Chương 7
“Claire doesn’t like when I chew loud.”
Daniel fitted two pieces together backward.
“Okay.”
“She says I breathe loud too.”
Richard, reading nearby, looked up.
Daniel kept his face neutral.
“Does she?”
“When I’m stuffy.”
“That’s a strange thing to complain about.”
Evan shrugged.
“She says I make the house feel messy.”
Daniel’s fingers stopped.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she say those exact words?”
Evan thought.
“She said everything got messy when we moved in.”
Richard put his tablet down.
Daniel asked, “When did she say that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Recently?”
Evan shrugged again.
Daniel caught himself before asking more.
“Okay.”
Evan pushed a blue piece toward him.
“That goes there.”
Daniel attached it.
Five minutes passed.
Then Evan said, “She misses when it was just her and Grandpa.”
Richard stared at the table.
Daniel asked, “She told you that?”
Evan nodded.
“What did you say?”
“I said sorry.”
The room seemed to contract.
Richard stood abruptly.
His chair scraped the floor.
Evan flinched.
Richard stopped.
“I’m getting coffee,” he said.
He walked to the machine, although his cup was nearly full.
Daniel watched his father’s back.
He had never seen guilt make Richard physically clumsy before.
That afternoon, Claire’s attorney called.
Richard took the call in his office.
The conversation was short.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“That’s fine.”
“No, she may not come into the house alone.”
A pause.
“She can collect personal belongings with someone present.”
Another pause.
“I’m not discussing my marriage through you today.”
Richard hung up.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
“You going to divorce her?”
Richard looked at the blank computer monitor.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel frowned.
Richard looked up.
“Disappointed?”
“I thought last night…”
“Last night I told her to leave the house.”
“You said pack your things.”
“I was angry.”
“She left Evan outside.”
“I know what she did.”
Daniel stepped farther inside.
“Then what don’t you know?”
Richard leaned back.
“Whether I want one terrible thing to become the only true thing about eleven years.”
Daniel stared at him.
Richard continued.
“I can remove her from the house and still take twenty-four hours to understand my own life.”
Daniel looked away.
It was not the decisive answer he wanted.
That irritated him because some part of him had expected his father to remain perfectly clear so Daniel could borrow that clarity.
Richard noticed.
“You want me to make this easy for you.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“You want Claire turned into a monster so you don’t have to ask how both of us lived ten feet from this and missed it.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No.”
Richard rubbed his eyes.
“It probably isn’t.”
For a minute neither spoke.
Then Daniel said, “Sarah would hate me.”
Richard’s hands lowered.
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I knew her.”
“So did I.”
“And you’re using a dead woman as a weapon against yourself because she can’t argue.”
Daniel looked at him sharply.
Richard continued.
“Sarah would be angry. She would also be practical. First she’d take care of Evan. Then she’d take your head off.”
Daniel’s mouth twitched despite himself.
“That sounds more accurate.”
“She was very efficient.”
Daniel sat.
The mention of Sarah did not destroy the room.
That was new.
For months, her name had behaved like broken glass in the house. Claire changed subjects when it appeared. Richard became overly gentle. Daniel went silent. Evan watched everyone and learned.
Now Daniel said, “I think we taught him not to talk about her.”
Richard nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
“We thought we were protecting him.”
“We were protecting ourselves.”
Daniel stared at the carpet.
“That’s worse.”
“Usually is.”
That evening Claire sent Richard a twelve-paragraph email.
He read it twice.
She did not deny leaving Evan outside.
She described the months before it.
Evan interrupting dinners.
Evan refusing to sleep.
Evan breaking a porcelain bowl.
Evan crying during a museum fundraiser because someone wore Sarah’s perfume.
Evan telling a guest that Claire was “Grandpa’s replacement wife.”
Daniel failing to enforce routines.
Richard overriding punishments with gifts.
Staff members ignoring Claire’s instructions whenever Richard was present.
Claire said she had become the household villain long before she behaved like one.
Richard printed the email.
Then he hated himself for printing it because he had a habit of making paper copies of difficult things as if paper made them solvable.
He found Daniel in the library.
“Read this.”
Daniel did.
His face changed several times.
At the end he put the pages down.
“Some of this is true.”
Richard looked at him.
“I know.”
“I did undermine her.”
“So did I.”
“The bowl thing happened. Evan threw it.”
“I remember.”
“He was angry because she moved Sarah’s picture.”
Richard frowned.
“I didn’t know that.”
“She moved it from the living room to the upstairs hall before guests came.”
“Why?”
“She said it was too personal.”
Richard stared at him.
Daniel picked up the email again.
“She’s right that I made her enforce rules I didn’t want to enforce.”
“That doesn’t excuse last night.”
“I didn’t say it did.”
Richard nodded.
Daniel read one paragraph again.
“She says she begged us to move out.”
Richard went still.
Daniel looked at him.
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Last spring.”
“You never told me.”
“You were barely functioning.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I told her you needed time.”
“How much?”
“I didn’t know.”
Daniel leaned back.
“So she didn’t want us here.”
“No.”
“And you made us stay.”
“I offered you the house.”
“You said Claire wanted us here.”
Richard said nothing.
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“You told me she wanted us here.”
“She agreed eventually.”
“After you told her I was staying?”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood.
“Jesus Christ.”
“Daniel—”
“No. This matters.”
“I know.”
“You made her resent us and made me trust her.”
“She is responsible for what she did with resentment.”
“Yes. And you’re responsible for creating a situation and pretending everybody agreed to it.”
May you like
Richard’s face reddened.
“I was trying to keep my son and grandson from falling apart.”
