Praise for Terry Lynn Thomas

‘I was gripped from page one … An atmospheric read which I really enjoyed’

‘Wow! … You won’t be disappointed’

‘Gripping and enthralling … Wonderful’

‘Fantastic! … Such an amazing read!’

‘An entertaining and engrossing read, highly recommended’

‘A suspenseful, compelling plot that kept me up late reading’

‘Brilliant book … Brilliant author’

‘Fast-paced and gripping’

About the Author

TERRY LYNN THOMAS is the USA Today bestselling author of six historical mysteries. The Betrayal and The Witness are the first two books in the Olivia Sinclair series, Terry’s foray into the world of domestic suspense. When she’s not writing, Terry likes to spend time outdoors with her husband and her dogs.

Keep up with Terry on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/terrylynnthomasbooks/), Twitter (@TLThomasbooks), Instagram (@terrylynnthomasbooks) or via her website at www.terrylynnthomas.com.

Also by Terry Lynn Thomas

The Cat Carlisle series

The Silent Woman

The Family Secret

House of Lies

The Sarah Bennett series

The Spirit of Grace

The House of Secrets

The Drowned Woman

The Olivia Sinclair series

The Betrayal

The Witness
TERRY LYNN THOMAS

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

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HarperCollinsPublishers

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First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2021

Copyright © Terry Lynn Thomas 2021

Terry Lynn Thomas asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008364823

E-book Edition © April 2021 ISBN: 9780008364816

Version: 2021-03-17

Table of Contents

Cover

Praise for Terry Lynn Thomas

About the Author

Also by Terry Lynn Thomas

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1: Olivia

Chapter 2: Olivia

Chapter 3: Brian

Chapter 4: Ebby

Chapter 5: Olivia

Chapter 6: Ebby

Chapter 7: Olivia

Chapter 8: Olivia

Chapter 9: Olivia

Chapter 10: Brian

Chapter 11: Ebby

Chapter 12: Olivia

Chapter 13: Olivia

Chapter 14: Olivia

Chapter 15: Ebby

Chapter 16: Olivia

Chapter 17: Brian

Chapter 18: Mark

Chapter 19: Olivia

Chapter 20: Brian

Chapter 21: Ebby

Chapter 22: Brian

Chapter 23: Olivia

Chapter 24: Olivia

Chapter 25: Ebby

Chapter 26: Brian

Chapter 27: Ebby

Chapter 28: Olivia

Chapter 29: Seth Woodson

Chapter 30: Olivia

Chapter 31: Ebby

Chapter 32: Brian

Chapter 33: Olivia

Chapter 34: Olivia

Chapter 35: Ebby

Chapter 36: Ebby

Chapter 37: Brian

Chapter 38: Olivia

Chapter 39: Olivia

Chapter 40: Ebby

Extract

Acknowledgements

Author’s Letter

Dear Reader …

Keep Reading …

About the Publisher

This book is dedicated to all the writers I’ve met along the way. You rock.

Prologue

Thirteen-year-old Ebby Engstrom wanted to die as he rode his bike home in the cold December night, his thighs on fire as he pedaled faster and faster. His lungs burned, but the pain caused by the physical exertion was an instant panacea to his broken heart. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake the image of Mary Beth slow dancing with a seventeen-year-old high school student. Granted she was drunk – Ebby had the vomit stains on his new sweatshirt to prove it – but even that knowledge didn’t take away the pain. He let the hot, salty tears run down his cheeks, hoping he’d cry himself out before he got home. His mother could not see him crying, especially over a girl.

Stopping at the bottom of his drive, Ebby looked up at his family house, the lights in the windows a welcoming beacon. His dad had died this past June, six months and three days ago, to be exact. The sight of the home and the lights on in his dad’s study just made Ebby’s heartache worse. How he longed to share the crappy evening and Mary Beth’s betrayal with his dad, who could be counted on to say just the right thing to soothe Ebby’s broken heart. Ebby’s mother wasn’t nearly as understanding. She was strict, uncompromising, and took great pride in running her house like a tight ship. Ebby had to leave his broken heart at the door, or his mother would take one look at him and know something was wrong. If she knew that her youngest son was a mess because of a girl, she’d wave off the emotion as unimportant, and tell him to buck up and be a man.

