Chương 8
Elena stared toward the staircase.
Leo squirmed.
“You picked a very bad family for a quiet afternoon,” she whispered.
He burped against her collar.
She looked down at the damp spot.
“Thank you.”
Footsteps approached again.
Marcus appeared first.
His face had gone pale.
Victoria followed several feet behind him.
Rosa came last.
The stranger was gone.
Elena stood despite the pain in her hip.
“What happened?”
Marcus looked at Victoria.
Victoria crossed her arms.
“Nothing.”
Rosa made a disgusted sound.
Victoria turned.
“Please don’t.”
Rosa said nothing.
Marcus looked at Elena.
“Dr. Halpern is a psychiatrist.”
Elena’s eyes moved to Victoria.
Victoria stared at the floor.
Marcus continued carefully.
“He’s been treating Victoria.”
“For anxiety,” Victoria said.
Marcus looked at her.
“You told me you stopped seeing him last year.”
“I did.”
“Then why was someone from his office at our door?”
Victoria pressed her lips together.
Elena felt suddenly intrusive.
“I can go.”
“No,” Victoria said.
The force of it surprised everyone.
She rubbed her forehead.
“Sorry.”
Marcus spoke more quietly.
“What did the man want?”
“You heard him.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
Victoria laughed without humor.
“Of course you do.”
Marcus’s face tightened.
“That’s not fair.”
“No?”
“No.”
“You just found out your wife has been seeing a psychiatrist behind your back and now you’re standing there pretending this is about transparency.”
“What is it about?”
“Control.”
Marcus flinched.
Victoria pointed toward the stairs.
“That man came here because I missed an appointment.”
“You had an appointment today?”
“Yes.”
“At what time?”
“Ten.”
Marcus looked at his watch.
It was nearly one.
“You missed it by three hours.”
“I know how clocks work.”
“Why didn’t you go?”
Victoria looked at Leo in Elena’s arms.
Her expression changed.
“I couldn’t.”
Marcus waited.
Victoria swallowed.
“I sat in the car.”
Elena frowned.
Victoria seemed embarrassed by the admission.
“I drove there.”
“To his office?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I parked across the street.”
Marcus said nothing.
“I watched people go inside.”
Her voice became quieter.
“I sat there for forty minutes.”
“What stopped you?”
Victoria looked at him.
“You.”
Marcus blinked.
“Me?”
“Not literally.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I could already hear what you would say.”
Marcus stared at her.
“What would I say?”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“That I was overreacting.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“You have.”
“When?”
“After Leo was born.”
Marcus looked confused.
Victoria laughed once.
“There.”
“What?”
“That face.”
“I’m trying to remember.”
“I know.”
Her voice broke.
“You don’t remember.”
Elena looked away.
This was not the sort of accusation that needed witnesses.
But Victoria kept speaking.
“Three weeks after he was born, I told you I couldn’t sleep even when he slept.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
“I remember that.”
“No, you remember the conversation.”
Victoria shook her head.
“You don’t remember what I said.”
He did not answer.
“I said I kept thinking something would happen to him if I closed my eyes.”
Marcus looked down.
Victoria’s hands began to shake.
“I said I would lie there listening for him to breathe.”
Her voice thinned.
“I said sometimes I wanted to leave the house because if I wasn’t there, then at least I wouldn’t be the person who failed him.”
Elena felt Leo’s warm body against hers.
Marcus stared at his wife.
“I thought you meant you needed sleep.”
“I did need sleep.”
“You hadn’t slept.”
“I also needed you to listen.”
His face collapsed slightly.
Victoria wiped beneath one eye.
“You told me every new mother feels overwhelmed.”
Marcus said nothing.
“You said your sister went through the same thing.”
“I was trying to reassure you.”
“I know.”
That answer seemed to hurt him more than anger would have.
Victoria looked toward the windows.
“The next morning you left for Boston.”
“It was a board meeting.”
“I know.”
“I offered to cancel.”
“No.”
“You told me to go.”
“I know.”
“Then how was I supposed to know?”
Victoria looked back at him.
“You weren’t.”
Marcus stopped.
Elena saw the sentence reach him.
Victoria’s shoulders lowered.
“That’s the point.”
She spoke more quietly now.
“I kept making it easy for you not to know.”
Marcus sat down.
For a moment he seemed unable to look at anyone.
“What does Dr. Halpern think?”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“That is private.”
“Yes.”
“It is.”
“I’m not asking for everything.”
“You’re asking in front of Elena and Rosa.”
Rosa nodded.
“She is right.”
Marcus looked at her.
Rosa shrugged.
“She is.”
Victoria seemed startled by the support.
Marcus pressed his palms together.
“All right.”
He looked at Elena.
“Can you give us a minute?”
Elena nodded immediately.
“Yes.”
She started to stand straighter.
Pain flashed through her hip.
Marcus rose.
“Don’t move.”
Elena gave him a look.
He stopped himself.
“Sorry.”
Rosa gestured toward the nursery.
“I’ll go with her.”
Victoria looked at Leo.
Panic crossed her face.
Elena saw it.
“So will he,” Elena said.
Victoria’s eyes met hers.
Elena waited.
Victoria swallowed.
Then she nodded.
“Okay.”
It was only one word.
It sounded like work.
Elena carried Leo toward the nursery with Rosa beside her.
At the end of the corridor, she looked back once.
Marcus and Victoria stood several feet apart.
Neither touched the other.
Neither looked angry anymore.
They looked like two people who had finally discovered the argument was older than either of them had admitted.
Inside the nursery, Elena found the hidden camera before she even sat down.
A tiny black lens watched from between two children’s books on the shelf.
She stared at it.
Rosa followed her gaze.
“Oh.”
Elena walked across the room.
Her hip protested with every step.
She reached between the books and unplugged the camera.
Rosa said nothing.
Elena set it face down on the shelf.
May you like
Then she lowered herself into the rocking chair, held Leo close, and listened to his parents begin telling each other the truth on the other side of the wall.
Rosa sat on the edge of the ottoman and watched Elena rock slowly.
