Chapter 7
A limited drama series.
A woman in her forties rebuilding her life after a public scandal.
I almost laughed at the cruelty of the timing.
“I haven’t acted seriously in years.”
“You haven’t forgotten how.”
“I don’t know that.”
“So audition.”
I looked around Pine Hollow.
At the peeling paint near the window.
At my coffee mug.
At the life I had once imagined for retirement.
“Send me the script.”
That afternoon, another photograph of Sophie appeared online.
She was leaving Hawthorne Manor.
Wearing sunglasses.
Julian’s security team surrounded her.
The headlines called her his “mystery brunette.”
For one ugly moment, jealousy stabbed through me.
She was younger.
Uncomplicated.
She had never seen Julian fail.
She hadn’t sat beside him while he vomited from stress before his first major investor presentation.
She hadn’t known him when his confidence was partly theater.
She got the finished version.
Then I remembered what Julian had said.
She makes me feel like myself again.
Maybe that was precisely why he wanted her.
She didn’t know who he had been.
She could believe whatever version of himself he wanted to become.
On day six, I received another message from the unknown number.
He told me your marriage was already over long before I came along.
I stared at it.
This time there was no photograph.
I typed:
Sophie?
Three dots appeared.
Then vanished.
Appeared again.
Finally:
Yes.
I should have blocked her.
Instead I wrote:
Then why are you contacting me?
Her answer took almost a minute.
Because I need to know whether he lied.
I read that twice.
Then I set the phone down.
For the first time, the woman I had been trying not to think about became something other than a silhouette through restaurant glass.
And for the first time, I wondered whether Julian Mercer had told either of us the whole truth.
Chapter 3: WHAT WE TELL OURSELVES
I did not answer Sophie that night.
The next morning, there were no new messages.
By noon, Julian called.
“You contacted Sophie?”
“No. She contacted me.”
“What did she say?”
“That’s between Sophie and me.”
“She shouldn’t be dragging you into this.”
I laughed.
“Julian, you dragged me into this when you told your wife you loved her.”
“I mean the details.”
“What details?”
He stopped.
That silence told me enough.
“Did you tell her our marriage was already over?”
“Our marriage had been struggling.”