Chương 6
“Is there another man?”
“No.”
“Another woman?”
“No.”
“Then who else knows?”
“The property manager.”
He waited.
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at her for a long time.
“Unlock your phone.”
Claire went still.
“What?”
“Unlock it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not handing you my phone like I’ve committed a crime.”
“You hid thirty thousand dollars, rented a condo in secret, and assaulted our daughter.”
Her face changed instantly.
“Do not use that word.”
“What word?”
“Assaulted.”
“I saw your hand on her arm.”
“I grabbed her.”
“You left bruising.”
“It is not a bruise.”
“Not yet.”
Claire stepped closer.
“You are trying to make this as ugly as possible.”
“I am trying to understand how ugly it already is.”
“You don’t get to search my phone.”
“Fine.”
Daniel nodded once.
“I won’t touch it.”
Claire seemed surprised.
He held out the envelope.
“Keep this.”
She stared at it.
“Why?”
“Because I’m going inside.”
“To do what?”
“Check the accounts.”
Her face tightened.
“Daniel.”
“And then I’m downloading the security footage.”
Claire’s lips parted.
He turned toward the house.
She caught his sleeve.
He stopped.
Her fingers immediately loosened.
“Please.”
Daniel looked down at her hand until she released him.
“Please what?”
Claire swallowed.
“Don’t do that in front of the kids.”
“I won’t.”
“Don’t call anyone yet.”
“I already called Rachel.”
“I mean anyone official.”
Daniel stared at her.
“I haven’t said anything about calling anyone official.”
Claire’s breathing changed.
He watched it happen.
Small.
Fast.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Why did you think I meant that?”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t.”
“You just did.”
“I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
“I told you.”
“No.”
He spoke quietly.
“You told me you’re scared of me finding out about money.”
Claire said nothing.
Daniel looked at the house, then back at her.
“What else happened here?”
Her face emptied.
“Nothing.”
“Claire.”
“Nothing.”
“Was today the first time you locked them in there?”
Her eyes moved.
Barely.
But they moved.
Daniel felt his stomach drop.
He did not raise his voice.
He did not need to.
“How many times?”
Claire looked past him toward the hedge.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s face went still.
“That is not an answer.”
“I’m telling you I don’t know.”
“You don’t know how many times you locked our children in a shed?”
“I said I don’t know.”
Her voice broke on the last word.
Daniel waited.
Claire pressed the heel of one hand against her forehead.
“It wasn’t always locked.”
He felt something in his chest contract.
“What does that mean?”
“Sometimes I told them to go in there.”
“For punishment?”
“For quiet.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Those are children.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?”
She flinched.
He regretted the cruelty as soon as it left his mouth, but he did not take it back.
Claire folded her arms tightly over herself.
“I would tell them to sit in there for a few minutes when they were out of control.”
“How many minutes?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I wasn’t standing there with a stopwatch.”
“Were they locked in?”
“Sometimes.”
Daniel looked toward the structure.
Its little hinged door stood open now.
In another context, it might have looked harmless.
A child might have painted it red and called it a fort.
He imagined Lily sitting inside with Noah, listening for footsteps.
He had to look away.
“How long?”
Claire shook her head.
“Five minutes.”
“Five?”
“Maybe ten.”
“Today?”
“No.”
“Other times.”
“Yes.”
“Longest?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel laughed once under his breath.
Claire’s eyes filled.
“Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m disgusting.”
He said nothing.
Claire looked down.
That silence answered for him.
Inside the house, Rachel appeared near the glass with Lily beside her.
Rachel did not come outside.
She simply watched Daniel.
He held up one hand to tell her to stay where she was.
Lily was watching too.
Daniel turned so his back was partly toward the house.
“Did Lily ever ask you not to put them in there?”
Claire swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Did Noah?”
“Yes.”
“And you still did it.”
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
Daniel closed his eyes.
This time, when he opened them, some of the anger had burned itself out and left something heavier behind.
“How long has this been happening?”
Claire rubbed her palms over her bare arms.
“A couple of months.”
“Two?”
“Maybe three.”
“The same three months you’ve had the condo?”
Her eyes flicked up.
“Yes.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
The alignment of those dates was not proof of anything except that his family had been living through a different version of the summer than he had.
He thought of business trips, late flights, hotel rooms with identical art, phone calls home where Claire said the kids were already asleep.
He thought of Lily asking twice in July whether he had to travel again.
He had told her work was work.
He had promised pancakes when he came home.
The memory came with the smell of airport coffee and the image of her face on a cracked tablet screen.
He turned away from Claire.
“Go inside.”
Her head lifted.
“What?”
“Go to our bedroom.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I need to talk to the kids without you watching them.”
“I’m their mother.”
“Then act like what they say matters.”
Claire’s face hardened again.
“You’re poisoning them against me.”
Daniel looked at her.
“They’re seven and five.”
“That doesn’t mean they can’t be influenced.”
“They’re afraid of you.”
“They’re upset.”
“Lily warned me not to go outside because you get worse when people leave.”
Claire went silent.
Daniel saw the exact moment she understood that Lily had spoken.
Her mouth opened, then closed.
“What else did she say?”
He stepped closer.
“That is exactly why you’re not going to be in the room when I ask.”
Claire looked toward the glass.
Rachel had moved the children away from it.
“Daniel, please.”
May you like
He waited.
“Please don’t make this into something permanent.”
