Maria’s sobriety was a fact Vanessa’s lie could not hold.

And Daniel, kneeling in the hallway, felt the lie come apart in his hands, not through any brilliance of his own, but because the truth had left, in the details, the small hard evidence of itself that no performance could quite paper over.

Chapter 4 — She Knows About Noah

Daniel crossed the hallway and knelt beside Maria’s body, ignoring Vanessa entirely.

Maria’s breathing was shallow.