As Ebby wiped his tears with the back of his sleeve, the rain started. He rushed up the driveway, eager to take a hot shower and wash the events of the past two hours down the drain. Maybe he could get Allegra to make him hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. If not, he’d make his own. Take it to bed. Maybe he could fall asleep and forget today ever happened. Maybe he could sleep like Rip Van Winkle and wake up in a hundred years.

The rain turned torrential as he got close to the house. It pelted on his head and shoulders and quickly soaked through his heavy sweatshirt. Ebby jumped off his bike and let himself into the house, hoping he could sneak upstairs without seeing anyone. If he tiptoed, he could scoot past the office door and his mother wouldn’t see him. Someone was in there with his mother, arguing. Ebby could sense the tension, even though he wasn’t in the room with them.

Creeping down the hallway, careful to avoid the floorboards that creaked, Ebby paused outside the office. Something made him stop when he heard the two voices in the office. No longer worried about his mother noticing him, he tried to peek into the room and see who was with her. He only caught a quick glimpse of his mom and another person who had his back to the door. Ebby tried to catch a better view of the person, who seemed familiar, but he couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman from that angle. The mysterious visitor placed their hands on the desk and leaned close to his mother, hissing words born of fury.

His mother didn’t back down. She leaned even closer and spoke. Their bodies became shimmery as Ebby strained to hear what they were arguing about. He’d never seen his mother so full of indignant anger. Try as he might, he couldn’t understand their words. It seemed as though they were being spoken in slow motion. When his mother turned her back and fiddled with something on the credenza behind her, Ebby watched in horror as the stranger picked up the bejeweled letter opener that had sat on his parents’ desk for as long as he could remember. He couldn’t take his eyes away as his mother turned around, and the stranger raised the letter opener high in the air and plunged it into his mother’s chest. Up and down the arm holding the letter opener went. Ebby registered the sound of labored breathing and red cascading blood that splattered, its metallic tang assaulting Ebby. And even though he was far away, he felt it drench his shirt.

But how could that be? How could he be covered in his mother’s blood? He was tucked safely out of the way in the alcove in the hallway. He wasn’t in the office. Something wasn’t right. Ebby’s chest became tight, as though an elephant were sitting on it. He couldn’t breathe. And then he felt his knees give way as everything went black.

***

When Ebby opened his eyes, it took him a couple of seconds to orient himself. It was 2015. He was forty-three years old. He was sprawled on the heavy rubber mat in the kitchen of his restaurant, The No Name Diner, a pile of Caesar salad scattered all over the floor around him. Lettuce clung to his chef’s coat as he rolled onto his back and met the gazes of his chef, Javier, his sous chef, Alex, and his waitress, Belle. All three of them stood over him, various degrees of concern etched on their faces. He had suffered yet another – Ebby didn’t know what to call the phenomenon – flashback, hallucination, whatever, to that night thirty years ago. The name didn’t matter.

“It’s okay, Ebby. You just fell.” Belle squatted down and put her cool fingers on Ebby’s forehead.

He tried to sit up but immediately felt woozy. Javier, dependable Javier, took charge. “I got this, guys,” he said.

“I’ll make another batch of salad,” Alex said.

“You sure you’ll be okay?” Belle asked, her eyes filled with worry.

Ebby managed to sit up on his own. Despite his clothes smelling of garlic and anchovy paste, he didn’t appear to have hurt himself. At least not this time. “I think I’m coming down with something. I’ll just have Javier drive me home, if you two don’t mind being alone for half an hour or so?”

“We’ll be fine,” Belle said, as she and Javier helped Ebby to his feet. “You just take care of yourself, okay?”

