By the time we get back to Belgrano, despite Edward’s pleas to her to drop it and Anders’s increasing and obvious discomfort, Gemma is so shaken by seeing Lucy that she seems unable to let it go. Cali loses her patience before I do.

“Do you guys want us to leave? Because this is getting really awkward, so maybe Liz and I should go. Unless someone would like to explain to us what, in the general hell, is going on?”

Anders and Edward look expectantly at Gemma, as if to say: your call, throw your friends out or tell them the truth. Gemma turns to us and I can see her attempting to recover her sparkle a bit.

“Well, girls, as you’re aware no one really knows I’m here, other than our darling Edward. But the thing is, Lucy runs in the same circles as my ex, Thomas, and so now we’ve got a bit of a problem on our hands.”

“Why does it matter if Thomas knows where you are?” Cali asks. “I mean, it’s none of his business, is it? He’s your ex.”

“Well, the divorce isn’t . . . completely final.”

Gemma buries her face in her hands.

“What does that mean, Gemma?” Anders asks.

My brain struggles to track this new information: the reason Gemma is hesitating about Anders is because she’s still married to someone else.

“Did you know?” Anders takes a menacing step toward Edward.

“Of course not,” Edward spits out. “Gemma! Dear god. Do you realize what you’ve done? He could take the girls away, permanently!”

Now both men are standing to one side of her and Gemma has collapsed into the Eames chaise by Edward’s fireplace, prostrate, with her sobbing face buried in her forearms on the armrest.

The girls. Of course. There was Lucy’s mention of them and the strange moment in the courtyard, Mummy misses you and loves you very much. I realize I’ve known it for a while: Gemma didn’t only leave behind a maybe-not-so-ex-husband—she left behind her kids.

“So how old are they?” I ask. “Your kids?” My voice, as I hear it, sounds eerily calm. For a moment, there’s a hush, and Gemma lifts her head and meets my eyes.

“Eight and six,” she says. “My angels. My whole world!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Cali says, catching up now, not having the benefit of having heard the phone call, which it occurs to me now, Gemma lied about so swiftly, so seamlessly. “You left your kids?”

“I didn’t leave them, for god’s sake.” Gemma’s on the defense now. “I’m going back. I just need some time. You don’t know what it’s like! Thomas’s family and mine, they’re just going to think I’m some selfish harlot. I needed a moment to breathe, to strategize.”

“You lied to us,” Anders says.