In clear defiance of Bettina Connaught Cross’s edict, Bettina’s sister-in-law, Lorna Connaught, rounded up her friends in the Pacific Heights Moms & Tots Club Onesies group to inform them that Kelly Bryant Overton had been dismissed, and therefore, their memberships in the club, and hers, were now guaranteed. The relief on the faces of Jade Pierce, Ally Thornton, and Jillian Fredrick was all the proof she needed to know she’d done the right thing. Her aching concern over a far bigger issue, her one-year-old son’s well-being, numbed her own joy. Dante had recently been diagnosed as autistic. She’d held back this knowledge from her husband, Matthew, only to have him overhear her discussion on the matter with Dante’s doctor. Stunned by the news, it had left him helpless. Since then, she’d punished his inability to accept this new reality with her silence. But now, it was time to go home and face the music. To come clean with him and to express her own sorrow and shame over her duplicity about Dante’s condition.
