Page 61 of Circle of Strangers
“I was in a bad place. You know that. You saw it firsthand—along with the rest of Saguaro Circle,” Mara says, shame lacing her words. “Sozi insisted I’d feel better taking a breather from everything, that it would help Oscar and me to calm down and think rationally so we could fix our marriage. Said she could set me up in a cabin in Sedona. Gave me a burner phone for emergencies. Rented me a car. She took care of everything. If I’d have used my credit card, he’d have tracked me down and then we wouldn’t have had the space I thought we needed at the time. I regret it all now, of course.”
“Do you?” I ask, my throat tight.
“Of course. It only made things worse.” Mara appears genuinely remorseful, but then again, it doesn’t take much for her to emote anything. “It was reckless. I could’ve gotten arrested. And it was awful to put Oscar through something like that. He truly thought I was dead. He was beside himself. I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I’m so embarrassed. Worst of all? She promised she’d assure him I was okay, that she knew where I was and when I was returning ... and she didn’t. She let him think something happened to me. That wasn’t the plan.”
She was pretty upset before she left. It’s easy to take advantage of someone in that state, especially if you’re good at that kind of thing.
“He only went on that stupid dating app because of whatIdid. I cheated on him once. A couple months ago with a tennis pro at the clubhouse. Talk about cliché.” She looks away, wincing as if the shame of uttering those words physically hurts. “Biggest mistake of my life. That’s why I denied it to you. I didn’t want to rehash it, and sometimes it’s easier to pretend it didn’t happen, even though Oscar won’t let it go.”
She glances back at me, her expression softening.
“We’vebothmade mistakes. I won’t pretend we’re perfect. We’re far from it. But I deeply regret if anything I did made you feel uncomfortable or made you feel like your family wasn’t safe around us.”
For the first time, there’s a flicker of sincerity in her voice, and against my better judgment, I soften a little.
Iwantto believe her.
But giving people the benefit of the doubt has proven to be the last thing I should be doing around here.
We’re nothing but a circle of strangers.
I fold my arms, shifting my weight. “What were you and Will talking about the other day? He mentioned the break-ins.”
Mara’s brow furrows. “Break-ins? What break-ins?”
My pulse quickens.
Mara seems genuinely clueless. “He was asking about Sozi and Austin. Oscar and I thought it was weird—he wanted to know how long they’d been together, when I last saw Austin, stuff like that.”
Interesting he was asking the Morenos about Sozi and Austin before I’d brought up my concerns about Sozi. How—and why—was he ahead of that curve?
I frown. “Why would he ask that?”
Mara shrugs. “Probably because they broke up? At least I think they have because I haven’t seen him around in a while. They weren’t married. Ezra was Austin’s kid from a previous relationship. They only had him part-time. They weren’t even together for more than a couple of months. All of her relationships, if you can call it that, tend to crashand burn, over as quickly as they began. I think they bounce once they realize she’s not exactly stable. My theory anyway.”
I blink, trying to piece it together. After what I’ve gleaned about Sozi, I believe Mara. Still, the gravity of her words crashes over me because Will lied to me again. He made up the story about the break-ins. The question now is:Why?
Mara glances at the time on her phone. “I’d love to keep talking, but I’ve got to run. Got a hair appointment in the valley and I need to get going to get ahead of traffic. Can we pick this up later?”
I nod, mind racing. “I have to pick up the kids from school anyway.”
Just as I turn toward my car, my phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out and see a text from Sozi. If I know her at all, she had to have been watching us talking.
Sozi:Can we talk?
I exhale sharply, my jaw clenching.
I fire off a response.
Me:I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Three dots appear, then vanish, then appear again. Finally, her response comes through.
Sozi:???
Sozi:I’m confused ... is everything okay?
My blood runs cold. I hit call instead of texting back, needing to hear her voice for this.
