Page 9

9

Now, in the mcdonald’s, Marina passed her phone over to Lilah, who was a slight young woman with bright and frightened gray eyes. She wore a plain shift dress with a cardigan, flat shoes, and a black fanny pack around her waist, but when she reached for the phone, Marina could see an enormous diamond set in platinum on the ring finger of her left hand.

And then that hand, with its diamond, flashed through the air and slapped Marina on the side of her face.

Marina reared back, hand to her cheek. “Did you just hit me ?”

“What kind of a person are you?” Lilah cried. Her face was flushed and frantic, and from the pain in Marina’s cheek, she was much stronger than she looked. “Why would you do such a thing?”

“Such a thing as what?”

“You’re trying to steal my fiancé! You—you hussy!”

“I would never steal someone’s fiancé. Who is your fiancé?”

Lilah stabbed her finger at the selfie on Marina’s phone. “This man right here!”

“Xavier? You’ve got to be mistaken. He’s a widower. His wife died two years ago.”

“I’m his fiancée and I’m alive!”

“I’m his wife,” said Opal, “and I’m alive too.”

“No,” said Lilah. “No, no, no, no. I don’t believe it. I don’t know what you two are up to, or why you want to take everything away from me, but stop. Just stop!”

She put her hands over her ears and then shook her head very hard. Then she ran out of the McDonald’s.

Marina watched her go. “Who is that crazy bitch?”

“She’s the woman who’s engaged to your new boyfriend,” said Opal.

“That can’t be.”

“Do you usually get slapped by strangers without a good reason?”

Marina rubbed her cheek, trying to think it through, looking for red flags she’d been ignoring because the sex was so great. It was true that Xavier kept his phone in his pocket and never took it out when she was around. They conducted all of their phone conversations through texts, not aloud. And for such a good-looking man who was clearly proud of his body, he was uncomfortable with having his photo taken. Even the selfie on her phone that had turned Lilah from a mild-mannered person into a psycho—Xavier had turned his head to the side at the last minute, so she didn’t get his entire face in the picture.

It was probably exactly the same way Jake had acted when he was cheating on her with Freya.

“What a dick,” she said. It was the only possible conclusion.

“You’re telling me.”

“And who are you? Why did you text me?”

“Like I said. I’m his wife.” Opal took a sip of her coffee.

“You’re his wife? He said his wife was dead. He cried about it.”

“He’s very convincing when he wants to be. That’s why I married him.” She showed Marina the wedding photo on her phone. Then she showed Marina a screenshot of a photo of Lilah and Xavier together on a beach, holding hands and smiling at the camera. It wasn’t great quality, but it was unmistakable.

Marina let this sink in.

“So he’s cheating on you with both of us?”

“At least. You and Lilah are the only ones who I’ve found.”

“Oh gosh. I’m so sorry. I honestly thought...”

“I know,” said Opal impatiently. “And frankly I don’t care who he fucks.”

“I do. And clearly Lilah does as well.” She hit the table with the side of her fist. “Damn. I thought I’d finally found a good one. And now, I’m the other woman?” She shuddered. “I feel so dirty.”

“You’re not the dirty one.”

“I’m just a silly cow who he shagged into submission.”

Opal didn’t contradict her.

“You must hate me,” Marina said.

“I’m indifferent to you. Him , I hate. Did you give him any money?”

“I don’t have any money. Only a big house that my relatives would quite like to take off me.”

“He’d find a way to make a profit,” said Opal grimly. “He loves a long game. Did he buy you any presents? Because if he did, poor Lilah probably paid for them. He ran off with all my money, but I assume he got through that a long time ago.”

“He’s stealing ?”

“It’s more of a confidence game than outright theft, but yeah, that’s the gist of it. He’s emptied Lilah’s bank accounts and he’s maxing out her credit card even as we speak.”

Marina felt as though she’d been hit by a bus.

“Should we go to the police?” she asked. “He might be doing this to some other women.”

“All that will do is to alert him,” said Opal. “If the police even bother to do anything about it. The money he took from me was in our joint bank account. He hasn’t actually committed bigamy yet, because he and Lilah aren’t married. And Lilah gave him access to her bank accounts voluntarily. So no police, and no confronting him.”

“I’m confused,” Marina said. “You don’t care if he’s sleeping around, and you don’t want to go to the police or to confront him. So why did you go to the trouble to track us down?”

“Simple,” said Opal. “I want revenge.”