Chương 3
"Sloan," she called through the door, "I know you're home."
I opened it.
Rebecca stared at me for two seconds, then looked past my shoulder at Lily.
The bakery box slipped sideways in her hands.
"Oh, my God."
Lily took one step backward.
Rebecca's eyes filled.
She seemed angry about it.
"You're enormous."
Lily frowned.
"Thanks?"
"No, I mean grown."
Rebecca laughed once and wiped under one eye with her thumb.
"That came out horribly."
My phone kept ringing.
Rebecca looked down at it.
"Julian?"
"Yes."
"Don't answer."
"Why are you here?"
"Because he called me from the car and asked whether I'd contacted you."
She held up the bakery box as though it were evidence of poor planning.
"And because apparently when I'm furious, I buy pie."
"What did he tell you?"
"That you'd been snooping."
She looked directly at me.
"So I asked what you found."
The ringing stopped.
Rebecca's expression hardened.
"He wouldn't tell me."
A new message appeared from Julian.
Do not let Rebecca into our house.
I turned the screen toward her.
Rebecca read it.
For the first time since I opened the cedar box, somebody besides me was looking at one of Julian's lies while it was still alive.
She gave a short, humorless laugh.
"Well," she said, stepping across the threshold before I could decide whether to invite her, "I guess after eleven years, my brother finally found something we agree on."
Rebecca set the pie on the kitchen counter without asking where anything belonged.
For a few seconds, none of us spoke.
The refrigerator hummed behind me, and somewhere upstairs Leo dropped something heavy enough to make the ceiling creak.
Rebecca glanced toward the sound.
"Is that him?"
"Leo."
She closed her eyes briefly.
"Fourteen now?"
"Yes."
"Jesus."
Lily folded her arms tighter.
"You know our ages?"
Rebecca looked at her.
"Of course I know your ages."
"You haven't seen us in eleven years."
"I know."
"That's not really an answer."
Rebecca absorbed that without defending herself.
"No," she said.
"It isn't."
My phone buzzed again on the counter.
This time Julian had sent three messages in a row.
Rebecca is unstable right now.
Please don't involve the kids.
Call me privately.
Rebecca read them upside down.
"Unstable."
She gave a thin smile.
"That's efficient."
"What does that mean?"
"It means he's already started assigning roles."
She opened the bakery box and stared at the pie as though surprised to find it there.
It was blueberry.
One edge of the crust had collapsed.
Lily looked at it too.
"Did you actually stop for pie on the way here?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Rebecca shrugged.
"I didn't want to arrive empty-handed."
Lily blinked.
"After eleven years?"
"Yes."
"That's insane."
"It felt insane while I was doing it."
Something about that answer loosened the room by half an inch.
Rebecca found a fork in the dish rack and turned it between her fingers.
"I should probably start with the part where your father has been lying to me too."
Lily looked at me.
I nodded once.
Rebecca leaned against the counter.
"Julian told us you didn't want contact."
Her eyes stayed on mine.
"Not occasional contact, not supervised contact, not complicated contact."
"None."
"He said you made it very clear."
"When?"
"The Christmas after Lily turned three."
"Nothing happened that Christmas."
Rebecca's mouth tightened.
"Something happened."
"What?"
"Mom asked Julian if she could keep Lily for a weekend."
A tiny pressure started behind my eyes.
"She never asked me."
"I know that now."
Rebecca looked embarrassed in a way I had never associated with her.
"He told Mom you said no because you didn't trust her."
"I never said that."
"He told Grant you thought our family was intrusive."
"I didn't."
"He told me you said I was a spoiled bitch who treated you like staff."
Lily made a small sound that might have been a laugh.
Rebecca looked at her.
"For the record, I was probably a spoiled bitch."
"You still kind of seem like one."
"Lily."
Rebecca raised a hand.
"No, that's fair."
For the first time, Lily's mouth twitched.
Then it disappeared.
"So you all just believed him?"
Rebecca looked down at the fork.
"Not all at once."
That answer mattered.
I waited.
"At first, Mom thought he was exaggerating."
Rebecca scraped one tine against another.
"She called your house."
"We had the same number for years."
"She said it went straight to voicemail."
I remembered Julian insisting we switch carriers because our old plan was too expensive.
He had handled the account himself.
"Then she tried your cell."
"I never got a call."
"He told her you blocked her."
"I didn't."
"I believe you."
"You believe me because of today."
Rebecca met my eyes.
"I believe you because I've spent the last three hours thinking about things I didn't want to think about."
Upstairs, footsteps crossed the hallway.
Leo came down slowly.
He stopped when he saw Rebecca.
She straightened.
For once, there was no quick remark.
"Hi," she said.
Leo looked at me.
"Is she staying?"
"I don't know."
"I'm right here," Rebecca said.
"I noticed."
She almost smiled.
"You look like your dad."
Leo's expression hardened.
Rebecca saw it happen.
"Sorry."
"Everybody says that."
"Then everybody should probably stop for a while."
Leo pulled out the chair he had abandoned earlier and sat down.
"Why'd Dad lie?"
Rebecca drew a breath.
"I don't know."
"That's what Mom said."
"Then your mom is smarter than me because I have about twelve bad guesses."
He stared at the pie.
"Is that ours?"
"Apparently."
"Good."
He got a knife.
Rebecca watched him cut a piece large enough for three people.
"Your grandmother used to do that," she said.
Leo paused.
"Do what?"
"Cut pie like somebody had insulted her."
He looked at the slice.
"Maybe she was hungry."
"Usually."
He took a bite.
Rebecca's eyes shone again, and she turned away before he could notice.
May you like
I noticed.
That made me angrier than I expected.
