But instead of sending her away, Cora just sat next to her, hand on her shoulder. Anytime someone tried to speak—Mark tried twice, Lanie once—Cora stopped them with a look.

She was clearly waiting until River got ahold of herself and stopped hiccupping for breath like a scared five-year-old, but she couldn’t because she felt so ashamed. She somehow forced herself to look at Mark. “I’m ready.”

“For what?”

“For you to arrest me.”

Silence.

Mark slid a look at Lanie, who wasn’t looking at any of them. She’d moved to the window and stood with her back to them all, hugging herself tightly. Unreachable.

Mark headed toward her but Lanie held up a hand and gave a single head-shake. This didn’t stop him. He still moved to her side, but he didn’t touch her, just stood next to her, silent, supportive. A presence of security that River was both painfully jealous of and also wistful for.

“Lanie?” Mark said.

From the window, Lanie didn’t move except to sigh as she answered a question River didn’t realize had been asked. “No. I don’t want to press charges.”

All of the tension seemed to drain out of Cora at that. “Extremely generous,” she said quietly to Lanie and gave River a small smile.

“Thank you,” River whispered to Lanie’s stiff back.

“I’m not doing it for you.”

River nodded even though Lanie still wasn’t looking at her. She stared down at her tightly clasped fingers in Holden’s big hand.

“Talk to us, River,” Cora said softly.

It was the last thing she wanted to do. The very last thing, right behind having a root canal without drugs. But she’d been braced for Mark to cuff her and drag her off and he hadn’t done that. She owed them all, but she especially owed Lanie.

“You thought you were married,” Cora prompted.

“Yes,” River said.

“But you weren’t?”

“No, because Kyle was already married.” She wanted, desperately, for Lanie to turn around so she could see River’s regret, but Lanie still didn’t budge. “To Lanie.”

The sudden silence was so absolute that River wasn’t sure any of them were breathing. Then in unison, they each turned to look at Lanie.

Who was still doing an impression of a statue.

“Since my marriage wasn’t real,” River said, “I got nothing when he died. Not that I wanted a thing from that rat-fink bastard. I don’t want anything from anyone that I haven’t earned, but . . .”

“You ran out of money?” Cora asked.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Kyle told me he’d paid my rent up to a year, but that wasn’t true. I lost my apartment and when I couldn’t hide the pregnancy anymore, I lost my job as well.”

“And you had to stop going to school,” Cora said, but she was looking at Mark as she said it.

“Yes.” No use thinking about her dream job of being a nurse, helping others the way she’d watched nurses help her mom.

“What did you want from Lanie?” Mark asked. Calmly. Quietly. But with an unmistakable tone of unbendable steel.

She wasn’t out of the woods with him, not yet.

“I was desperate,” she said, equally desperate for them to understand. “You have to understand, it took me forever to figure out what even happened to Kyle. At first I thought he’d just vanished on me. Two months went by and I got kicked out of our apartment—”

Lanie made a soft sound of . . . pain? Hard to tell. Everyone looked at her but she never took her gaze off the window.

“Go on,” Cora said quietly to River.

She swallowed hard. “I needed a new place, but didn’t have enough money, so I went to hock the ring Kyle had bought me.”

Cora nodded encouragingly. “But . . . ?”

“But it was fake.” He’d given her a fake diamond. The humiliation of her stupidity burned deep. “I’d bought him a real ring.” With her entire nest egg. “And I want it back. I need it back so I can sell it and get a place for me and the baby. But when I tracked down Kyle’s family to ask about it, they told me his wife had his belongings.” The words were bitter in her mouth. “That’s when I found out I wasn’t married to him at all. That he had another wife.”

Lanie finally turned to face her, her expression so carefully blank it broke River’s already broken heart all over again. “You tracked me down and came here to make pretend friends with me, to feel things out and see if you could somehow get to Kyle’s belongings through me.”

River winced at the harsh truth. “Yes.”

Lanie nodded and turned back to the window.

River stared down at her hands, feeling the same helplessness as she had when her mom had died. She was going to be kicked out, maybe arrested, and once again she’d be on her own.

Stupid.

She was so stupid.

“Everyone, follow me to the big house, please,” Cora said, eyes on Lanie’s back. “This is Lanie’s private space; we will finish this without further intrusion on her.”

More guilt slashed through River, but Cora wanted them to move, so they all moved. Even Lanie.

Cora kept a close eye on them all as they walked to the big house, waiting until everyone settled in the living room, even Holden. Lanie tried to keep to herself, but Gracie wasn’t having it, leaning all her considerable doggy weight against Lanie until she was pretty much forced by cuteness overload to pet the dog.

“River,” Cora said, “look at me.”

She forced her gaze up to Cora’s.

“I understand why you did what you did,” she said and River stilled.

“You do?”

“Yes. You were alone, terrified, and pregnant. We’d have to be monsters not to understand.”

Mark cleared his throat. “Mom—”

“She’s a kid having a kid, Marcus. She needs us.”

Mark just looked at his mom.

“We’re all about second chances,” Cora told him. “And she didn’t actually steal anything.”

“Yet,” Mark said.

“You heard her, she’s only looking for what’s hers.”

There was another long look between mother and son.

“She was taken advantage of,” Cora said and took River’s hand. “It’s going to be okay.”

“So . . . you don’t want me to leave?”

“No,” Cora said. “I most definitely don’t want you to leave.”

A tiny flame of hope flickered. “I can keep my job?”

“You’re keeping your job. We’ve got you, River,” she said.

No one had ever had her, not since her mom died. She couldn’t help it, her eyes filled again. “Are you sure?”

Cora turned to Mark, who just gave her a single nod. Cora looked at Lanie next.

She didn’t react.

“Lanie,” Cora asked softly. “Are you okay with that?”

And River held her breath, waiting for the only answer that mattered.

Chapter 19

A haiku about getting out of bed:

No no no no no.

No no no no no no no.