My Fiancé Left the Phone Line Open One Day Before Our Wedding, and I Heard Him Tell His Mother He Planned to Take My House, My Savings, and Then Get Rid of Me. So I Changed a Few Details About the Ceremony—and When the Final Wedding Gift Appeared on the Screen, Nathan Learned He Had Never Been the One Running the Con.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For not seeing it.”

She pulled back.

“Mom.”

I blinked.

Grace almost never called me Mom.

She had spent years using Aunt Sharon because she believed using Mom would betray Melissa.

Nathan had been the one encouraging the girls to call him Dad.

Now the word came to me naturally.

“Mom,” Grace repeated, “he fooled all of us.”

I cried then.

For maybe a minute.

Then she handed Ben the flash drive.

“This better not destroy your computer.”

He almost smiled.

“No promises.”

Melissa had encrypted it thoroughly.

Ben worked for an hour.

Nothing.

At six twenty, Lily texted.

Try our birthday.

Nothing.

Then Grace whispered, “Her favorite phrase.”

“What phrase?”

Melissa used to say it whenever the girls were scared.

Three women can survive anything if they refuse to let go of each other.

Ben tried:

THREEWOMEN.

Nothing.

REFUSETOLETGO.

Nothing.

Then I remembered Melissa shortening everything.