Ebby and Javier didn’t speak until they were in Javier’s car riding up the twisty road toward Ebby’s cottage. When the tension between the two men became unbearable, Javier pulled his car off to the shoulder and turned to face Ebby.

“What are you doing?” Ebby asked.

“I’m not driving an inch farther until you tell me what’s going on. What the hell was that, man? That’s the second time that’s happened. I know you aren’t coming down with something. You passed out cold. Face-planted on the kitchen floor and were out for a good three minutes.”

“I don’t know what’s happening—”

“Ebby, I love you like a brother, man. You know that. We’ve been friends for a long time. And I know you’re going to get mad at me for saying this, but you need to go back to the doctor. You need a psychiatrist to help you.”

“Javier—”

“No. Listen to me, you’re slipping. You look like hell. It’s hard for me to stand by and watch you destroy yourself, all because you want to remember some horrific thing that happened thirty years ago. It’s been four months since you stopped taking your meds, right? Have you remembered anything specific? I can tell by the look on your face that you haven’t. This has got to stop, Ebs. Today you were lucky enough to knock over a large bowl of lettuce. Have you thought of what would happen if you were handling a knife or a skillet of hot grease? As your friend and as the manager of your restaurant, I’m telling you that you need help. Find a doc you like, someone you can trust.”

Embarrassed, Ebby felt hot tears prick behind his eyelids. In his heart, Ebby knew Javier was right. How he longed to spill his guts, to tell his friend that he was remembering the night his mother was murdered. What a relief it would be share the burden of his past and his fear of the future with a trusted friend. But he couldn’t tell anyone, not even Javier. Not yet. Not until he knew … But Ebby needed to tell Javier something. For now, his friend would have to be happy with a sanitized version of the truth. “You’re right. I need help. And I’m going to get it.”

Javier let out a long sigh, his relief almost palpable. “I’m sorry, Javier. I’m not ready to say anything else. Not yet.” Javier stared out the window, while Ebby silently prayed he wouldn’t push for more details.

“When you are ready to talk, I hope you’ll come to me.” Javier put the car in drive and they started once again up the wooded road that led to Ebby’s cottage. “You know I’m here if you need me, any time.”

“I do,” Ebby said. “And I appreciate it.”

After Javier left, Ebby didn’t go straight into his cottage. He ducked into the woods and headed to Elodie’s Airstream. The clean air and the walk went a long way toward restoring Ebby’s strength. By the time Elodie’s trailer came into view, he had resolved to confide in his aunt. After all, she was the only person he would trust with this horrible secret. Her Airstream, a giant silver behemoth resembling a spaceship, was nestled among the trees near Ebby’s cottage. Ebby and Elodie had shared this trailer from the time Ebby turned eighteen until his twenty-first birthday, when he and Javier – with the help of Javier’s father who was a builder – had built his cottage.

How happy they’d been in the tiny trailer, which Elodie had remodeled so it was filled with light and warmth. His eyes traveled to the wooden fence they had constructed along the back of the property line. Elodie had drilled holes in the wood and filled them with what appeared to be colored glass. When the light hit, the fence looked like a rustic Tiffany lampshade.

Elodie met Ebby at the door, where she stared at him before letting him in. “You’ve had another one, haven’t you?”

He slid onto the leather booth in the kitchen area while Elodie put on the kettle. Once they were both seated with hot mugs of tea, Ebby explained what had happened at the restaurant. “I saw someone stab my mother. There was so much blood. I was covered in it. I passed out and woke up on the floor.”

“Oh, Ebby, you poor thing,” Elodie said.

“It was really vivid.” He watched his beloved aunt and noticed the flicker of worry in her eyes. “Are you sure you found me in the rain that night, Elodie? Because that’s not what I seem to be remembering.”

“Of course,” Elodie said abruptly. “I found you outside, under the office window, curled up in the rain. You were soaked clear through. I was afraid you would catch pneumonia, so we managed to get you into a warm tub. You aren’t remembering anything, Ebby; these are just … visions, or hallucinations.”

