Page 31 of Circle of Strangers
She tips her head back, draping an arm lazily over her eyes.
“Hang out here all day so I don’t go home and accidentally murder him in a fit of rage.” She laughs, but the dark flash in her blue eyes implies she might not be joking.
“Mara ...” I say slowly, choosing my words. “You need to be careful. Remember what you said yesterday? You’re too pretty to go to prison. And he’s got a temper. You can’t be so flippant about this stuff.”
Mara lets out a bitter laugh, but her smile falters at the edges.
“Men like that aren’t worth it,” I continue, keeping my tone calm. “If he can’t be loyal to you, why would you throw your life away for him? What do you get out of that?”
Mara’s jaw tightens as she shifts in her chair, staring down at the pool water like it holds all the answers.
“It’s not about what I get,” she says.
“Then what’s it about?”
“It’s about proving a point.” Her voice is low, almost too quiet to hear. “He promised he’d never cheat on me. He gave me his word. He knows how important this is to me. He knows it’s the one thing that would destroy me.”
“And he did it anyway.” I offer her a hard truth but in the softest way possible. “You deserve better.”
Comforting the woman I believe is crushing on my husband was not something I expected to be doing today—or ever, but I’m stuck for now.
“People break promises all the time,” I say. “Especially people with a history of cheating.”
Mara turns toward me, a flicker of defiance in her eyes. “It’s not the same. He didn’t leave his wifefor me, he was about to leave her anyway. So technically, it wasn’t cheating.”
The logic twists in my mind, and I bite back the urge to argue.
Mara shifts her unsteady focus to the wine bottle, turning it slowly between her fingers before topping herself off—only she gets little more than a couple of drops. At the rate she’s been guzzling, she’s got to be drunk by now.
I watch her carefully, worried about what she’ll do when the anger catches up to her. As impulsive as she is, I don’t trust her not to storm back home and make a scene—or worse.
While I couldn’t care less what Mara and Oscar do behind closed doors, I’d hate to wake up tomorrow to a scene of ambulances and cop cars filling our cul-de-sac. My children don’t need to experience that again. Once was more than enough.
“So,” she says, her voice deceptively casual. “What would you do if you found out Will was cheating?”
The question hits like a slap; sharp and sudden. My chest tightens as a dark thought flashes through my mind—violent and primal. I imagine grabbing Will by the throat, tearing him limb from limb, feeling his bones snap beneath my hands—which would never happen in real life. But in this fantasy, the thought is satisfying. It would only be fair.
If he broke up our happy home, I’d have no choice but to break him.
But the image is vivid, startling. I swallow hard, pushing it down, burying it beneath layers of control.
I appreciate my husband. I like what we have. I’d never want to harm him.
But if he betrays me, I can’t promise I’d handle it with grace.
I don’t do well with betrayal, with my world being threatened. Abusing my trust is something Lucinda lived for, the very thing I escaped. Being married to someone who’d do the same thing is something I could never subject myself to.
Mara is watching me closely now, waiting for an answer.
I force a small, tight smile. “I don’t know. And I hope I never find out.”
Mara cocks her head sideways, as if sensing there’s more I’m not saying. But she lets it drop, leaning back in her chair with a sigh.
“Yeah,” she says. “Me too. If Will ever cheats on you, there’s no hope for anyone else. That man adores you. I can see it every time he looks at you. Reminds me of the way I look at Oscar.” She glances down at her empty wineglass. “Well, before. I don’t know how I’m going to look at him when I get home.”
“What are you going to do about this?”
She lifts a shoulder to her ear. “What can I do? I deleted the app. I’ll have to wait until he’s in the right mindset before bringing it up or it could get ugly.”
