he said. “I understand why you’re trying to work through all this in your therapy. But it seems to me that the one person whose forgiveness you need most is yours. That’s not something I can really help you with.”
She sobbed into a handful of tissues.
Feeling a whiff of sympathy for her, he offered, “If it brings you any comfort, I’ve never been happier than I’ve been since Katie came into my life. I have you to thank for that.”
She nodded and blotted her tears with the mess of tissues. After checking her makeup in her small compact, she gave him a wobbly smile.
“Thanks for sayin’ that, Will. It’s not what I’d hoped to hear, but it really does help.”
“Good.” He made a show of glancing at his watch. “Now I hate to rush you out, but my dad’s due shortly.”
She waved that off and collected her purse, the tissues, and the empty beer bottle. “I understand. I really appreciate you meetin’ with me. Where can I put this stuff?”
“The garbage and recycle bins are right this way.”
She followed him into the kitchen and disposed of the items in the bins. He walked over to the curtains over the sliding doors and opened them, scanning the backyard for whoever she thought she’d seen earlier. There was no sign of anyone.
He opened the door when she approached. She paused before stepping outside.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but do you think maybe we could stay in touch?” she asked.
“Sorry, but I really don’t think we should.”
Hurt reflected in her gaze as she nodded. “Okay. Well, thanks again, Will.”
He watched her through the doors until she entered his dad’s garage. Then he walked to the front of his house to make sure she left before pulling out his phone and texting his dad to let him know he was clear to come home with Katie.
He released Gump from his crate and spent a couple of minutes giving him belly rubs. Then he went into the family room to wait for everyone to return.
The moment he sat down, he lost the battle with his exhaustion. Sleep claimed him.
What felt like minutes later, his dad nudged him awake.
“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty,” he said. “Ryan’s got something you need to see.”
Will rubbed his face to get more alert. “Where’s Katie?”
“She’s watching a show in the bedroom.”
Spotting Ryan sitting at the kitchen table with a laptop in front of him, Will got to his feet. Gump rose from his bed in the corner of the room and plodded over to his side as he went to see what Ryan wanted to show him.
“What’s up?”
“I reviewed the footage from earlier,” Ryan replied. “I want to show you a couple things we caught while you were on the phone.”
“Did she take the twenty?”
He was referring to a twenty-dollar bill the security specialist had planted to find out whether Carol Ann might be angling for money. Will hadn’t remembered to look for it after she left.
“Yes. She also spent time looking through the stack of mail we staged on the counter, opening your cabinets and drawers, and looking at the family photos you left out.”
Just thinking about that made Will’s skin crawl. He felt violated even though Ryan had warned him to expect that type of thing if he had to leave the room.
“There’s one more thing,” the specialist said.
He pulled up a window on his browser. The feed that appeared on the screen was clearly from one of the cameras he had installed. It took a moment for Will to register the frozen image of Jasmine facing Carol Ann through the sliding doors.
“Oh, no.” Dread filled him as he fully absorbed the scene, including the bags of food Jasmine held. “Shit.”
“Did you forget to call Jasmine and cancel?” Frank asked.
Will nodded as Ryan hit the play button. The specialist had taken the precaution of installing cameras inside and outside the porch, knowing Carol Ann would be walking between the two houses and entering from the deck. They could hear everything the two women said.
They also saw the look on Jasmine’s face when Carol Ann closed the curtains in her face.
“Fuck.” Will paced away from the table to get his aggravation under control. Gump trotted along beside him. “That lying, manipulative—” He cut himself off and whipped back around to face his dad. “You don’t think Jasmine believed any of that shit, do you?”
“Of course she did,” Will answered himself, jamming his hands into his hair and resuming