She turned on nothing.

Through the sidelight she could make out Michelle’s neat coat, Brian’s broad shadow behind her, and the glow of their truck still washing across the wet gravel.

Ellie opened the door but left the chain latched.

Michelle’s mascara was perfect.

Her eyes were pink, but only around the edges.

Brian looked worse—gray, wrecked, rain-spotted, like he’d been dragged behind his own grief.

He kept staring past Ellie into the house.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” Michelle said, one hand pressed dramatically to her chest.

“The funeral home called.

There was…

some kind of disturbance at the cemetery.

They think boys from town may have vandalized the site.

We wanted to make sure you were all right.”

Ellie kept her face blank.

“Why would vandals send you here?”

Michelle gave a breathless little laugh.

“No reason.

It’s just…

after a day like today, I couldn’t stand the thought of you being alone.”

Behind her, Brian’s voice came out rough.

“Mom, did you see anyone on the road? Anyone walking?”

That was the first true thing either of them had said.

Ellie watched her son’s face.

He looked terrified—not of grief this time, but of discovery.

And suddenly she knew this wasn’t a clean line between innocent father and guilty wife.

Whatever had happened, Brian had walked some part of that road with her.

“No,” Ellie said.

Michelle leaned closer to the opening.

“Would you mind if we came in for a minute?”

“Yes,” Ellie said.

The answer seemed to surprise her.

Michelle recovered quickly……………………