Chương 4
“That’s not what happened.”
“Then what happened?”
Victoria’s gaze snapped back.
“You started acting like he belonged to you.”
Elena recoiled.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You whisper to him.”
“He’s a baby.”
“You call him sweet boy.”
“That is normal.”
“You know which song he likes.”
“So do you.”
Victoria said nothing.
Elena saw the answer in her face.
“No,” Elena said quietly.
Victoria’s shoulders drew back.
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
Elena looked at him.
“She doesn’t know.”
“Don’t,” Victoria said.
Elena heard the warning and ignored it.
“He likes ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me.’”
Marcus’s eyes went to Victoria.
She looked furious now, but the anger no longer had anywhere clean to land.
“I know that song.”
“That isn’t what she said.”
“I said I know the song.”
“You know the song,” Marcus repeated.
Victoria turned away.
Rosa looked at Elena.
“Sit down.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re leaning.”
Elena had not noticed.
Her left leg had begun trembling.
Rosa moved toward her and gently took her elbow.
Victoria flinched at the sight.
“Do not take him out of the carrier.”
Rosa stopped.
Elena stared at Victoria.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“I was talking to Rosa.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you answering?”
“Because he’s strapped to me.”
Victoria’s face crumpled again, but this time anger came fast enough to cover it.
“Exactly.”
Marcus stepped closer to her.
“What are you actually afraid of?”
She looked at him with open hatred.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Talk to me like I’m one of your employees.”
“I’m asking a question.”
“You’re interrogating me in front of them.”
Rosa bristled.
“Them?”
Elena touched her arm.
“Please.”
Rosa looked at her, then away.
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Fine.”
He gestured toward the nearest sitting room.
“Come in there with me.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“So you can manage me privately?”
“So we can talk.”
“You should have thought of privacy before you hit me in the hallway.”
Marcus went still.
The shame returned instantly.
Elena looked at him.
He did not defend himself.
“You’re right.”
Victoria’s expression changed.
She had expected resistance.
Marcus swallowed.
“I should not have hit you.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
She touched her cheek again.
“That’s it?”
“No.”
“What else?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Convenient.”
“It’s not convenient.”
His voice broke slightly.
“I’m standing here trying to understand what I just did.”
Victoria stared at him.
For once, she had no immediate answer.
Elena felt a strange, unwelcome sympathy for both of them.
Then her hip throbbed again.
Sympathy vanished.
“Rosa,” she said.
“Yes?”
“Can you help me sit?”
Rosa guided her toward the narrow upholstered bench beneath one of the abstract paintings.
Marcus stepped forward.
Victoria did too.
They both stopped when they noticed the other.
Elena lowered herself carefully.
Leo stirred but did not wake.
Rosa crouched in front of her.
“Where does it hurt?”
“Just my hip.”
“Just?”
“And my shoulder.”
Marcus looked at Victoria.
She looked at the floor.
“We should get you checked,” he said.
Elena shook her head.
“I don’t need a hospital.”
“We have urgent care nearby.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
She glanced at Leo.
“I don’t want to leave him.”
Victoria inhaled sharply.
Elena closed her eyes.
Wrong thing to say.
Again.
When she opened them, Victoria was staring at her with a look so naked that Elena almost wished for the anger back.
“You don’t want to leave him,” Victoria repeated.
“I mean while he’s upset.”
“He’s my son.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Elena stared at her.
“Then stop making me prove I know it.”
Marcus turned his face away.
Rosa looked at Elena with startled approval.
Victoria did not move.
For several seconds the only sound was the faint hum of the air-conditioning and a lawn mower somewhere beyond the windows.
Then Victoria sat down on the opposite end of the bench.
Not close to Elena.
Not close to Leo.
She seemed suddenly unsure what to do with her hands.
“I watched the feed last night,” she said.
Marcus looked at her.
Victoria kept her eyes on the floor.
“He woke at one seventeen.”
Elena remembered.
Leo had been restless after midnight.
She had taken the overnight shift because the night nanny had called out sick.
“I went toward the nursery,” Victoria continued.
Her fingers twisted together.
“And then I heard her singing.”
Elena’s chest tightened.
“I stood outside the door.”
Marcus said nothing.
“So you didn’t go in?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Victoria’s mouth trembled once.
“Because he stopped crying.”
Marcus stared at her.
Victoria kept her eyes on her hands.
“I stood there like an idiot listening to my own child stop crying for someone else.”
Elena felt Leo’s weight against her chest and said nothing.
“He stopped because he was tired,” she said finally.
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know what he sounds like with me.”
Marcus leaned against the opposite wall.
“What does he sound like with you?”
Victoria looked up at him.
“Like he’s waiting.”
Marcus frowned.
“For what?”
“For me to do something wrong.”
Elena’s first instinct was to correct her.
Babies did not wait for mistakes.
They did not judge.
They did not keep score.
Then she remembered the way Victoria held Leo sometimes, arms too rigid, eyes studying his face for signs of failure, and she understood the shape of the problem without agreeing with the words.
“He’s not waiting for you to fail,” Elena said.
Victoria’s eyes sharpened.
“You don’t get to tell me what my son feels.”
“No.”
Elena adjusted the carrier strap where it pressed into her shoulder.
“But I know what fear looks like.”
Victoria’s lips parted.
Marcus looked toward Elena.
Rosa stayed crouched beside the bench.
Elena wished she could take the sentence back.
Victoria glanced toward the bruise forming along Elena’s hip beneath the navy fabric.
“I frightened you.”
“Yes.”
“And him.”
“Yes.”
Victoria swallowed.
The admission appeared to cost her more than Elena expected.
May you like
Marcus stepped away from the wall.
“We need to figure out what happens now.”
