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brought Keith a hefty increase in salary, and he’d wanted a house to show for it, so he and Maggie and the kids had moved out of their small apartment into this new subdivision of modern two-story houses.
    Lisa had only visited once, shortly after Keith’s funeral, almost a year ago.
    Lisa stopped her car in front of Maggie’s house. As she stepped on to the sidewalk, she smiled to herself at the homey touches. Maggie’s windows boasted planter boxes filled with irises and daisies. A porch swing blew in the breeze. As she made her way to the front door, Lisa noticed the welcome mat on the ground, the brass knocker with the name “Scott” engraved on it.
    Home and family. That’s all Maggie had ever wanted. She’d been the anchor in their group, the one who wanted to nest, to savor simple pleasures. For awhile Lisa had wanted the same things, until her life had gone in a different direction. She smoothed down the skirt of her navy blue business suit, suddenly worried that she and Maggie would no longer have anything in common.
    Maggie threw open the door before Lisa could ring the bell. “Thank God, you’re here,” she said, pulling Lisa into a warm hug. “I thought you’d changed your mind.”
    “The traffic was bad. Everyone wanted to get out of town, I guess.”
    “I know that feeling. Come on in.” Maggie led the way into the house.
    “I have to apologize—the house is a mess.”
    The sight of clothes, toys, dishes and general signs of chaos in the living room, dining room and kitchen startled Lisa. Maggie’s disclaimer was not the usual polite apology of a hostess caught unawares. The house truly was a mess, which disturbed Lisa even more.
    Maggie had always been neat. A place for everything and everything in its place.
    Lisa followed Maggie up the stairs and into her bedroom.
    Maggie shoved the pile of laundry from the bed to the floor and sat down. She looked Lisa straight in the eye. “I think I’m losing my mind.”
    Lisa tried to smile reassuringly, but Maggie’s pale face, her tangled blond hair, her old jeans and sweatshirt didn’t indicate a healthy state of mind. “Okay, what’s wrong?”
    Maggie took a deep breath. “Two weeks ago Keith got a letter from a woman named Serena Hollingsworth. She wondered why Keith hadn’t been in touch.”
    Lisa stared at her in bewilderment. “I don’t understand…”
    “I never heard of this woman, Lisa.”
    “You don’t think Keith was seeing someone on the side?”
    “No, of course not,” Maggie said immediately, then her voice faltered.
    “At least, I don’t think so, I don’t know. All’ of a sudden, I don’t know.”
    Lisa sat down on the other side of the bed, trying to think of what to say. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. “Keith adored you and the kids. He wouldn’t have cheated on you. He was too honorable.”
    Maggie stared at her for a long moment. “He increased his life insurance two months before he died, Lisa. He never told me he was doing that.”
    “He was providing for you.”
    “Maybe. There’s something else. The day before he died, Keith made a huge cash withdrawal from our savings account, eight thousand dollars.
    We were saving it to buy a new car. I have no idea what he did with the money.” Mag─ Maggie’s gaze drifted over to the picture of Keith she still kept on her dresser. “I thought I knew everything about him. Maybe I didn’t know anything.”
    Lisa plucked at the bedspread with her fingers. She didn’t like what she was hearing, a strange woman, insurance money, cash withdrawals.
    None of it sounded like Keith. He’d been an intellectual, a family man, not a womanizer. “You’re probably worrying about nothing,” she said finally. “Maybe Keith took the money out to put a down-payment on a car to surprise you. He loved to surprise you.”
    Maggie didn’t smile or look comforted. She flopped onto her back, staring at the ceiling. “I wondered