it’s gonna blow over. The bigger problem is the leak,” Mark said.

“Leak? Where?” Zanne asked. Had a water main broken on the driveway again? Was the faucet dripping in the downstairs powder room?

“We’ve got a mole. Someone who works here wrote a tell-all about it on InsideScoop—pretty convincingly, I might add.”

“Oh no,” Erin whispered, eyes wide.

“When Ted and Holly find out, heads will roll.”

Zanne’s heart began to heave, but she made her eyes go dead inside the way she used to when unpleasant things were happening. Just be smart, she’d told herself earlier, and then she’d gone and written that confession. Just be smart, she’d told herself so many times, right before she used again.