I don’t believe her, Ebby thought. And there lay the proverbial rub. Ebby was sure his aunt wasn’t telling him the entire story. Although he had no doubt her motivations were well intended, she was keeping something from him, something that related to his mother’s murder, and – just maybe – his involvement in it.

Elodie scooted toward Ebby and put her arm around him. “You witnessed something, Ebby, something traumatizing – that’s why you lost your memory. But these flashbacks, or whatever it is that you are experiencing, they aren’t real. Surely you understand that.”

Ebby ran his hands through his hair. He met Elodie’s gaze, looking for any sign of deception as he spoke. “I know I saw something that night. I know what happened is completely different from the story you’ve told me all these years. I’ve been to the police, but they won’t let me look at the files. Not that I blame them. I get it; I’m a civilian. Either that or I was a suspect.”

“You were not—”

“Wait, please, Elodie. Just let me finish. What I’m remembering about the night – that night – isn’t in keeping with what you’ve told me over the years. There’s blood – so much blood … I don’t know what to think.” Ebby swallowed the thick lump that had formed in the back of this throat. “Did I kill her?”

“Ebby!” Elodie cried out and once again tried to interrupt.

“I had motive, didn’t I? She wanted to send me away to boarding school. She killed my dog and lied about it. That was the end of the world for me,” Ebby said, remembering all of a sudden the infuriating pain when he’d discovered the truth about Lucy and the murderous rage he felt toward his mother.

She’d lied to him, told him his dog had been hit by a car, that she had to be put to sleep. “The poor thing was suffering. It would have been cruel to let her live.” Later that night, he’d overheard Elodie and Cynthia arguing about the dog.

“The little bitch growled at me when I gave Ebby a spanking,” Cynthia had said. “She was vicious and unsafe.”

“You’re the one who’s vicious and unsafe,” Elodie had responded. Ebby had never heard his aunt raise her voice to anyone. “Do you ever think that you spank your son too frequently?”

“This isn’t any of your concern, Elodie.”

“But it is. Ebby is my nephew. You clearly prefer Mark. Do you think Ebby, the son you so obviously don’t like, doesn’t see that?”

Ebby had peeked around the corner just in time to see his mother focus her attention on one of the papers stacked up on her desk. “Go away, Elodie. You bore me.”

Ebby had stepped back into the alcove near his mother’s study – what he liked to call his hidey hole – as Elodie stormed out of his mother’s office, tears streaming down her cheeks. It wasn’t until later that evening, when he was tucked into bed and Elodie – not his mother – came to say goodnight, that he’d realized his mother didn’t love him.

The memories of the past faded as he turned to Elodie and said, “I can remember you and my mom fighting after Lucy died, as clearly as if it were yesterday.”

“You were very loved, Ebby. Your mother had her rough moments, but at other times she loved you,” Elodie said.

“I know,” Ebby said. “But there’s something in my brain that’s coming to the surface. I can feel it. It’s dangerous. I can’t sit by and not try to figure it out.”

“You need to go back to the doctor,” Elodie said. “We can find you a good psychiatrist—”

“No,” Ebby said. “No doctors. No more tests. No more therapy. No more – and I mean this with all my heart – no more psychiatric interventions. I need some facts. I need the truth. Elodie, I love you, really I do. But I think you’re keeping something from me about that night – you and Aunt Fiona both. I want to know what.”

“That’s nonsense. No one’s keeping anything from you. The only thing I’ve ever wanted to do is protect you.” Elodie’s expression softened. She reached out and touched Ebby’s face. “You’re a grown man, Ebby. You own a successful restaurant and you are doing well in life. You suffered a tragedy as a child. You lost your mother. It’s a heartbreaking truth. Maybe you’re just going through a rough patch. But you have to agree that you were doing much better when you were under the care of a psychiatrist.”

“The drugs they gave me were nothing short of poison,” Ebby said.

“Then what about regular talk therapy? Just to get you through this rough patch.”

