She just kept watering the ugliest seed already in the ground, and let his own insecurity do the growing.

By the time she introduced the other woman, Julian was already primed to feel unseen, already half-convinced his marriage was a place he was tolerated rather than loved — which meant Cassie didn’t have to lure him away from something happy.

She only had to offer shelter from something my sister had spent years making feel like a storm. Then she brought in Cassie.

Cassie had been my closest friend for years — a warm, anxious woman who was drowning quietly in money trouble and her own insecurities, and who had no idea she was about to be used as a weapon.

According to the drive, Victoria had funneled money into Cassie’s failing boutique through anonymous shell accounts, keeping her afloat and grateful and pliable.

And then Victoria had gone about gently, deniably steering Cassie toward Julian — a lonely man, a misunderstood man, a man who needed someone with time for him.