The Truth.

This is The Truth. I'm Jonathan Mitchell.

And The Truth is taking a break right now, and we'll be back with all new stories in May.

So we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to another show called Alice Isn't Dead,

and after eight years, they are returning with a new sequel series called Don't Tell Alice.

It's available wherever you get your podcasts, and today we're listening to Episode

One.

I need to tell you another story, a different kind of story, less triumphant, less self-righteous.

Because in my first story, Alice was the one who did wrong, vanishing from my life,

leaving behind only mourning and memory. And I was the one who found her and forgave that was my first

story and it's the easier one to tell but come on. Drive your special car. There you go. Sorry, a one-car traffic jam ahead of me.

This time I'm the one leaving her. Not forever.

I hope not even for long.

But a lie is a lie, and it always will have been a lie for the rest of my life.

I'm not saying it's wrong, because I think I have to do it.

I'm only saying that I'm going to have to learn to live with it.

A couple years after everything ended, I'd settled deep into the slow spin of domestic life.

My phone rang, and I picked it up. I don't know why. No one picks up the phone anymore,

but I did. And there was a voice I knew somehow, although I couldn't quite place it. It was a voice I trusted.

She said a lot of things that didn't make sense.

And then...

Alice... I'm sorry.

...