Little Secrets(38)

“Sorry, Marin,” Julian says. “I’m going to need that on the table.”

“Really?”

“Unlock it for me, please.” His tone is pleasant, but there’s no mistaking that it’s a demand, not a request.

She presses her thumb to the home button and the phone opens.

He picks it up and starts swiping, meticulously closing all the apps she had open. Then he places the phone back on the table, where McKenzie smiles up at them in all her naked glory until the screen goes black.

“I needed to make sure we’re not being recorded,” Julian says.

“I wouldn’t do that.”

She would have no good reason to record any of this. Whatever happens here tonight, she would never want anyone but Sal to know about it, or that she even thought about it, or that she seriously considered it enough to have a conversation with someone who could actually do something about it.

“Food’s here,” Julian says.

Bets the waitress places oversize plates piled high with food gleaming with grease and butter on the table. She notices Julian has ordered almost the exact same thing she did, right down to the add-on pancake, only with wheat toast instead of sourdough.

“What do you say we eat first, and talk after?” He picks up his fork and uses the side of it to slice into an egg. The yolk runs out all over his hash browns. “Conversations about murder are much easier to have when your stomach is full, don’t you think?”





Chapter 12


For a while Marin can almost pretend they’re two people on a blind date, which in some ways, they are. They were set up by a mutual acquaintance, after all.

Except everything about this is illegal.

“So, that’s her?” Julian finally puts his fork down. “On your phone? Is that the woman your husband is cheating with?”

He’s finished two-thirds of his food and she’s finished half of hers, and it appears they’re both full. Bets sees that they’re done, but she doesn’t approach the table. It’s as if she knows she’s not allowed to come over until Julian signals her, and he’s not looking in that direction. He’s looking straight at Marin, and it feels like his dark eyes see right through her. She doesn’t think she could lie to him about anything if she wanted to.

She starts talking, and it all comes out in one long, rabbity rush. It’s almost as if she finally feels free to say every single awful thing she’s been thinking about, things she’d never say in group, things she might only tell her therapist. Julian is a stranger, maybe that’s why. Maybe it’s because she knows he won’t judge her.

“The affair’s been going on awhile. He’s with her right now. At a hotel, somewhere here in the city.” Shame colors her face red again; she can feel the flush on her cheeks.

“Let me see the picture.”

She hands him the phone, her shame giving way to rage. He takes another long look until the screen goes black, a small smile playing at his lips. What is it about men and naked women? Sal had a similar reaction earlier. Amusement, with a touch of … leer.

“Do you and your husband have kids?” he asks.

“That’s irrelevant.”

Her response surprises him. He raises a questioning eyebrow, but she doesn’t elaborate. She will never discuss her son with this man, and she’s glad Sal didn’t, either. Sebastian is off-limits.

“Tell me everything you know about her,” Julian says.

This part is easy. Unlike with Derek, Marin feels only one emotion when it comes to the other woman, and it starts with h and ends with ate.

He listens without interrupting. When she finishes, her throat is dry. She reaches for her water glass and knocks her coffee mug over in the process. Luckily, it’s near empty, and only a few drops spill onto the table. Bets is there in a flash with a damp cloth, and she offers to take their plates away. They both decline to-go containers.

“I’m sorry.” Marin wipes up a drop of coffee the waitress missed. “I’m not usually this jumpy.”

“That’s because you’re normal,” Julian says, “and this is a very abnormal conversation for you to be having. There’s no pressure here, Marin. I’m here to help you, not make your life harder.”

His words are unexpectedly kind, and she reminds herself that this is only a meeting. Sitting here with him doesn’t mean she has to go through with it. No decisions have to be made right this minute.

She can still change her mind.

He’s staring at her again, and it’s different now that she’s spilled her story and he has the details about what brought her here. She’s told him secrets. It feels strangely intimate.

“Sal always said you were a beautiful woman, Marin,” Julian says, and she can feel her face flush again. “And he’s right. Successful, too, from what he’s told me. I’ve seen this situation many times before, and I can say with certainty that whatever your husband is doing has very little to do with you.”

Wrong. It has everything to do with her.

“Do you have any questions for me?” Julian asks.

She takes a deep breath. Here we go. “I suppose … I suppose cost is a big one. How much do you charge? And how do you … what would you…?” She swallows.