I hesitated over everything. I nearly joined student council, nearly auditioned for the play, nearly applied to my dream school.

Matthew was the only person who ever noticed how reliably I abandoned things right before they might have turned into something good.

By high school, everyone expected the two of us to fall in love, and they were right.

We married after college, bought a small house near the neighborhood where we’d grown up, and built what I believed was a quiet, contented life.

Chapter 2 — The Phone Call

Three weeks before our fifth anniversary, I ordered Matthew an expensive watch he’d admired, picked it up, and drove home imagining his face when he opened it.

His car was in the driveway, which was strange — he usually worked until five.