Chapter 1 - The Woman at the Door
I had rehearsed what I was going to say the entire drive over.
Every red light gave me another version.
Every turn made me angrier.
By the time I pulled into the driveway of the small brick house on Willow Lane, my hands were trembling so badly I almost dropped my keys.
My husband's truck wasn't there.
Good.
I wanted to talk to her alone.
I stepped out of my car, slammed the door, and marched toward the porch before I could lose my nerve.
The front door opened before I knocked.
A woman about my age stood there wearing black leggings and an oversized gray sweatshirt.
She looked tired.
Not guilty.
Not smug.
Just confused.
"Can I help you?"
I stared at her.
"Are you Tiana Brooks?"
Her eyebrows tightened.
"Who's asking?"
I swallowed the fire burning in my throat.
"I'm Adrian's wife."
Everything changed in her face.
For one second, she looked like someone had turned off the lights behind her eyes.
Then she straightened.
"I think you need to leave."
"Oh, no."
I stepped closer.
"You need to stop sleeping with my husband."
Her expression hardened.
"Then maybe you should take that up with your husband."
That answer nearly made me explode.
I had spent three weeks blaming this woman.
Three weeks imagining her laughing while Adrian lied beside me.
Three weeks convincing myself that she was destroying my marriage.
"You knew exactly what you were doing," I snapped.
Tiana folded her arms.
"No. I knew exactly what he told me."
"What did he tell you?"
"That you two were separated."
I laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because if I didn't laugh, I might scream.
"Separated?"
Tiana stared at me.
"That's what he said."
"He slept in my bed last night."
The color left her face.
I continued before she could speak.
"He kissed me before he went to work this morning."
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
"And before you ask," I said, "he told me you were crazy."
Her eyes widened.
"He said what?"
"He told me you were obsessed with him. That you'd been stalking him. That you'd threatened to ruin his marriage because he rejected you."
Tiana stepped backward.
Her voice dropped.
"He told me you were controlling."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
"He said you checked his phone. Tracked his location. Used your kids to keep him from leaving."
I suddenly felt cold.
Adrian had said almost the exact same thing about her.
He had told me Tiana sent endless messages.
That she showed up at his office.
That she threatened him.
I looked at the woman standing in front of me.
She didn't look triumphant anymore.
She looked sick.
"When did he tell you we separated?" I asked.
"March."
My heart skipped.
"March tenth?"
Her eyes flicked toward mine.
"How did you know?"
Because March tenth was the night Adrian brought me flowers.
The night he told me he wanted us to start trying for another baby.
The night he held me in our kitchen and said, "We're stronger than we've ever been."
I grabbed the porch railing.
Tiana whispered, "Oh my God."
I looked at her.
"How long?"
She hesitated.
"Eight months."
My knees almost buckled.
Eight months.
Not three weeks.
Not one drunken mistake.
Eight months of planning.
Eight months of lies.
Eight months of coming home to me after leaving her.
Tiana suddenly opened her door wider.
"Do you want to come inside?"
I stared at her.
She gave a bitter laugh.
"I have wine."
Under any other circumstances, I would've hated her for that sentence.
Instead, I stepped into her house.
Her living room was neat.
There were family photographs on the wall.
A child's drawing hung on the refrigerator.
I froze.
"You have a kid?"
"My daughter. Nia. She's six. She's at my mother's tonight."
My anger shifted again.
Adrian knew I had two children.
He knew Tiana had one.
He had played with two families.
Tiana poured two glasses of wine and handed one to me.
I didn't drink it.
Neither did she.
We sat across from each other at her kitchen table like two witnesses waiting to testify.
"What did he tell you about me?" I asked.
Tiana looked ashamed.
"That you stopped loving him years ago."
I stared at her.
"He told me you refused counseling. That you embarrassed him. That you barely spoke."
I almost laughed again.
"I booked our counselor."
"What?"
"We've been going twice a month since January."
Tiana closed her eyes.
I reached for my phone.
"He told me he worked late Wednesdays."
Tiana looked at me.
"He saw me Wednesdays."
My stomach turned.
"What about Fridays?"
"He said Fridays were family nights with the kids."
I stared at her.
"Fridays he told me he had basketball with coworkers."
Silence filled the room.
It wasn't awkward silence.
It was the sound of two women reconstructing a crime scene.
Tiana suddenly stood.
"Wait."
She disappeared down the hallway.
When she returned, she was carrying a small gift box.
"He gave me this for my birthday."
She opened it.
Inside was a gold bracelet.
I recognized it immediately.
I had picked it out.
Not for her.
For his sister.
Adrian had told me the package was lost.
My fingers went numb.
"I bought that."
Tiana looked horrified.
"What?"
"I ordered it."
She covered her mouth.
That was when something inside me finally broke.
Not my heart.
That had already happened.
Something else.
The part of me still trying to defend him.
"He didn't just cheat," I whispered.
"No," Tiana said.
"He built two realities."
I looked at her.
For the first time that night, I didn't see the woman my husband had cheated with.
I saw another woman he had lied to.
Another mother.
Another person he had manipulated.
Tiana poured the wine back into the bottle.
"We shouldn't get drunk."
"Why not?"
"Because we need clear heads."
"For what?"
She sat down slowly.
"To figure out what else he lied about."
I should have gone home.
I should have blocked her number and confronted Adrian immediately.
Instead, I unlocked my phone.
Tiana did the same.
We placed them side by side.
"Let's compare dates," she said.
For the next hour, we went through everything.
Restaurants.
Hotels.
Work trips.
Receipts.
Photos.
Messages.
Adrian had lied so carefully that some of it almost impressed me.
Almost.
Then Tiana suddenly stopped scrolling.
Her face changed.
"What?"
She turned her phone toward me.
It was a message from Adrian sent two months earlier.
Don't worry about the house. Once the refinance goes through, I'll finally be free.
I stared at it.
My pulse pounded.
"What refinance?"
Tiana whispered, "I thought it was his house."
I stood so fast the chair scraped backward.
Our house wasn't Adrian's.
It had belonged to my grandmother.
My name was on the deed.
And three weeks earlier, Adrian had handed me paperwork he claimed was related to lowering our insurance premium.
I had signed where he pointed.
My skin went cold.
Tiana looked at me.
"What did you sign?"
I grabbed my purse.
"I don't know."
Then my phone rang.
Adrian.
I stared at his name.
Tiana's phone began ringing one second later.
Also Adrian.
We looked at each other.
Neither of us answered.
Then a text appeared on my screen.
Where are you?
Another came to Tiana.
Baby, I need to see you tonight. It's urgent.
Tiana looked at me.
I looked back at her.
And for the first time since I arrived, she smiled.
Not happily.
May you like
Dangerously.
"I think," she said quietly, "we should both tell him yes."
