Chương 3
Evelyn almost smiled at the absurdity.
“No,” she repeated. “It’s somebody’s rental property.”
Daniel stared at her.
“The house in Brentwood is our home.”
She paused.
“Or it was this morning.”
His face shifted.
“Evelyn.”
She walked toward the doors.
Behind her Madison said, “You’re seriously just going to let her do this?”
Daniel did not answer.
Inside, the air-conditioning felt cold against the frosting drying on Evelyn’s skin.
She found Lily in a powder room near the kitchen, standing on a small wooden stool while Frances cleaned pink icing from her hands with a damp towel.
Lily saw her in the mirror.
“Mommy.”
“I’m here.”
Frances turned.
Her eyes were wet.
Evelyn did not have the energy to deal with that.
“Could you give us a minute?”
Frances hesitated.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Evelyn looked at her.
Frances glanced at the open doorway as though Daniel might appear there.
“I should have stopped him.”
“Yes.”
The answer landed harder than Evelyn intended.
Frances nodded.
She left.
Lily stood very still.
Evelyn wet another towel and began cleaning her own face.
The mirror showed the damage more honestly than the courtyard had. Frosting covered her hairline and one side of her neck. A small red mark had formed near her jaw where a plastic decoration from the cake had scratched her skin. Her dress was ruined.
Lily watched.
“Does it hurt?”
“A little.”
“Are you mad at Daddy?”
Evelyn rinsed the towel.
“Yes.”
“Are you mad at me?”
She turned so fast Lily startled.
“No.”
“Because it was my cake.”
Evelyn closed her eyes for one second.
Then she knelt.
“Listen to me. Nothing that happened out there was because of you. Not the cake. Not Dad. Not me.”
“But you slapped him.”
“Yes.”
“Am I supposed to slap people?”
“No.”
Lily frowned.
It was exactly the kind of question Evelyn would have laughed about any other day.
She sat on the tile floor in her expensive dress.
“No. I shouldn’t have hit him.”
“But he hurt you first.”
“He did.”
“So he shouldn’t have done it either.”
“No.”
Lily thought about this.
Children, Evelyn had learned, often made adults look dishonest simply by asking one more question than adults expected.
“Are you going to say sorry?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“For slapping him? Yes.”
“Is he going to say sorry?”
“I don’t know.”
That frightened Lily more than if Evelyn had lied.
She climbed down from the stool and wrapped herself around her mother.
Evelyn held her.
A minute later she heard voices in the kitchen. Men lowering their tones because there was a child nearby. A woman crying softly. Someone asking what should happen to the gifts. Someone else saying, “Don’t worry about the gifts right now.”
Ordinary logistics surviving catastrophe.
Evelyn almost appreciated it.
She stood.
“Let’s get your overnight bag.”
“Are we leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Evelyn had not decided.
The Brentwood house belonged to both of them. She could go there. Daniel could follow. His clothes were there, his office, his toothbrush, the ridiculous espresso machine he insisted made better coffee than the one Evelyn preferred.
She did not want to fight him in front of Lily again.
“Grandma Nora’s,” she said.
Her own mother lived in Pasadena and hated last-minute guests.
Lily brightened slightly.
“Can I sleep in the blue room?”
“If Grandma lets us.”
“She always lets me.”
“That’s because you’re a criminal mastermind.”
Lily almost smiled.
The tiny movement broke something loose in Evelyn’s chest.
She looked down so Lily would not see.
When they came out of the powder room, Daniel was waiting in the hallway.
He had removed his suit jacket.
His cheek was still red.
Lily stopped.
Daniel crouched.
“Hey, bug.”
Lily stepped behind Evelyn.
The pain on Daniel’s face was immediate.
Evelyn did not rescue him from it.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Lily looked at the floor.
“I scared you.”
She said nothing.
“And I hurt Mom.”
Evelyn watched him carefully.
He looked at her once, then back at Lily.
“That was wrong.”
Lily pinched the fabric of Evelyn’s dress.
“Why did you do it?”
Daniel’s mouth opened.
Closed.
Madison’s edited video was too adult an explanation. Jealousy was too abstract. Betrayal was too contaminated by the lie.
He finally said, “I got very angry, and I believed something before I knew if it was true.”
Lily considered him.
“Mom said you thought she had a boyfriend.”
Evelyn glanced down.
Apparently six-year-olds heard everything.
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I thought something like that.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
The word came out differently this time.
Clear.
Lily looked at Evelyn.
“Do you?”
“No.”
“Does Daddy have a girlfriend?”
Daniel shut his eyes.
Evelyn wished the floor would open.
Not for herself.
For Lily.
This was the exact moment she had wanted to avoid for weeks without even knowing it was coming.
Daniel stood slowly.
“Lily—”
She looked at her mother.
Evelyn refused to lie.
“Yes,” she said. “Dad has been seeing someone he shouldn’t be seeing.”
Lily’s chin trembled.
“Madison?”
Daniel inhaled sharply.
Nobody spoke.
Lily whispered, “She gave me the unicorn.”
Evelyn did not understand at first.
Then she remembered the huge wrapped box Madison had carried into the courtyard that afternoon. The plush white unicorn Lily had hugged before lunch.
The world could become unbearable over the smallest detail.
“Yes,” Evelyn said.
Lily’s face crumpled.
“I don’t want it.”
Daniel stepped toward her.
She recoiled.
He stopped.
Evelyn took Lily’s hand.
“We’re going to Grandma Nora’s.”
Daniel nodded.
“Can I talk to you first?”
“No.”
“Five minutes.”
“No.”
“Evelyn, please.”
She looked at him.
He had said please more times in the last ten minutes than he had in the previous three days.
“You had three days.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You chose not to know.”
His face hardened for half a second.
There was the old reflex.
Self-defense.
Then he caught it.
“I did.”
May you like
Evelyn shifted Lily’s overnight bag onto her shoulder.
“That doesn’t become smaller because you can say it correctly now.”
