Chương 2
She had opened the box, put one on a plate, and spent ten minutes asking Emily whether she had “thought seriously about how much easier this could be for everyone.”
When Emily refused to sign the statement Margaret had written, Margaret had slapped the plate away.
It had not slipped.
Daniel turned back to her.
“Get out.”
Margaret’s face finally changed.
Not fear.
Offense.
“Excuse me?”
“Leave.”
“You have no idea what’s happening.”
“I have a pretty good start.”
“I am trying to protect you.”
“From my five-month-old daughter?”
“From making a mistake that could follow you for the rest of your life.”
Emily closed her eyes.
There it was again.
The phrasing.
Clean.
Reasonable.
Motherly, almost.
Margaret could make cruelty sound administrative.
Daniel stepped around the island and stopped beside Emily.
He did not grab her or ask whether she was okay. Instead, he placed one hand carefully on her shoulder, as if he understood she was holding herself together by arrangement rather than strength.
Lucy turned toward him.
Daniel’s thumb moved once against Emily’s blouse.
“Mom,” he said, “you need to leave our house.”
Margaret looked at his hand.
Then at Emily.
“You’re making this very easy for her.”
Emily felt something cold move through her chest.
Daniel’s hand went still.
“Don’t.”
Margaret reached for her handbag.
“You’ll understand eventually.”
“No,” Daniel said. “I don’t think I will.”
She slipped the strap over her shoulder.
At the doorway she looked back.
Her eyes settled on Lucy.
For the first time, something passed across her face that Emily couldn’t identify.
Not tenderness exactly.
Not disgust.
Something complicated enough to look almost human.
Then it was gone.
“You should verify before you destroy your family over emotion,” Margaret said.
Daniel stared at her.
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Margaret left.
The front door closed without slamming.
Emily stood motionless.
Daniel remained beside her.
Neither spoke until they heard a car start outside.
Lucy made a small complaining noise.
Emily looked down.
“She’s hungry.”
It was such an ordinary sentence that Daniel’s face broke.
Not into tears.
Something quieter.
He nodded.
“Okay.”
Emily went to the refrigerator.
Daniel followed halfway, then stopped.
“Em.”
She opened the door.
Cold air touched her face.
There were three labeled bottles of pumped milk on the middle shelf, beside mustard, half a lemon, and the expensive yogurt Daniel kept buying even though he always complained it tasted like drywall.
Emily reached for a bottle.
“Emily.”
“I heard you.”
“What the hell was that?”
She shut the refrigerator.
He was still standing near the island.
The pastry box sat open between them.
Two almond croissants and a raspberry Danish.
He had gone to her favorite bakery.
That almost made her angrier.
“How long were you listening?”
“Maybe twenty seconds.”
“So you heard the worst part.”
“I heard enough.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
Lucy moved against her.
Emily lowered her tone.
“You heard the part where you got to come in and fix it.”
Daniel stared at her.
She hadn’t planned to say that.
For three days she had imagined telling him everything in a dozen different ways. In most versions, she was calm. In one, she handed him the report and waited. In another, she asked whether there was something he needed to tell her.
In none of them did she accuse him of being late to his own crisis.
“What does that mean?” he asked.
Emily set the bottle on the counter.
“It means this didn’t start twenty seconds before you walked in.”
Daniel looked at the report.
“How long?”
“Three days.”
His head snapped toward her.
“She gave you that three days ago?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
Emily laughed once.
She hated the sound.
It was small and bitter and nothing like her.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The first question.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Emily, I’m trying to understand.”
“You want to know why I didn’t handle this correctly.”
“That is not what I said.”
“It’s what you asked.”
Lucy began to fuss.
Emily turned away.
She warmed the bottle while Daniel stood behind her, silent.
The machine clicked.
Water hissed softly through the heater.
Their kitchen, which had seemed enormous when they bought the house, suddenly felt too small for three people and a lie.
Daniel picked up the report.
Emily watched him from the corner of her eye.
His mouth tightened as he read.
“Where did she get this?”
“She said you took the test.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
He looked up.
The words landed.
I know that now.
Daniel set the pages down.
“Did you think I might have?”
Emily removed the bottle from the warmer.
She checked a drop against the inside of her wrist.
“A little.”
He flinched.
She hated that too.
Not because she wanted to protect him from the answer, but because some part of her had wanted him to understand without making her say it.
Daniel had not cheated.
He had not accused her.
He had not treated Lucy differently.
But for the last two months, he had also barely been home before seven.
Mercer Development was refinancing three projects at once. Margaret had called the situation “temporary.” Daniel had used the same word.
Temporary had become dinners reheated after Emily was too tired to eat.
Temporary had become Daniel answering emails while giving Lucy a bath.
Temporary had become Emily waking at 2:10, then 4:30, then 5:45 while Daniel slept because he had an early meeting.
They had not stopped loving each other.
They had become efficient.
Sometimes efficiency looked frighteningly similar to distance.
Daniel rubbed one hand over his mouth.
“I should’ve been here more.”
“That’s not the point.”
“It’s part of the point.”
Emily sat at the island and began feeding Lucy.
The baby latched onto the bottle immediately.
Daniel pulled out the stool across from her.
He didn’t sit.
“Tell me what happened.”
Emily looked at Lucy.
May you like
The baby’s fingers opened and closed against the bottle.
“It wasn’t just the report.”
