Chapter 1

On Christmas Eve, I discovered that my husband had been sleeping with my best friend under our own roof.

Three months earlier, I had invited Tessa into our home after she told me she was pregnant and had nowhere else to go.

I paid for her vitamins, helped with her doctor appointments, and treated her like family.

That night, my five-year-old daughter handed me my husband’s spare phone.

“Mommy, is this Daddy’s?”

Before I could answer, the screen lit up.

An ultrasound appeared.

The message beneath it was from Tessa.

Baby, the doctor said everything looks perfect. Come to my room after she falls asleep tonight.

My hand went cold.

My husband was across the room, smiling at me like he still loved me.

“Elowen, come here.”

Gavin stood beside the Christmas tree with a wineglass in his hand while nearly twenty friends and business partners waited for me to join him.

Tessa stood only a few feet away.

She was wearing the cream cashmere dress I had bought for her because none of her old clothes were comfortable anymore.

I locked the phone and slipped it into my apron pocket.

Then I walked toward my husband.

Gavin wrapped an arm around my waist.

“To my beautiful wife,” he said, smiling at the room. “Without Elowen’s nine years of love and dedication to this family, I would have nothing.”

Everyone applauded.

He leaned down and kissed the corner of my mouth.

An hour earlier, I would have smiled.

Now all I could think about was the message on his phone.

Come to my room after she falls asleep.

Tessa lifted her glass.

“To Elowen,” she said warmly. “For taking me in when I had nowhere else to go.”

Then she looked at Gavin.

“And to the happiest marriage I know.”

A few people laughed and raised their glasses.

I stared at her.

Two months earlier, I had cried in a hospital bed after another failed attempt to have a third child.

Gavin had held me and told me we already had two beautiful children.

“We already have two beautiful children,” he had whispered. “We don’t need another baby. You’re enough for me.”

Tessa had been sitting beside me.

She had held my hand while I cried.

Now she was sending my husband ultrasound pictures from a bedroom inside my own house.

“Elowen?”

Gavin touched my back.

“You look pale.”

“I’m tired.”

For nine years, his touch had made me feel safe.

Tonight, it made my skin crawl.

Across the room, Tessa placed one hand over her stomach.

“Gavin,” she called softly. “Could you help me with the presents? I’m feeling a little dizzy.”

He released me immediately.

“Of course.”

No hesitation.

No question.

He crossed the room and bent toward her while she whispered something into his ear.

Tessa looked past his shoulder and met my eyes.

Then she smiled.

Sweet.

Grateful.

Almost innocent.

I had spent all day preparing Christmas dinner for my family.

Now my husband was standing beside my best friend, treating her pregnancy as if it mattered more than the wife he had just toasted in front of everyone.

I reached into my apron pocket and wrapped my fingers around his spare phone.

I wasn’t going to confront either of them.

Not yet.

First, I wanted to know exactly how long they had been making a fool of me.

I walked quietly toward the guest bathroom beneath the stairs.

Then I locked the door behind me.