Chương 2
He looked first at Claire, then at his mother, then at Emma.
His confusion lasted perhaps two seconds.
“What the hell happened?”
Margaret pulled her wrist free.
“She attacked me.”
Her voice changed immediately. The confidence thinned. A tremor appeared, expertly placed or entirely real; Claire could not tell.
Daniel saw the missing strip in Margaret’s silver hair.
“Claire?”
Emma stepped out from behind her mother.
Daniel’s face changed when he saw her.
The keys dropped from his hand.
“Emma?”
His daughter raised one shaking finger toward Margaret.
“She lied.”
Daniel did not move.
“She told me you wanted this.”
The hallway seemed to contract around the four of them.
Daniel looked at his mother.
Then at Claire.
Then at the braid on the floor.
“What is she talking about?”
Margaret spoke first.
“She is upset. She misunderstood.”
Emma flinched at the word.
Claire bent, picked up the braid, and held it in one hand and the clippers in the other.
“So before you defend your mother,” she said, “ask her why she needed your name to hurt our daughter.”
Daniel’s eyes went to the red smear on the clippers.
No one spoke.
The refrigerator motor turned on in the kitchen.
Somewhere outside, a lawn mower moved steadily down the block.
Normal sounds. Obscene in their normality.
Daniel picked up his keys, but his hand was shaking.
“Mom,” he said. “What did you tell her?”
Margaret looked at Emma.
“Nothing that wasn’t necessary.”
Claire moved between them.
“You answer him without looking at her.”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
“This is your problem,” she said to Daniel. “You let Claire turn everything into a crisis, and now Emma has learned exactly how to get attention.”
Emma pressed herself against Claire’s back.
Daniel stared at his mother.
“You shaved her head.”
“I corrected a behavior.”
“With clippers?”
“She was becoming obsessed.”
“With what?”
Margaret hesitated.
Claire saw it.
So did Daniel.
“What?” he repeated.
Margaret smoothed the front of her blouse.
“Her appearance.”
Emma whispered, “I didn’t.”
Margaret ignored her.
“She spends too much time in mirrors. She cried last week because a girl at school said her hair looked pretty and another girl didn’t. She asked whether she could have those little colored pieces put in for summer. She’s eight. That kind of vanity becomes something if you encourage it.”
Daniel’s face slowly shifted from confusion toward disbelief.
“You shaved her because she asked for colored hair?”
“That is not what I said.”
“What did you say, then?”
“I said somebody had to interrupt what was happening.”
Claire turned the clippers off.
The silence after the buzzing stopped felt enormous.
Daniel looked at Emma again.
“Sweetheart, did Grandma say I told her to do this?”
Emma nodded.
“What exactly did she say?”
Margaret took a step forward.
“Daniel, don’t interrogate a hysterical child.”
Claire’s head snapped toward her.
“Do not call her hysterical.”
Margaret’s chin lifted.
“Well, look at her.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“Back up.”
She stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“Back away from Emma.”
“I am standing in a hallway.”
“Then stand farther down it.”
Something finally reached Margaret that Claire’s anger had not.
Her son was not automatically taking her side.
She stepped back.
Daniel crouched near Emma but did not touch her.
“Can you tell me what Grandma said?”
Emma wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
Claire reached toward the bathroom for a tissue box without taking her eyes off Margaret. The box was empty. She remembered meaning to refill it that morning and nearly laughed again at the uselessness of the thought.
Emma spoke carefully.
“She said you called her.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I didn’t.”
“She said you were worried about me.”
“I wasn’t.”
“She said Mom was making me spoiled.”
Claire felt Emma’s fingers tighten against her.
“And she said you gave her money because Mom would get mad if you did it.”
Daniel went very still.
Margaret exhaled through her nose.
“This is absurd.”
Emma continued.
“She said if I loved you, I would sit still.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Just once.
Then he opened them.
“I never said any of that.”
Emma’s lower lip shook.
Claire felt the moment pass through her daughter—not relief, exactly. Relief would have required trust in the world to return all at once.
Instead Emma looked confused.
“If you didn’t want it…”
“I didn’t.”
“Then why did she say you did?”
Daniel had no answer.
Claire did.
“Because she knew Emma would listen to you.”
Margaret scoffed.
“This performance is unbelievable.”
Daniel stood.
“Mom, did you tell her I paid you?”
“No.”
Emma said, “You did.”
Margaret looked at her.
“That is not what I said.”
“You said Dad gave you two hundred dollars.”
Claire turned toward Daniel.
He looked as startled as she felt.
Margaret’s jaw tightened.
“Children hear numbers and invent stories.”
“I saw it.”
The voice came quietly.
Everyone looked at Emma.
She rubbed one hand over the front of her jeans.
“You showed me the money.”
Margaret blinked.
Emma swallowed.
“It was in your purse.”
“Emma—”
“You said Dad gave it to you so I knew he meant it.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“Did you show her two hundred dollars?”
Margaret’s silence lasted too long.
Claire suddenly understood something important.
Not the whole thing.
Only that Margaret had expected Daniel to defend her before details mattered.
That assumption had been part of the plan.
“Get your purse,” Claire said.
Margaret turned toward her.
“What?”
“Your purse.”
“You have no right to go through my belongings.”
“I’m not asking to go through it. You are going to take it, and then you’re leaving.”
“Claire,” Daniel said.
She looked at him.
He did not say she was wrong.
His eyes moved toward the scrape behind Emma’s ear.
“We need to get her checked.”
“Yes.”
Margaret laughed once, sharp and incredulous.
“A hospital? For that?”
Claire faced her.
“Urgent care.”
May you like
“For a scratch?”
“For whatever happened in this room while neither of her parents knew what you were doing.”