“No. This is more than a rough patch. My memory is coming back. I need to let that happen. And before you interrupt, I want to find out what happened that night on my own. I don’t want to be told the story, secondhand, by family members.” Ebby rubbed his eyes, thinking of the question that threatened to drive him to madness: Did he murder his own mother? Did he stab her? “Tell me, Elodie, what should I do? Because if I don’t do something, I swear, I’ll go mad.”

“Very well,” Elodie said. “I’ve got an idea.”

Chapter 1
Olivia
Friday, January 2

I’m in love with Brian Vickery. Olivia pulled her coat tighter against the winter wind as she walked down Magnolia Avenue in the direction of her office. I’m in love with Brian Vickery, and he’s renting an office from me. Olivia reached her office, surprised to find the door unlocked and the lights on. I’m in love with Brian Vickery, and he’s dating someone else. She stood outside for a moment, as the sobering reality of the situation pulled at her heart. Eventually this pain would pass. Wouldn’t it? Because the entire scenario could be reduced to three bullet points: Brian and Olivia had slept together. Olivia had pulled away. Brian had moved on. Done. End of story. Now it was down to Olivia to act like all was just hunky-dory as Brian signed the lease that would essentially force them to share an office for the foreseeable future.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of the January chill, plastered a smile on her face and headed toward the halo of light that spilled out of Brian’s office and into the hallway.

“Hey, Brian—” She stopped in her tracks, astonished to see Leanne Stoddard, Brian’s new girlfriend, hunched over Brian’s desk, her back to Olivia, as she snapped pictures of documents with her cell phone. “Leanne? Can I help you?”

At the sound of Olivia’s voice, Leanne turned around, eyes wide, as she stuffed the documents back in the drawer and closed it. “Olivia? What are you doing here?” Leanne placed her palm flat on her heart. “You scared me to death.”

“I own the building.” Olivia narrowed her eyes, suspicious now of Leanne’s reasons for being here. “Why are you going through Brian’s papers?”

“I know how this must look. But I wasn’t going through his papers.”

Liar. Olivia didn’t say the word out loud.

“Really. I wasn’t snooping. Trust me. I wanted to get a look at Brian’s calendar. I thought it would be easier to just take a photo rather than writing down all the days he was free. I was hoping to surprise him with a getaway weekend or a concert, but he’s so busy all the time working.”

Olivia had learned long ago never to trust anyone who used the words trust me. “How did you get in here?”

“Oh, Brian gave me a key. I’m here to pick up his laptop. It’s running slow, and I offered to fix it for him. Please don’t tell him you caught me here. I wanted to surprise him.” Brian’s laptop case sat on the corner of his desk. Leanne picked it up, sliding the strap over her shoulder. “I actually wanted to speak to you anyway. I was hoping we could have coffee or lunch one day. Brian considers you a close friend, and I’d like to get to know you better.”

In the spirit of getting along, Olivia forced a smile and said, “I’d like that very much.”

“Good,” Leanne said, smiling back. “Let me know a day that works. Gotta run. Have a good one.”

“Can you lock the door, please?”

“No problem,” Leanne said.

Once Olivia heard the door shut and the key turn in the lock, she stepped into Brian’s office. She didn’t believe for one minute that Leanne was looking through Brian’s calendar.

Olivia had never liked Leanne, hadn’t trusted her from the minute Brian had introduced them. Olivia had assumed her dislike stemmed from jealousy because if she were completely honest, she wanted Brian for herself. They’d met after Olivia had been arrested for the murder of her husband’s mistress, and her attorney had hired Brian to prove her innocence. They had struck up a friendship. When the real murderer had burned Brian’s house down in a feeble attempt to destroy evidence, Olivia had gladly invited Brian to stay with her until he found a more permanent place to live. She had been surprised at how well the two of them got along, how easy it was to be together and share the simple day-to-day moments that constitute the bulk of a relationship. But they had moved too fast and everything had fallen apart.

