Page 28

Carys woke the following morning and looked out the window.

The sun was bright without a cloud in the sky, making the world look happy and vibrant.

Meanwhile, Carys felt hungover. She knew that it was caused by dehydration after her night of crying, but that knowledge still didn’t ease the pain throbbing at her temples.

She pushed the blankets away and stood up, surprised to find she was still wearing yesterday’s clothes.

“Water,” she croaked and walked into her kitchen. She glared at the five water glasses, then grabbed one and filled it up. She downed a couple ibuprofen tablets, then headed into her bathroom. After showering and dressing in clean clothes, Carys felt a little more human.

“Walk,” she commanded herself. Carys pulled on her running shoes and a jacket with a baseball cap, then headed out of her apartment.

She didn’t want to talk to anyone. So, she put on a pair of sunglasses and walked out the back door of her building.

The nosy neighbor who always wanted to chat about marketing ideas was walking into the building with two bags of groceries, so Carys ducked her head and darted to the left around the building’s dumpsters.

“Carys? Is that you?” Marylynn called out.

Because Carys couldn’t deal with human interaction right now, she didn’t respond.

Instead, she walked quickly between the landscaped bushes to the sidewalk.

This path would take her through a small, wooded area where, hopefully, Carys could disappear.

She was nearly to the edge of the apartment building’s parking lot when she spotted a familiar car.

Her eyes narrowed as she eyed the minivan parked in the lot behind her apartment building.

Why was Beth’s car here? The silver minivan idled, the engine spewing toxic smoke out the back end while Beth filed her nails in the driver’s seat.

Carys remembered the sounds that had woken her up last night, the sensation that someone had been in her home…and the scent the other night when she’d come home…the vanilla scent. Her father’s wife, Beth, wore a vanilla-based perfume! Had Beth been here last night?

Carys snorted at the idea. Beth was the consummate stay-at-home mother these days.

She’d given up her career after daughter number three was born.

She had four daughters now, all of whom were in either high school or middle school.

Carys knew from Andi’s online stalking that all four girls were involved in gymnastics, band, piano, and soccer, not to mention almost-monthly camping trips with their dad.

So, why was Beth parked here in downtown Philly? Why wasn’t she at home whipping up an amazing Sunday brunch? Or more likely, why wasn’t Beth in church?

“Just leave!” Carys muttered under her breath as she hurried on, following the path that would take her away from her apartment building and the woman sitting in her minivan.

It was bad enough that her father was harassing her, but now Beth?

This was getting ridiculous. Maybe she should get a restraining order against her father and stepmother.

Would a judge grant her one? They weren’t hurting her.

They were just…stalking her, she thought as she shoved her hands into her jacket pockets, keeping her head down as she headed along the path.

For several minutes, she worked out the potential for a restraining order, wondering if she’d need to hire a lawyer. Carys didn’t really have the money to hire a lawyer. She barely had the money for her coffee shop visits with friends and…!

Her heart ached at the thought of Andi. They met for coffee more often than the entire friend group, but those cozy, face-to-face chats would never happen again. How was Carys going to get through life without Andi? They’d been best friends since college! They shared everything with each other!

“Not everything,” she muttered and turned onto another street.

Carys had no idea where she was going, but the fresh air felt good.

After two hours of meandering through the city, Carys found a coffee shop and ordered a cappuccino.

It was more expensive than her usual black coffee, but she needed the pick-me-up today.

Carys sat on a bench and watched the river float by while she sipped her treat. The weather was warm and she could see boats cruising along. The river was calm so there weren’t any whitecaps, but she watched leaves flow quickly downstream.

And then the tears started again. Carys sipped her coffee, watched the boats float by while she ignored her phone and tried to tamp down on the pain in her chest.

What was Rafi doing right now? Was he with Andi?

Were they having coffee and laughing together?

Or was he at the office, working on something that she might not understand?

Rafi understood contract negotiations better than anyone she had ever known.

It was fascinating talking to him about the various language he would add to a contract to better protect the interests of the company.

“Well, that’s over,” she whispered to herself and gulped down the last of her coffee.

Standing, she tossed the empty coffee cup into a garbage can, then headed down to the weekend markets.

Carys wasn’t in the mood to go home and be alone.

She’d reveled in her own misery enough yesterday. It was time to start getting over Rafi.

And the loss of her best friend.