A cashier recognized Lauren immediately from a photo.
“She comes here a lot,” he said casually. “Usually with that guy from the construction company.”
Mark.
Then he added the final piece.
“That smoothie contains yogurt and whole milk. We label it because of allergies.”
There it was.
The truth.
Not some mysterious tragedy.
Not fate.
Not cruel bad luck.
Just lies.
Lauren eventually asked to meet me.
The second she sat down, she started sobbing.
“Emily, I swear I didn’t know,” she cried. “Mark never told me about the allergy.”
And strangely enough…
I believed her.
She looked horrified.
Destroyed.
“He said Ava loved strawberries,” she whispered. “I thought I was doing something nice.”
The real betrayal belonged to Mark.
