Chương 2
Claire shifted Liam onto her left hip.
He winced.
The movement was small, but she felt it.
Her eyes dropped to him immediately.
"Did I hurt you?"
He shook his head too fast.
Jeffrey stood halfway from his chair.
"He's being dramatic because you're here."
Claire's eyes returned to him.
Jeffrey sat back down.
His mother folded her napkin once, then again.
Cynthia picked up her glass.
"Honestly, this is exactly the problem."
Claire waited.
Cynthia took a sip.
"You treat him like he's made of glass, and then everyone else has to deal with the behavior."
"What behavior?"
"He throws fits."
"He's four."
"He bites."
Claire looked at Liam.
His face disappeared against her shoulder again.
Jeffrey spoke before she could.
"He bit Austin yesterday."
Austin's fork stopped.
Claire saw it.
So did Jeffrey.
"Austin?"
The clean little boy looked toward his grandmother.
She placed a hand on his wrist.
"You don't need to get involved, sweetheart."
Claire's attention sharpened.
"What happened yesterday?"
Jeffrey stood now.
"Enough."
"You just told me Liam bit him."
"And he did."
"So what happened?"
"I said enough, Claire."
Liam whispered something against her neck.
Claire bent her head.
"What, honey?"
His mouth barely moved.
"He took Dino."
Claire felt something cold settle beneath her ribs.
"Who took Dino?"
Liam pointed without lifting his head.
Not at Austin.
At Cynthia.
Cynthia gave a short, incredulous laugh.
"Oh, please."
Claire looked around the room.
Liam's green plastic dinosaur was nowhere in sight.
He had slept with that ridiculous toy for nearly two years.
One of its orange eyes had been scratched away, and the tail carried teeth marks from the brief period when Liam had decided dinosaurs tasted better than crackers.
He did not willingly go to the bathroom without it.
"Where's his dinosaur?"
Jeffrey rubbed the side of his jaw.
"Can we not do this?"
"Where is it?"
Cynthia set down her glass.
"I threw it away."
Liam shuddered against Claire.
The reaction was immediate enough that Cynthia noticed.
For the first time, something uncertain passed over her face.
Claire did not raise her voice.
"Why?"
"Because it was filthy."
"So you washed it."
"It was disgusting."
"It was a plastic dinosaur."
Cynthia's mouth tightened.
"He needs to learn that screaming doesn't get him whatever he wants."
Claire looked at Jeffrey.
He had begun studying the table.
There it was.
Not an explanation, exactly, but the shape of one.
Liam had cried over the toy.
Cynthia had decided the crying was defiance.
Jeffrey had chosen the easiest side.
Then somehow her son had ended up beneath a dining table while everybody else ate cake.
Claire felt anger arrive without heat.
That frightened her more than shouting would have.
"What did you do when he cried?"
Jeffrey finally met her eyes.
"Keep him away from Austin."
Claire went completely still.
Austin looked up.
Jeffrey's mother whispered his name, but Jeffrey kept going.
"I'm serious, Claire."
His voice had the flatness of a man trying to regain control by pretending he had never lost it.
"He can't keep terrorizing everybody and then have you swoop in and make him the victim."
Claire slipped her right hand into the pocket of her olive jacket.
Jeffrey's gaze followed the movement.
She took out her black phone.
"What are you doing?"
Claire unlocked it with her thumb.
Cynthia's posture changed.
"Claire, don't."
That was the first frightened thing anybody at the table had said.
Claire opened the camera.
Jeffrey came around the side of his chair.
"Put the phone away."
She tapped record.
A red counter appeared.
Jeffrey stopped.
The change in him was almost delicate.
His eyes widened first, then his brow drew together, and finally his mouth opened without producing a word.
Claire held the phone steady.
Liam remained wrapped around her neck.
"Say it again."
Jeffrey stared at the lens.
Claire's voice stayed quiet.
"I'm recording."
For several seconds, the only sound in the dining room was Liam breathing against her shoulder.
Jeffrey's mother slowly lowered her folded napkin onto the table.
Cynthia looked toward the windows, then toward Jeffrey, as if an exit might be hidden somewhere between them.
Jeffrey took one step toward Claire.
She took one step back.
"Don't come closer."
"I'm not doing anything."
"Good."
"This is insane."
"Maybe."
Claire's hand was trembling now, so she braced her elbow against Liam's leg.
"Tell the camera why my four-year-old son is filthy and hiding under your table."
Jeffrey glanced at the phone again.
"You came in here looking for a fight."
"No."
Claire swallowed.
"I came because you stopped answering me."
Austin suddenly spoke.
"He was in the laundry room."
Every adult turned toward him.
The boy's face went pale.
His grandmother's hand closed around his wrist.
"Austin."
"He was," Austin whispered.
Claire's eyes stayed on him.
Jeffrey's voice changed.
"Buddy, you don't know what you're talking about."
Austin looked at his plate.
"I heard him crying."
The room seemed to contract around Claire.
She tightened her hold on Liam.
"Why was he in the laundry room?"
Nobody answered.
Claire looked at Jeffrey.
Then Cynthia.
Then the grandmother whose hand was still resting too firmly on Austin's wrist.
The phone continued recording.
Liam lifted his face from Claire's shoulder.
His eyes moved toward the hallway behind Jeffrey.
Claire felt his body stiffen before he said anything.
"The door was dark."
She kissed his dirty temple without taking her eyes from Jeffrey.
"What door, baby?"
Liam's fingers curled into her jacket.
"The one they shut."
Claire felt the words before she understood them.
Her hand stopped trembling.
"What door?"
Liam's eyes stayed on the hallway.
"The dark one."
Jeffrey moved first.
He stepped between Claire and the hall with a speed that would have looked casual if his shoulders had not gone rigid.
"He's talking about the pantry."
Claire raised the phone a little higher.
"You have a pantry with a door?"
"It's a utility room."
"You just said laundry room."
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Jeffrey blinked.
Austin stared at his cake.
