JESSICA

A half hour later, Jessica was parked on Delrosa Drive. A small horseshoe-shaped street located on the west side of Eagle Rock, it was mostly populated by single-story bungalows. Trees flopped languidly over each side of the street, forming a natural canopy that provided shade from the unrelenting sun, while the curved bends offered cover for the truck.

A surveillance job required patience and focus. It was the perfect way to alleviate the fury that had ripped through Jessica following the confrontation with Connor. She chewed on a takeout sandwich, sipped soda from a go-cup, and watched the property on the other side of the street fifty yards away.

After another thirty minutes, the anger had settled to a steady simmer.

The house was the color of wet cement and reminded Jessica of rainy days in New York. It was nothing fancy but not shabby either. Modest but well maintained. There was a tidy porch and a tiny strip of lawn and a driveway occupied by a silver sedan. Jessica hoped the car meant the occupant of the house was still at home and hadn’t gone out for the day. She knew the son was away at college and the husband was long gone.

Jessica watched and waited. She stopped thinking about Matt Connor and started thinking about the letter from Tony.

Eventually, she reached into the glove compartment and pulled out the white envelope Pryce had given her. Turned it over in her hands a few times. It was light, suggesting its contents were no more than a sheet or two. But the words potentially contained within those pages weighed heavily on Jessica’s mind.

Would it be more lies? A confession revealing a terrible truth? Jessica wasn’t sure which would be worse.

“Oh, just open the damn thing,” she muttered.

She slid a fingernail under the gummed seal and lifted up the corner of the flap and stopped.

Everything she had thought she’d known about her relationship with Tony had already changed forever. Whenever she thought of the complete and utter trust she had shown in a man who had turned out to be such an accomplished liar, she felt a toxic mix of anger, hurt, and humiliation. She knew that any further damage caused by this letter could be irreparable.

Still, she had to know. Jessica took a deep breath and lifted the seal farther.

Movement from the drab gray house caught her eye.

Jessica huffed out a sigh, a combination of relief and frustration, and stuffed the envelope back in the glove compartment.

Ninety-seven minutes after Jessica had pulled up at the curb, the screen door had opened. Now, a lumpy figure in a shapeless dress stepped onto the porch.