Chapter 1.

“How is this happening again? How is Tina losing all faith in me, again?” Bette Porter was slumped over in a chair in Helena Peabody’s kitchen, crying over more than just her love life.  Bette’s outfit reminded Helena of an updated version of the one Bette had once worn in a board meeting shortly after their New York meeting, before it was even conceivable that the two women could sit in the same room without insulting one another. The white shirt was rolled at the sleeves and the dark vest was unbuttoned in the front, signifying the end of a long work day or the end of something else.

Something like a funeral…

“How did it happen last time? Or the time before that?” The words were out of Helena’s mouth before she could censor herself. The look she received from Bette was predictably withering.

Shane and Alice were asleep in guest rooms. All around Bette and Helena were empty bottles of wine and discarded takeaway containers of food.

Tina was supposed to be with them on this dreary Saturday night, but she left with Angelica after shouting at Bette for half an hour.

A storm was on the way, but as Helena’s eyes searched the horizon beyond the sliding glass doors, she welcomed the distraction.

Bette wouldn’t go to New York, not after Tina was shown the footage from Jenny’s phone—footage of Bette in a supposedly compromising position with an old friend and the current co-owner of Bette’s gallery. Bette could not explain the video, though she tried again and again to tell Tina the truth, that for once, Bette did not cheat. To top it all off, Bette was still a suspect in a woman’s drowning…

Jenny’s drowning.

And today they buried her.

Meeting Jenny’s mother was the worst part of the day. She sobbed and screamed when Jenny’s body was lowered in a plain wooden casket, into the dark, dank earth.

Only Shane’s misery compared though nothing could compare to losing a child, Helena suspected. Shane had already cried herself sick on Alice’s arm before drinking a bottle of wine and dragging away herself to sleep it off. Shane was not going back to her own place until she could handle seeing her and Jenny’s things.