Leanne’s sudden appearance in Brian’s life had taken Olivia totally by surprise. With nothing else to do, Olivia had stepped away, knowing the best course of action was to give him room to navigate this new relationship without interference from her.

There was a part of Olivia – the seasoned litigation attorney who trusted her finely tuned intuition – that wanted to run a simple background check on Brian’s new girlfriend, if for no other reason than to lessen her anxiety. She’d only been around Leanne twice, but each time they’d been together, Olivia had felt like Leanne had an agenda, as though she were hiding something. Olivia hadn’t yet acted on her suspicions because it wasn’t her place and Brian would not be happy if he found out. She wondered if she should do a little digging into Leanne Stoddard’s background. No one would need to know. If she found evidence that Leanne wasn’t what she seemed, she would tell Brian. He might get mad at her for meddling in his affairs, but Olivia didn’t care. She was sure Brian would do the same thing if the tables were turned.

***

An hour later, Olivia sipped her coffee and stared out the café window at the Golden Gate Bridge, and the shimmering San Francisco Bay. Across from her, Lauren Ridley added a generous dollop of cream and sugar to her coffee.

“So what don’t you like about this woman, other than the fact that she’s got her claws into Brian Vickery?”

“I can’t put my finger on it. At the risk of sounding more than a little ridiculous, when Brian’s around her, it’s like she’s the predator and he’s the prey.” Olivia waited for Lauren to smile and tease. But she didn’t.

Instead, she put her coffee cup on the aqua blue Formica table and said, “Go on.”

“When she came to the office that first time, I got the distinct impression that she was casing the joint. And she’s hiding something. I swear, I can smell it.” Olivia picked at the flimsy paper napkin on her lap. “When I got to the office this morning, she was already there, going through Brian’s desk. She swore up and down that she was taking a photo of Brian’s calendar, so she could take him away for the weekend.”

“Ouch,” Lauren said. “Do you think they’re sleeping together?”

“I don’t know. Probably. Am I just being jealous? Remember, I’m the woman who couldn’t even see my own husband’s infidelity. Maybe I’m totally wrong about all of this.”

“Stop it, Liv. Just because you didn’t see Richard for the jackass he was, doesn’t mean you’re wrong about this Leanne creature. You’re not the first person who couldn’t see their own issues.”

“If you saw them together, you’d see what I mean. It’s like Brian shrinks when he’s around her. He literally looks shrunken and weak, like he’s ripe to be taken advantage of. When Brian was working my case, he was focused, had a purpose. Game on, if you get my meaning.”

“What’s different now? You’ve said he has more work than he knows what to do with.”

“The work he has now isn’t personal for him. It’s professional – corporate background checks and things like that. His heart’s not in it. And, despite Leanne Stoddard, he’s still mourning his wife in a big way.” Olivia sipped her coffee. “There’s a particular type of woman who is attracted to men like Brian – widowers, who are coming to grips with their grief. Some men – in my opinion – just want to be married. I think the pain of their loss softens them, if that makes sense. This type of woman wants to provide emotional rescue and save the man in need.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Other than people should save themselves, nothing at all. There’s also a sub-genre – for lack of a better word – in this group, the type of woman who likes to swoop in and exploit. I’m pretty sure Brian got a sizeable property insurance payout from his house fire.”

“Are you saying you think this woman is after Brian for his money?”

Olivia didn’t give voice to her thoughts. “I’m saying I don’t like her. And I’m saying – despite my utter lack of judgment as far as Richard was concerned – in this situation I trust my intuition.”

“Brian Vickery is a retired cop. He’s seen the dark side of humanity. There’s not a gullible bone in that man’s body. The question here, my friend, is why won’t you admit you want Brian for yourself?”

The waitress approached with two plates piled high with food. “Salmon omelets, extra avocado and extra potatoes.” She set the plates on the table. “I’ll circle back with coffee shortly, ladies. Flag me down if you need anything else.”

