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Julia

Julia left David’s house in a daze. His salacious offer swirled in her mind. Could she? Would she? Was she despicable for even considering it?

The night sky proved gloriously clear, but her vision was not. A cloud of dust encapsulated her thoughts, casting everything in a dim, hazy glow.

Home was dark, no lights on. It was a strange sight.

She was used to some activity at the lake at all times, but now she felt deeply alone.

Across the way, she could hear Lucas playing his guitar, but otherwise, all was quiet.

Erika’s car wasn’t parked out front. It might be a while before she and Taylor returned from town.

Reflexively, Julia looked for Christian’s beloved Land Rover.

Of course it wasn’t there. She should be relieved.

After all, she’d sent him away. But instead, she felt a profound sense of loss and confusion.

Why did she feel so loyal to him? He had deeply betrayed her twice now, yet if she accepted David’s offer, it wouldn’t be to exact revenge.

She’d learned her lesson the last time. She got no lasting satisfaction from her actions, no sense of justice.

And this time she risked losing her self-respect, too.

Who knew what long-term damage that would do?

Since her home looked uninviting, Julia detoured to the lake, where she took off her shoes and waded into the water up to her ankles.

She peered up at the night sky. The light from the star they’d wished upon twenty-five years ago reached them, but no wish had been granted.

The trio were nothing like they had once been.

She said prayers this time, one for guidance and the other for forgiveness.

When she’d had enough, Julia exited the water and walked through the sand carrying her shoes, headed for the familiar path back home.

The light was dim, but she could find her way blindfolded.

This place was like an extension of herself.

She could no more let it go than she could cut off a limb.

As if she needed further reminders of her predicament, Julia’s phone chimed with yet another auto-generated text message from one of the creditors hounding her.

Julia, this is Advanced Account Resolution reminding you that you owe a minimum of $500 for your repayment plan. Click here to pay, or call during business hours to speak with a representative.

Julia considered responding in the language of one of her Instagram posts:

Sorry for the delay. I just need to have sex with my neighbor before sending you the money. Hope I’m not too old for the oldest profession, LOL! #MyHusbandIsAThief #MyMoralCompassBroke

Instead, she continued on the path until she found herself back in David’s yard.

With a sigh, she peered up at his second-story deck.

He was no longer outside, bathed in blue light, but she could see the back of him in what she thought was his office on the third floor.

Who has three floors at a lake house? David, that’s who.

A host of descriptors came to mind, none very flattering.

But of all those that popped into her head— narcissistic, arrogant —one that simply didn’t fit was killer.

Julia was almost sure of it. She’d seen him with Fiona.

Her radar would have gone off if something were that deeply amiss.

Were they a toxic couple? Definitely. But David had been in and out of toxic relationships his entire life. None of them had ever ended in murder.

Julia had a good instinct for people and thought herself a good judge of character, but then again…

maybe not. Her husband, her trusted partner, had completely blindsided her…

twice. Perhaps that was the problem—she was too close to Christian to suspect him of wrongdoing.

She liked to think she had a different perspective on David, a little distance that allowed her to see the whole man clearly.

But now, with her business struggling, her marriage failing, and her relationship with Taylor strained for unknown reasons, Julia could no longer rely on her intuition. Come to think of it, had she ever been able to?

She thought back to her childhood, specifically the incident in the playroom.

Something about that memory still felt amiss.

She replayed it again in her mind, seeking clarity.

They had heard loud voices. Erika went to the door to see who was downstairs.

She tried to open it. The door wouldn’t budge.

Erika panicked and started to cry, and Julia soon joined in after she couldn’t open the door either.

Had they been wrong to be so frightened?

Cormac assured them that sometimes that door got stuck, and they just didn’t pull hard enough.

All these years later, Julia still didn’t quite believe it.

The door had never been stuck before. But instead of doubting Cormac, she had doubted herself.

Is that where it all started—her nagging self-doubt that kept rearing its head in different ways?

