Chương 4
"Daniel's."
Her expression changed immediately.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"Martin."
"I mean it."
I sat across from her.
"I went to talk about the trust."
She stared at me.
"You went to change Garnet's inheritance."
"I considered it."
"Because of last night."
"Because of more than last night."
Hazel rubbed her thumb along a scratch in the table.
The scratch had been there since Garnet was fifteen and tried to repair a model airplane with a utility knife.
"You don't get to use my humiliation as permission to become cruel."
The words landed harder than I expected.
"I'm not being cruel."
"Not yet."
"You heard what he did."
"I was there."
"Then why are you defending him?"
"I'm not."
She looked up.
"I'm defending us from becoming people who only know how to hurt back."
I stood and carried my coffee to the sink although the cup was still full.
"That's easy for you to say."
Her chair scraped lightly.
"No, Martin, it's not."
I turned.
She was crying now, but quietly.
"He's my son."
"He's mine too."
"Then act like it."
I felt anger rise so quickly it embarrassed me.
"I have acted like it for thirty-seven years."
"So have I."
"And look where that got us."
She went still.
I regretted the sentence before the silence finished swallowing it.
Hazel stood.
"That's the first honest thing you've said since last night."
She left the kitchen.
At eleven twelve, Garnet pulled into our driveway.
He didn't knock.
He still had a key.
Hazel had gone upstairs, and I was in the den pretending to read an article about municipal bonds when the front door opened.
"Dad?"
I stayed seated.
He appeared in the doorway wearing yesterday's wedding trousers and a wrinkled white T-shirt.
His hair looked as if he'd slept in a chair.
"Where's Mom?"
"Upstairs."
"I need to talk to both of you."
"You can start with me."
He stepped into the room.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then he said, "Amber is devastated."
I folded the magazine.
"Is she?"
"Her dress cost twelve thousand dollars."
"That is devastating."
His jaw tightened.
"This is exactly what I mean."
"What do you mean?"
"You're enjoying it."
That accusation struck closer than I wanted.
I had enjoyed seeing Amber's expression.
The memory still gave me a small, ugly satisfaction.
"I enjoyed stopping her from humiliating your mother."
"You didn't stop it."
He pointed toward the ceiling.
"You just redirected it."
"Because apparently that was the only way you'd understand."
"No, Dad, you did it because you wanted revenge."
I stood.
"And what did you want?"
"It was a joke."
"Explain the joke."
He looked away.
"Come on."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"Explain it to me."
"It was stupid."
"That's not an explanation."
"Amber thought Mom was being controlling."
I stared at him.
"Controlling."
"About the wedding."
"She asked where she should sit."
"It wasn't just that."
"What else?"
Garnet rubbed both hands over his face.
"Everything."
"That clears it up."
"She kept offering suggestions."
"Your mother offered to help."
"Amber heard it differently."
"And you?"
His hands dropped.
"I was trying to keep the peace."
I almost laughed.
"By standing guard while your wife glued your mother's dress to a chair."
"It sounds worse when you say it like that."
"It sounds exactly like what happened."
He turned toward the window.
A delivery truck stopped across the street.
The driver climbed out carrying somebody's groceries.
Garnet watched him as if the man's progress up the neighbor's driveway deserved serious attention.
Finally, he said, "Amber thinks Mom hates her."
"Hazel spent six months helping with that wedding."
"That's part of the problem."
I stared at him.
"Helping is the problem now?"
"Sometimes Mom doesn't know when to back off."
It was such a familiar complaint, delivered in such an unfamiliar voice, that I suddenly heard Amber inside it.
Then something else occurred to me.
"Did you want the prank?"
He didn't answer.
"Garnet."
"No."
The room changed.
Not dramatically.
Nothing shattered.
He simply looked younger.
"I told her it was a bad idea."
"But you helped."
"She was already furious."
"So you chose the easier person to betray."
His eyes flashed.
"Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Make everything sound simple."
"Was it complicated to walk away from the door?"
"You don't know what she's been like."
That stopped me.
His voice had dropped.
Not defensive now.
Tired.
"What does that mean?"
He shook his head.
"Nothing."
"No."
I moved closer.
"You came here to blame me and now you're telling me I don't know what she's been like."
"I didn't say that."
"You just did."
Footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Hazel appeared in the hall.
Garnet turned toward her.
His face folded before he could stop it.
"Mom."
Hazel stayed where she was.
"Did you come to apologize?"
He swallowed.
"I came to talk."
"That wasn't my question."
He looked at the floor.
"I'm sorry."
Hazel's shoulders dropped slightly.
"For what?"
"For letting it happen."
"Letting?"
He closed his eyes.
"For helping."
Hazel nodded once.
The silence stretched.
Then she asked, "Why?"
Garnet sat down.
He put his elbows on his knees and stared at his hands.
"Because I thought if I didn't go along with it, Amber would make the whole night worse."
Hazel looked at me.
Neither of us spoke.
Garnet gave a short, humorless laugh.
"I know how that sounds."
"How long have you been afraid of your wife?" Hazel asked.
His head snapped up.
"I'm not afraid of her."
Hazel sat across from him.
"Then why are you doing things you don't want to do because you're afraid of what she'll do if you don't?"
Garnet opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
His phone began vibrating in his pocket.
He glanced at the screen.
Amber.
He declined the call.
It rang again immediately.
He declined it again.
May you like
The third time, he turned the phone face down on the coffee table.
Hazel watched that small act more carefully than anything he had said.