After the waitress was out of earshot, Olivia leaned forward and said in a low voice so no one could hear, “All right, I admit it. I’m fond of Brian. But he is not over his wife. And I don’t want to get involved with someone who isn’t capable of reciprocal feelings. I already had a long-term loveless marriage. If I get involved with Brian, it will be when he is good and ready.”

“Right. You see what you did there?”

“What are you talking about?” Olivia shook the ketchup bottle and doused her potatoes.

“You’re making these judgments and decisions about a relationship without consulting the other party. You should express this to Brian, not to me. It’s obvious you’re missing him. Why haven’t you talked to him? Don’t you think you should tell him why you pulled away after your illicit physical … whatever it was? At some point, you’re going to have to talk to him, if for no other reason than to clear the air so you can move on. He’s renting an office from you, Liv. You’re going to be around him. You need to deal with this.”

“I know. I know. I need to talk to him. I’ve tried, really I have. Just the other day we were in the office together, unpacking his work stuff. Every time I opened my mouth to broach the subject, the words wouldn’t come.”

They ate in silence for a moment before Lauren said, “When the time is right to talk to him, you’ll find the words. Meanwhile, what are you going to do about the new girlfriend?”

“I don’t know,” Olivia said. “Maybe a little background investigation wouldn’t go amiss, given what I saw this morning.”

“Agreed. But you need to be careful if you go down that road,” Lauren said. “I’m sure Brian wouldn’t appreciate knowing you’re investigating his girlfriend behind his back. And now that you’re sharing office space, the relationship is professional and personal.”

Olivia waited while the waitress refilled her coffee. When she was gone, Olivia said, “My life mantra right now is ‘Proceed with caution’. When the time is right, I’ll talk to him. But a quiet little background check wouldn’t be harmful. Would it? Leanne’s a nurse. I could start by looking up her record at the California nursing board. They have a website. No harm there, right?”

“Just be careful,” Lauren agreed. “On to a new subject. What’s the latest on the job front? Last time we talked you were going to start looking for some pro bono work?”

“I’ve gone on two interviews at family law firms in the city. Both times I got into the managing attorney’s office, and all he wanted to do was grill me about the situation with Richard and the events of last October. One of the firms didn’t want me at all. They wanted me to persuade Richard to come to work for them.”

“That’s awful. I’m sorry, Liv. Have faith. You’ll find something,” Lauren said.

Olivia finished the last of her breakfast and pushed her plate away. “From the Olympian vantage point of hindsight, I realize that I shouldn’t have been so quick to get rid of my practice.”

“But you didn’t have a choice, did you? And you could go back to practicing if you wanted to. Can’t you just take a case or two, get your feet wet slowly?” Lauren arranged her knife and fork on the right-hand side of her plate and pushed it away. “Take your time and ask the universe what you’re supposed to do with your life. I swear, if you ask the question and open your mind, the answer will reveal itself.”

The two women had been friends for decades, so Olivia was well aware of Lauren’s new-age view of the world. Lauren regularly had her tarot read and she was adamant that no contracts be signed during a Mercury retrograde. Olivia had learned to love Lauren for her quirky way of looking at the world and had always humored her. But now, for the first time, Lauren’s words made sense. For it seemed the harder Olivia pushed herself to make some decisions, get a job, just do something, the more elusive the joy of a productive life seemed to be. Maybe Lauren was right. Olivia should step back, clear her head, and see what the universe had in store for her.

“It’ll be okay, Liv. You’ve got a lot to be grateful for. You’re going to be a grandmother, for crying out loud. How is Denny?”

“Doing extremely well. She’s still decorating her friend’s bed and breakfast in Tahoe. She loves it there so much, she may just stay. The morning sickness has passed, and it looks like she’ll deliver on June 16th.”

After they paid their check, the pair headed out of the restaurant for a walk along Bridgeway, the shimmering water of the bay on one side of the street and the shops, with the houses nestled into the hills above them, on the other. Olivia realized that although her life was full of uncertainty and that she had no idea what to do with her time or energy, Lauren was right. She did have a lot to be grateful for.

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