She’d shelved her concerns about investing in the VR gym, letting Christian’s exuberance override her better judgment.

She had done the same with their finances.

“I’ve got this,” Christian told her on many occasions, and since he was the finance major in college, she rationalized her decision to let him steer the ship.

But if she were honest with herself, she had always worried about shouldering that responsibility alone.

And here she was again… actually considering David’s offer, ignoring her inner wisdom, and handing her problems over to someone else to fix.

She sighed. Julia wasn’t sure what she should do, but she knew one thing for certain: questions about David would haunt her, especially if they were intimate again.

How could she ever be with someone she suspected of murder?

She couldn’t—that was the answer. She’d have to dispel any suspicion before she could even consider his proposition.

That was great in theory, but how could she do it in reality?

Julia continued her walk around the house, lost in thought, when she stubbed her toe hard against an unknown object.

She almost screamed, but managed to swear under her breath while hopping on one foot to extinguish the fire in her toe.

It was too dark to see the culprit. Julia turned on her phone’s flashlight, and was even more annoyed when she realized she’d run into one of David’s stupid new lawn ornaments.

This unappealing cold stone orb probably cost more than Julia owed the collection agency.

All of David’s lawn ornaments were ridiculous, the same as his house.

Rich people with too much money, Julia thought—especially the nouveau riche, not accustomed to wealth— do stupid things, like buying a new girlfriend a damn Porsche .

A Cayenne GTS, at that. Whether the car was under his name or not, it was still unbelievably extravagant.

But… that gave Julia an idea.

She could see the Porsche from across the lawn.

She wondered… the police wanted to search the car and the rest of his house, but David refused. Julia, however, wasn’t the police. She was his friend—potentially with benefits—and not subject to the same rules and restrictions.

She slowed down. Adrenaline swam through her veins, momentarily numbing the pain in her toe. David was busy in his office. Erika and Taylor were still out. Nobody would see her.

The car was unlocked. Not a surprise at the lake where crime was nonexistent, unless you counted possible abductions and maybe murder. The interior light came on, causing a brief panic. Julia quickly found the button to shut it off and used her phone’s subtler flashlight.

The interior looked pristine—not so much as a crumb. The seats were made of buttery soft leather. The dash was sleek and probably ultramodern when powered on. Christian would certainly envy this ride.

She started her search by checking the glove compartment, finding nothing other than the manual and registration—which was in David’s name, as expected. She was careful that her feet and hands left no telltale marks behind as she checked under the seats and behind the visors.

Nothing.

Forget signs of blood; this vehicle showed no signs of life.

Fiona had been very protective of her car around the kids, and perhaps it was her nature to keep it fastidiously clean.

David might have already detailed the vehicle to remove anything suspicious, but Julia didn’t remember the car ever leaving the driveway.

After scoping out the little compartments in the door and front console, Julia was convinced there was nothing more to see.

But bodies usually end up in the trunk, so she closed the car door as quietly as possible—but only after she triggered the latch that opened the back of the Cayenne GTS.

The inside of the trunk was as clean as the rest of the vehicle.

The only smell that hit her was the scent of a new car and rubber from the extra floor mats.

Julia was about to end her search, but decided to check under the mats to be thorough.

She lifted them off the carpet and, to her astonishment, finally found one trace of human activity.

It wasn’t much, a small slip of paper, but it was something.

Using her flashlight, Julia realized she was looking at a dry-cleaning ticket.

She wasn’t familiar with the place, but the business address was in a town in Vermont, south of here—maybe a couple hours away.

What was Fiona doing with a dry-cleaning tag from a place that wasn’t anywhere near her apartment in New York City? She hadn’t mentioned having ties to the area.

Julia didn’t have time to ponder the implications. Car lights flashed down the road, signaling Erika and Taylor’s return from their girls’ night in town.

Julia stuffed the ticket into the pocket of her jeans, closed the trunk quietly, and hobbled back to her house as quickly as she could on her still-sore foot.