Every time my brother-in-law drove me home, I would lose consciousness and wake up with unexplained aches and pains. My husband would only laugh and say, “You’re just out of shape, that’s all.” After the fourth ride, I secretly slipped a voice recorder into my purse and said nothing. That night, I listened to a phone conversation between the two of them that revealed my blackouts had never been accidental.

I remembered the afternoon Julian first suggested that I sell my grandmother’s little house in New Mexico.

He had called it a sentimental burden.

I had told him the house was not for sale.

He had smiled, kissed my forehead, and said, “We’ll revisit it when you’re thinking clearly.”

At the time, I thought he meant after tax season.

Now I wondered how many ordinary sentences I had misunderstood because I assumed he loved me.

PART 13

The confrontation I had imagined for weeks never happened.