Want to Know a Secret?

by Freida McFadden

“She acts like she’s campaigning to be your best friend. I keep expecting her to show up with buttons that say April and Julie forever

There are quite a few people in the neighborhood who think Courtney’s suicide was a little fishy. A little too convenient for April.

I used to work with pretty closely, Riley Hanrahan.

Ohhh shiiii

I miss you. I suck in a breath. I quickly delete the text messages,

She tosses her applications in the back and nods for me to do the same. “April,” I say. “What are you doing?” She winks again. “Improving our odds.”

The OG maria

April did not leave culinary school voluntarily. She was kicked out.”

because she was having an affair with one of her professors!”

“The doctors diagnosed her with early-onset dementia,” she says. “She just can’t be alone anymore. I had to get power of attorney.”

Peggy despises April.

I won’t tell anyone. I swear. I’ll say she was with me the whole night.”

“I won’t tell the police she wasn’t with me. I promise. I won’t tell a soul.”

The fuck?!?

If April did something terrible, it doesn’t matter if she’s my best friend. She needs to pay the price.

Lay down the law

“Janet Portland was her daughter’s alibi for murder,” Peggy says. “Then a year later, Janet decided to stop being her alibi anymore. And now she’s here. On enough medications to kill a horse. You can connect the dots from there.”

Keith’s burner phone buzzes in my pocket—an apology from his mistress?

Ummm wtf did it say

Mark Tanner. And oh my God, they’re kissing. No, not just kissing. They’re making out.

I point the camera at the window to the kitchen and snap a couple of photos.

Mrs. Kirkland doesn’t like April.

April is equally vocal in her dislike of Mrs. Kirkland.

“It’s been going on for months. Horrible stuff.” April has been sleeping with Mark for months?

But just as she’s wiping the tears from her eyes, I see it.

She winks at me.

I’m addicted to torturing April.

Lowkey love this

His first wife…she died of breast cancer when Owen was a baby.”

Context???

the person in April’s living room is Sean Cooper.

Every time that woman winks at me, I want to strangle her.

Same

“She claims that she and Elliot are trying to get pregnant,” she tells me one morning in my kitchen, “but guess what? I found birth control pills in the closet in her downstairs bathroom.”

When I’m on call, women can call me at this number at any time. We arrange a safe place to meet.”

was it possible she might think Maria was the one sending her the text messages? If that’s the case, is it possible Maria could be in danger?

“Take this, Brianna,” I say. She stares at the bottle of pepper spray. “What is it?” “It’s pepper spray.

then I scribble down my phone number on a piece of paper. “Call me anytime.

“Oh, I care, but…” He lifts a shoulder. “Look, I’m not clueless.

So he knows

And all of a sudden, I get it. Elliot is scared of April too.

April got rid of Courtney, and Courtney wasn’t even pregnant. What will she do to Brianna?

After everything else she’s done, she also stole money from her child’s school? What is her encore going to be? Is she going to set an orphanage on fire while poisoning puppies?

lol funny not funny

“April.” His brow furrowed. “I…I’m in love with her.”

Courtney

I realized what he was saying to me. He wasn’t confessing an affair. He was telling me he was leaving me for her.

So I kept it from happening. Dr. Williams was so wonderful about that. Joe was my primary care doctor back then, and I always felt like he had a thing for me,

Ultimately, what the police determined was true. Courtney did take all those pills herself. So technically, it was suicide. But she probably wouldn’t have taken them if I wasn’t holding that knife.

My mother was my alibi for the night of Courtney’s death. I explained to her the way it would look. I swore to her I didn’t kill Courtney, but I needed an alibi.

A year later, she changed her mind.

Luckily, Joe helped me again. He was her doctor too by then—I made sure of that—and

If anyone tries to push me around, I make sure they’re sorry. For example, Mrs. Kirkland.

Yes, I took money from the PTA account.

I hardly took any money. Julie didn’t even notice last year.

I’m done being pushed around by Maria. Now she’s going to get what she deserves.

But its not her

I’ll make it look like a robbery.

But it’s not Maria. It’s Julie. My best friend.

“No, she didn’t,” I say. “I did.” April’s mouth falls open just as the police burst into the room.

But with April in jail, we’re safe.

Are you?