And tucked beneath a folded T-shirt, in the drawer of the dresser in the bedroom I had shared with my wife for years, was a sleek black smartphone I had never seen before in my life.

And as I looked at it, before my fingers had even touched the glass, the screen lit up.

Chapter 7 — Julian Vance

A text notification bloomed across the screen, a preview from a contact saved with a name I did not know.

Julian Vance.

The message read: You said Caleb wouldn’t find out.

Leave the kids with Lily and come over now.

And directly beneath it, an earlier notification, time-stamped 1:17 that afternoon, from the same name.