Chương 12
“No.”
“Grandma gives more.”
“Grandma is weak.”
From behind them came Elaine’s voice.
“I heard that.”
Natalie turned.
Elaine had let herself in through the side door with the key Natalie had given her.
She carried a grocery bag.
Lily ran toward her.
The house filled with ordinary noise.
That was what Natalie had wanted more than ownership.
Not the reversal.
Not Richard’s stunned face.
A room where Lily could move without measuring the adults first.
It took longer than buying the property.
That lesson came gradually.
One night in October, Daniel woke Natalie at two in the morning.
“Hey.”
She opened one eye.
“What?”
“My dad’s in the ER.”
She sat up.
“What happened?”
“Chest pain.”
Fear moved through her before resentment could stop it.
“Heart attack?”
“Unknown. Mom called.”
They dressed quickly.
Elaine met them at the hospital.
Richard was stable.
The preliminary tests did not show an obvious heart attack, but the physicians kept him for observation because of his age and symptoms. Daniel, despite working in the same hospital system, refused to involve himself in treatment decisions beyond what any son would know.
“I’m family tonight,” he said when a resident recognized him.
The sentence affected Natalie.
She did not tell him.
They sat in a waiting area under fluorescent lights.
Elaine drank vending-machine tea.
Natalie folded a receipt into smaller and smaller squares.
At four fifteen, Richard’s cardiologist came out.
Stress, blood pressure, additional testing.
No catastrophe.
Everyone exhaled.
Later, Richard looked embarrassed by the entire episode.
Natalie stood near the foot of his bed while Elaine sat beside him.
Daniel had gone to speak to a nurse.
Richard looked at Natalie.
“Don’t tell Lily.”
“That you’re here?”
“That I was frightened.”
Natalie stared at him.
“Why?”
He frowned.
“Why what?”
“Why shouldn’t she know you get scared?”
He looked toward the door.
“She’s four.”
“Exactly.”
Richard rubbed the sensor clipped to his finger.
“I don’t want her worrying.”
“That’s different.”
He looked at her.
Natalie sat in the chair across from the bed.
“You can say you were sick and the doctors helped.”
He considered it.
“I wasn’t sick.”
“You came to the emergency room at midnight.”
“A precaution.”
“There you are.”
“What?”
“Changing the word because you don’t like how the first one sounds.”
Richard stared at her.
Then, to Natalie’s surprise, he smiled.
“You said Daniel does that.”
“No. Daniel said I do that.”
“Worse.”
She laughed.
A few minutes later Daniel returned.
Richard looked at his son.
“I’m not joining the company.”
Daniel stopped.
“I know.”
“I’m aware.”
Richard looked irritated.
“You brought it up.”
“I’m clarifying.”
“At five in the morning?”
“There’s no good time with you.”
Daniel sat beside Natalie.
Richard looked from one to the other.
“You seem better.”
“We’re working on it,” Daniel said.
Richard nodded.
He did not ask for details.
That was new.
By December, Richard had sold his company to a regional competitor.
Not because Daniel refused to join.
Not entirely.
He had been considering retirement for years and using Daniel as an excuse not to make the decision. After the sale, he rented a townhouse fifteen minutes from Elaine’s apartment.
He and Elaine began seeing a marriage counselor.
Richard complained about it constantly.
“She asks what I feel before she asks what happened.”
Elaine sipped wine at Natalie’s kitchen island.
“Tragic.”
“Sounds dangerous,” Daniel said.
Richard ignored him.
Lily colored beside them.
Family dinners resumed, cautiously, at the house Natalie owned.
The first one took place three days before Christmas.
Natalie considered buying a cake and rejected the idea as too deliberate.
Elaine brought pie.
Richard arrived with nothing but a bottle of sparkling water because Natalie had told him not to bring wine.
The seating arrangement happened without discussion.
Lily climbed into her usual chair.
Richard sat two places away.
At one point, Lily reached across the table for carrots and knocked over her water.
The glass tipped toward Richard.
Water spread across the wood and onto his sleeve.
Everyone froze.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
Richard looked at the water.
Then at Lily.
Her eyes widened.
Natalie felt her entire body prepare.
Richard picked up his napkin.
“That was an impressive amount of water for such a small glass.”
Daniel exhaled.
Lily giggled.
“I spilled it.”
“I noticed.”
“Are you mad?”
Richard paused.
It was a small pause.
Natural.
Honest.
“A little.”
Lily looked uncertain.
Richard wiped the table.
“But I’ll survive.”
She relaxed.
Natalie did too.
Later, while Daniel loaded the dishwasher, Richard stood alone in the dining room.
Natalie entered carrying empty glasses.
He looked at the section of floor near Lily’s chair.
The turquoise frosting was gone.
During refinishing, the contractor had sanded the seam and resealed the boards.
Richard noticed.
“You fixed it.”
“The floor?”
“Yes.”
Natalie set down the glasses.
“I thought about leaving it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
He nodded.
“That would have been strange.”
“Yes.”
For once they agreed without friction.
Richard touched the back of the chair beside him.
“I sold the company.”
“I heard.”
“You’re not going to congratulate me?”
“Do you want congratulations?”
“No.”
“Then no.”
He almost smiled.
Natalie looked toward the kitchen, where Daniel and Elaine were arguing cheerfully about whether a container could go in the dishwasher.
Richard lowered his voice.
“I thought buying the house was an attack on me.”
“It partly was.”
He looked at her.
She continued.
“I told Daniel that too.”
“That’s honest.”
“Eventually.”
Richard nodded.
He seemed to appreciate the qualifier.
Natalie crossed her arms.
“I wanted the house. I wanted to stop you using it against him. And I wanted to beat you.”
“I know.”
“I’m not proud of that part.”
“You should be. You did.”
She frowned.
“That response is exactly why I’m not proud.”
He laughed quietly.
Then he became serious.
“If you had told Daniel first, would he have let you buy it?”
“No.”
“Because he would have protected me.”
“Probably.”
May you like
Richard looked toward his son.
“And you knew that.”
