Chương 6
Claire appeared in the doorway.
“His pajamas are upstairs.”
“I know where they are.”
“I wasn’t implying you didn’t.”
“That’s exactly what it sounded like.”
She shut her eyes.
“I can’t say anything right tonight.”
“No.”
“That makes two of us.”
The front gate clicked outside.
Claire froze.
A car door shut.
Tessa came running from the kitchen.
“Is that Grandma?”
I moved to the window but stayed behind the curtain.
Evelyn was walking up the short path carrying a brown document box against her hip.
She wore a navy cardigan buttoned all the way up despite the warmth.
Her silver hair was pinned neatly behind her ears.
She looked exactly as she always did.
That disturbed me more than if she had arrived furious.
“She has a box,” I said.
Claire whispered something I did not catch.
Evelyn rang the bell.
Nobody moved.
The bell rang again.
Then came three firm knocks.
“Claire?”
Her voice carried through the door.
“I know you’re home.”
Tessa looked at me.
I handed Mathis to Claire.
“Take them upstairs.”
Claire stared at me.
“No.”
“You said you don’t want your mother here.”
“I don’t want you alone with her either.”
“I’m not going to fight your mother.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
The knocking came again.
“Gabriel?”
Evelyn had changed targets.
“I need to speak with both of you.”
I moved to the door.
Claire caught my wrist.
“Don’t let her take the phone.”
I looked down at her hand.
“Why would she try?”
Claire let go.
“Because she knows about it.”
There was another piece.
Of course there was.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
I almost snapped at her again.
Then I saw genuine panic in her face.
Not guilt.
Panic.
I opened the door with the security chain still latched.
Evelyn stood on the step.
Her eyes moved from me to the gap behind my shoulder.
“Where’s Claire?”
“Inside.”
“I need to come in.”
“No.”
Her mouth tightened.
“I am not discussing this through a door.”
“Then we may not be discussing it.”
She looked at me for a long second.
“You always were theatrical when you felt cornered.”
I almost smiled.
There was the Evelyn I knew.
Not loud.
Never loud.
She preferred sentences polished enough to make insult look like observation.
“What’s in the box?”
“Something your wife should have told you about years ago.”
Claire called from behind me.
“Don’t.”
Evelyn’s eyes sharpened.
“Claire, open the door.”
“No.”
The word came from closer now.
She was standing behind me with Mathis on her hip.
Tessa hovered several feet back.
Evelyn saw them through the narrow opening.
Her expression changed when she noticed Tessa.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Tessa stepped backward.
Evelyn went still.
That tiny recoil hurt her.
I saw it.
I was glad.
Then I hated myself for being glad.
“What happened?” Evelyn asked.
Tessa said nothing.
Claire spoke.
“I left them alone.”
Evelyn looked at her daughter.
“How long?”
Claire did not answer.
“Claire.”
“Most of the afternoon.”
The color drained from Evelyn’s face.
“You did what?”
“It isn’t your turn to judge me.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me.”
Evelyn adjusted the box against her hip.
“You left a nine-year-old with a baby?”
“I said I know what I did.”
“You clearly don’t.”
“Enough,” I said.
Evelyn looked at me.
“For once, Gabriel, I agree with you.”
“Don’t enjoy it.”
Her mouth pressed into a line.
“You need to let me in.”
I glanced at the box.
“Put it down first.”
“No.”
“Then stay outside.”
“What exactly do you think I’m going to do with paper?”
“Tonight, I’m trying not to underestimate anybody.”
That landed.
Evelyn’s eyes moved to Claire.
Then to the pocket of my jacket.
She knew.
I saw recognition before she could hide it.
“You have the phone.”
Claire inhaled behind me.
I touched the pocket reflexively.
Evelyn gave a humorless little nod.
“So Roxane got to you first.”
“Roxane isn’t here.”
“She doesn’t need to be.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she has spent months arranging exactly this.”
Claire stepped beside me.
“Arranging what?”
Evelyn looked at her daughter almost sadly.
“You turning against me.”
Claire laughed once.
It was a brittle sound.
“You filed for custody of my daughter without telling me.”
“I protected your daughter when you could not.”
“You lied.”
“I acted.”
“You wrote things about Gabriel that weren’t true.”
“I wrote what you told me.”
Claire’s face changed.
“I told you I was scared of his temper.”
“You told me you were afraid to leave Tessa alone with him.”
“That is not what I meant.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“I asked you three times.”
Claire’s lips parted.
No answer came.
I felt the words before I fully understood them.
I turned toward my wife.
“What did you tell her?”
Claire looked at me.
“Gabriel, I was sick.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I was afraid of everything.”
“Did you tell her you were afraid to leave Tessa with me?”
“I don’t remember exactly.”
Evelyn spoke through the opening.
“You said he came home angry from work.”
I looked at her.
“You said he shouted.”
“I did shout sometimes.”
“You said he punched a wall.”
Claire closed her eyes.
I remembered.
Not because I had forgotten.
Because I had spent years filing the memory under something smaller.
Tessa had been three months old.
I had come home after losing a major contract because another trainer undercut my bid.
Claire had been crying.
The baby had been crying.
The sink was full.
I had asked why nothing was done.
Claire had told me to do it myself.
I had hit the wall beside the pantry.
Once.
Hard enough to split the skin across two knuckles.
I had never touched Claire.
I had never touched Tessa.
But the wall had not deserved it either.
“I did that,” I said.
Claire stared at me.
Evelyn’s face did not change.
I looked at Tessa.
May you like
She was too young to remember.
I was grateful for exactly one thing.
