She looked up quickly, her eyes wide. “What?”

“That’s a question you’re going to have to answer for yourself,” I said firmly.

She looked deeply hurt, but I wasn’t the person who owed her any emotional support. As I walked toward the exit, she called out to me one last time.

“Kirsten, I think something is horribly wrong with our life,” she said, her face pale.

I looked back at her for a long moment. “So do I, Melinda.”

Three days later, Kenneth called me with news that completely shattered my remaining assumptions, proving the truth was far stranger than anything I’d ever imagined.