She looks at me with the same kind of hardness in her eyes that Mom gets whenever someone does something incredibly stupid, like Afton is pissed with me, for some reason, like it’s my fault. She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth for a few seconds, then releases it. But she doesn’t speak. She’s in the shocked silence stage.

I move on to the babbling stage. “I mean, I guess it makes sense, Mom and Billy. Right? They, like, touch each other all the time, pat one another on the shoulder, that kind of thing. They hug sometimes, and Mom’s not exactly a hugger, is she? I always thought that was just because they were best friends.” I try not to think about the white robe. The noises. The bed. “I’m so stupid! I never would have guessed.” I remember last year at the awards ceremony when I saw Billy mouth the words “I love you” to his wife. And I was so naive that I thought it was sweet. “Oh, I think I hate them,” I murmur. “I really do.”

“Ada . . . ,” Afton starts.

It’s awful, reliving it, but it’s also a relief to finally tell. “Maybe they planned it this way. Maybe that’s why Pop didn’t come. Maybe this was supposed to be like Mom and Billy’s little sexfest this year, and Pop knew. I mean, he’s a pretty observant guy. He’s not stupid. I don’t know.”

“And that was Pop on the phone just now?” Afton asks, her fingers clenching into fists, unclenching, and then reclenching. “You were telling Pop that you saw Mom and Billy Wong?” Her voice rises again.

“No, I didn’t tell him,” I hiss. “I’m not totally brainless. I told him to fight for us, that’s all. I told him it was a mistake, him not coming with us.”

Afton stands up. “Oh my god, Ada.” Her face is an even darker red. Scarlet. Partly chartreuse.

“I know. I knew something wasn’t right with them, but this . . . But we have to act like we don’t know,” I say earnestly. “I’ve been thinking through it all week, and it’s the only way they don’t get divorced. We have to pretend like it didn’t happen.”

She drags a hand through her hair. Paces back and forth a few times. Stops. “No. Ada, listen to me—”

But right then we hear the door inside slam, and Mom’s voice. “Girls?”

Afton and I stare at each other, wide-eyed.

“We’ve got to keep it together,” I say quickly. I’m terrified at what Afton might do right now. What she might say. How she might unravel our entire life. “Just be calm.”