I notice a slight discoloring on her throat, where Michael must have tried to strangle her. The bitch deserved it.
“How. Long.”
“Rachael…” Her gaze flips to Lora, and back again. “Don’t be absurd. You’re going to cause a scene for no reason. Come on, let’s get back inside before they start to think we’re fighting.”
She didn’t answer my question. She’s patronizing and a smart-ass, and I’m not going to let her get away with it.
“Were you together at the company party?” I ask. “In February—were you sleeping with him even then?”
“Rachael—”
“What about last night? After you canceled on me because you were ‘sick as a dog’? How many nights, when I had to work late, did you run over to my house to sleep with my husband?”
“Rachael, have you talked to Travis about this?” she asks, planting her hands on her hips. “Maybe you should call him.”
“I’m not talking to Travis. I’m talking to you. And I want to know how long it’s been going on.”
Sighing, she leans closer and murmurs, “I don’t think you want to do this here. Go home. We’ll talk later.”
I hold up my hand so that her beautiful, glimmering wedding ring stares her in the face. “Missing something?”
She exhales slowly. “I had a feeling I left it at your place.”
She reaches for it, but I pull my hand back. The fact that she hadn’t been concerned about losing something so valuable—not only in cost, but in the meaning of her marriage—is astounding. She couldn’t love Michael. Not really. Not if she was so careless with her wedding ring. Joanna’s features seem to morph right in front of me. Gone is the friend with the kind eyes, the woman we saved from a violent husband last night. Her features harden, and the swelling above her eye becomes more pronounced. But Joanna is no victim. I don’t know why it took me until now to see it. I was deceived like the rest of them. Tricked into believing someone so beautiful could never be so evil.
“So you’re not even going to deny it.” I’m fighting back tears.
“Just give it back, Rachael,” she spits out. “I’m not playing games.”
“Aren’t you?”
Joanna glares, thrusting out her hand. “I won’t ask you for it again.”
I shake my head, dizzy. “How long have you been sleeping with my husband?”
“Why are you doing this? Seriously, Rachael, I don’t know why you’re so upset. He told me about the way your relationship works. What’s the problem?”
“You, Joanna. The problem is you. We were never supposed to sleep with people we knew. It was never supposed to be personal. You were my friend.”
“Were?” Her thinly plucked eyebrows rise. “You’re going to throw away our friendship over meaningless sex?”
“It’s only meaningless sex to you. But it means something to me. To my marriage.” Her ring burns on my finger, and I ache to get it off.
She folds her arms over her chest as if she’s a child ready to throw a temper tantrum. “Don’t worry, we haven’t been sleeping together long enough for it to be Travis’s baby. That’s what you really want to know, isn’t it?”
“You’re sick!”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake! Don’t blow this up into something it isn’t.” She raises her hands and studies her manicured nails.
All the nights I’d come home and smell an unfamiliar perfume, the dinner parties when their gazes would linger just a heartbeat too long…all this time. I’d been right, and he’d dismissed my doubts. Made me feel as if I were delusional and stupid with jealousy.
This is not what I agreed to.
“You should try having a little perspective,” Joanna adds. “Might make you feel better. Travis and I have had fun. A few trysts, that’s all. As my friend, I thought you might understand what it’s been like for me, going through