Page 20 of The Getaway

“Josh . . . he got a note,” Juliet said, looking pointedly at Suzy. She sniffled noisily.

Marley’s heart dropped. From Juliet’s tone, whatever the note had said was not good. She gripped the footrest on the bed. “What did it say?”

Juliet hesitated, fiddling with her rings and looking away. Her long blond hair stuck to the tears on her cheeks, and her eyes were bloodshot.

“It said that I’ve been screwing around with Lincoln, and the baby . . . might be his.”

“Wait, what? You and Lincoln?” Marley was completely blindsided. In a million years she never would have predicted two of her married friends hooking up. But Juliet nodded miserably, confirming the worst.

Marley shook her head. She felt foggy and not entirely there. “I don’t understand. What baby?” she said. They all stared at her for a long beat, and then realization suddenly struck her. Beckham. Juliet’s baby. Josh’s baby. “Oh my God.”

“I still don’t understand,” Gemma said.

Glancing over at the woman made Marley feel even more off kilter. Lily should have been there. And instead, here was this total stranger.

“Juliet’s son. Beckham. He’s nine months old,” Suzy stated.

“Oh,” Gemma said, then glanced over at Juliet. “Oh! So you and Lincoln . . .”

Juliet nodded.

“And it was after he and Hazel . . .”

Juliet nodded again, silent tears streaming down her face.

“Oh, Jules,” Marley said, unable to keep the sadness and disappointment out of her voice.

Juliet sat down on the bench at the end of the bed and collapsed forward, hands covering her face. Suddenly Marley wanted to grab Juliet and shake her. How could she do such a thing? Everyone knew how devoted Lily was to Lincoln. How much she adored him and would do anything for him. Maybe they were divorced, but still. In Marley’s mind, Lincoln belonged to Lily. And yes, everyone also knew that Juliet, to put it bluntly, had a hard time keeping it in her pants. But Lincoln?

And then, of course, there was Hazel. She’d been cheated on for real. But then again, she’d been the one Lincoln cheated with on Lily, so Marley felt slightly less empathy for her.

“So . . . wait, who knows about this?” Marley asked. “You couldn’t have told that many people. Whoever you told must have written the notes!”

Juliet turned her head to glare at Suzy.

“I already told you, I had nothing to do with this!” Suzy threw up her hands.

“You knew!?” Marley demanded, disbelieving. Wintour barked twice in protest. Suzy was incapable of keeping a secret. In no way could she imagine Suzy having information of this magnitude and not telling her. She didn’t know whether to be impressed or offended.

“She told me in Cabo,” Suzy said. “Over Christmas. A couple months after Beckham was born.”

Cabo. A girl’s trip Marley had had to bail on because they’d had a meeting with a promising mother-to-be. Which, of course, hadn’t worked out.

“But I swear to God, Juliet, I haven’t told a soul. And there are details in those notes I couldn’t possibly have known.”

“It makes no sense,” Juliet said. “The only other person in the world who knows is Lincoln. And there’s no way he wrote the notes.”

“Are we sure about that?” Suzy asked.

“I’m pretty sure,” Marley said. There was no way Lincoln had written what was in her note. Why would he ever want her to know he’d talked Marshall out of adopting? Besides, she’d seen his handwriting. Chicken scratch was being generous.

“Is it possible someone saw you?” Gemma asked.

Once again, Marley was struck by how odd this was. That this intruder was part of such an intimate conversation. She was about to tell the woman to back off, but then Juliet’s expression changed, her brow furrowing.

“Juliet, when did this happen? And where?” Marley asked.

“We only did it once,” Juliet said, running her hands up and down her arms as if she was freezing cold. “At a fundraiser after-party. Everyone was doing Molly and coke, and we were so messed up. I don’t even remember it, practically.”