Chapter 1

The first thing I saw when I came home early on our seventh anniversary was a pair of red heels beside my front door.

They weren’t mine.

I stood in the entryway holding a chocolate cake in one hand and a small gift bag in the other.

Ethan was supposed to be at work until six. I had left Lily with my sister for the night so I could surprise him with dinner.

Then I heard footsteps upstairs.

“Ethan?”

The footsteps stopped.

A moment later, my husband appeared at the top of the stairs.

His sleeves were rolled up, and there was a wet stain across the front of his shirt.

“Claire.” His eyes widened. “You’re home early.”

Before I could answer, our bedroom door opened behind him.

Julia Carter walked out wearing Ethan’s white dress shirt.

She was barefoot. Her damp blond hair hung over her shoulders, and the shirt reached halfway down her thighs.

For a second, none of us spoke.

Then Julia gave me a small, embarrassed smile.

“Claire. This looks terrible.”

My fingers tightened around the cake box.

“What are you doing in my bedroom?”

“A pipe burst at the flower shop,” she said quickly. “I was soaked, and I felt dizzy. Ethan brought me here so I could change and lie down.”

Through the open bedroom door, I could see her wet dress hanging over the back of my vanity chair.

Ethan’s hands had been on it. I could tell because he was still holding two wooden clothespins from the laundry room.

“You could have used the guest room,” I said.

Julia glanced toward the hallway. “Lily’s toys were all over the bed.”

There were three stuffed animals on that bed.

I knew because I had put them there that morning.

Ethan came down two steps. “Claire, nothing happened.”

“I didn’t say anything happened.”

Julia folded her arms over Ethan’s shirt as if I had embarrassed her.

That was when I noticed the blue dress spread across our bed.

My anniversary dress.

I had laid it out before work so I could change the moment I got home. Now it was crushed beneath Julia’s purse and the jeans Ethan had found for her.

Julia followed my eyes.

“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that was special.”

“It was for tonight.”

Ethan rubbed the back of his neck. “We can still go out.”

The cake box tilted in my hand. I set it on the entry table before I dropped it.

“How did she get inside?”

Julia’s expression changed.

Only slightly.

But I saw it.

“She used her key,” Ethan said.

I looked at him. “Her what?”

“The spare key,” Julia explained. “I’ve had it for years. Since before you and Ethan got married.”

I had lived in this house for seven years.

I had chosen the curtains, painted Lily’s room, and made every mortgage payment beside my husband.

Yet Julia had been able to open my front door, walk upstairs, and climb into my bed without calling me.

I set the gift bag beside the cake.

“Give me the key.”

Julia reached for the purse on our bed. “If that’s what you want.”

She came downstairs and pulled a silver key from her key ring.

But instead of handing it to me, she looked at Ethan.

He took it from her.

Relief moved through me too quickly. I held out my hand, expecting him to place it in my palm.

Ethan closed his fingers around the key.

Then he looked directly at me.

“She’s not giving it back.”