She Bled on My Bed

From the back cover

After twenty-six years of marriage, Marian believes Richard is one of the good ones—until, six months into menopause, she finds a rust-colored stain on the fitted sheet of their master bedroom. Her daughter Samantha insists the blood is hers, but Samantha has not slept under their roof in over three months, and the sheet never left Marian's bed.

Days later, in a home boutique, Marian watches Richard and Samantha trail a younger woman named Miranda through the showroom, choosing ivory sateen sheets, a diffuser and a lamp for a new place. Richard pays with his corporate card and has it all delivered to The Belclaire, a luxury high-rise he has never mentioned at home. That evening he asks Marian to cook beef stew because Samantha is coming to dinner.

Marian says nothing. She cooks, serves, and later bags the stained sheet, while a year of late nights, snapped excuses and her own mother's advice to look the other way replays in her mind. Then she overhears Richard on the patio promising to take down another woman's drapes, certain she will never suspect a thing.