“She talks to Julian, too.”

The name meant nothing to him.

“Who’s Julian?” “A man who comes over sometimes,” Lily whispered, “when you’re away.

They talk about Mommy’s beach house.” And Marcus stopped breathing for a second, because in that sentence, the shape of the thing changed entirely.

This was not, he understood, simply a cruel stepmother mistreating a stepchild she resented.

A man he had never heard of was coming to his house when he was away, and he and Sarah were discussing the beach house.

And the beach house was not a small thing.