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even though he says he doesn’t want to hurt her, Natalie is hurt. Deeply. It’s like a knife through her heart. She knows she isn’t sexy or a great beauty, but Peter knew that when he married her. “So you finally decided I’m not good enough for you, is that it?”
    “We’ve simply outgrown each other.”
    Natalie is silent as the pain sinks in. Her family is going to pieces and there isn’t anything she can do to stop it. “What have you told Chloe about all this?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Why not?”
    “Actually,” Peter looks sheepish, “since you’re so much better at these things, I was kind of hoping you would explain it to Chloe. But in a way that’s fair,” he adds.
    Natalie is incredulous and then realizes nothing has changed. Peter might be leaving her, but he still wants her to handle the messy details of his life. She thinks of Chloe and figures at least this way she’ll have control over how Chloe learns about their family falling apart.
    “Fine. I’ll handle it. I always take care of everything, so why should this be any different?”
    Peter looks like he’s going to argue, but then stops. “Call me after you talk to her.” He pushes away from the counter. “Also you should know that I hired a divorce lawyer. In fact, after seeing the state of this house, I’m glad I did. I don’t know what you were thinking, throwing a wild party like that. I’m glad Chloe wasn’t here.”
    “Stop exaggerating. There was no wild party. It was just Lindsay and me.” She crosses her arms. “And you’re not touching my house.”
    “It’s half mine.”
    A flicker of worry passes through her. Could he really force me out? “When did you hire a lawyer?”
    “Recently.” He takes a step closer to her and she recognizes his ‘dentist voice,’ the reasonable one he uses when he’s trying to convince a patient to follow his advice. “There’s no reason things have to get ugly between us, Natalie. Lena thought it was a good idea after that voicemail you left me, and I agree with her. It turns out if we keep things amicable we can be divorced in as little as ninety days.”
    Ninety days!
    Natalie tries to catch her breath. So Blair was right. She wants to make sense of everything, but it’s all happening so fast. She feels as if she’s been thrown into the deep end of the pool without any idea how to swim. One thing’s for sure, though. No one is stealing her husband without answering for it.
    It’s time to pay Lena a visit.

TURNS OUT DECIDING to confront Lena and actually doing it are two different things. Natalie doesn’t know anything about her. She doesn’t even know Lena’s last name.
    “We can follow Peter after he leaves work.” Lindsay snaps her fingers. “I bet he leads us right to her.”
    “How? I think he’ll notice if we’re following him.”
    Her sister considers this. “We’ll borrow Oliver’s van. He’s out of town on a photo shoot and he’ll get a kick out of us using it.” Oliver is Lindsay’s current boyfriend whom she lives with.
    Natalie tries to picture them following Peter without being seen. “Do you really think it’ll work?”
    “Trust me.” Lindsay grins. “It’s Operation Ass Clown.”
    And so that’s how the two of them wind up sitting in a beat-up van outside of Peter’s dental practice like a couple of undercover cops on a stakeout. They get there a half hour before Peter’s last patient, just in case he’s done early.
    “I feel silly,” Natalie says, glancing around the near empty parking lot. In the interest of staying incognito, she’s wearing sunglasses and a straw hat with a big red flower on the side that Lindsay loaned her.
    Lindsay is dressed in a similar get-up, though on her it looks glamorous.
    “I look like a hillbilly,” Natalie complains.
    “You look fine.” Lindsay studies her, then reaches behind and pulls out the black band holding Natalie’s ponytail in place. Her hair falls down around her shoulders. “I don’t