Chapter 6
I handed Marcus the letter.
He read it at the kitchen counter while the children built a blanket fort in the living room. June slept nearby, her small hands curled beside her face.
“She came to the house,” he said.
“She left it in the mailbox. The locks are changed.”
He read the last line again. “She still thinks there are two families.”
I folded my arms. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to answer her. You should see what I send.”
He wrote a message at the table. I sat beside him while he read it aloud before pressing send.
“Mom, Nia and the children are my family. You may not contact the school, come to our home, or involve anyone else in our marriage. I need time. If we speak again, it will be because you are ready to tell the truth about what you did.”
He looked at me. “Anything I missed?”
“Tell her to stop contacting Lena too.”
He added it and sent the message.
The reply came almost at once.
“I see whose words those are.”
Marcus set the phone face down. He wanted to answer. I could see it. He left it there.
A few minutes later, Lena called. Diane had contacted her anyway, saying I was keeping Marcus from his mother.
“She asked me to help her get a message to Ava,” Lena said. “I told her she could talk to you and Marcus when you were ready.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m coming by tomorrow. I’ll take June for a walk if you want to rest.”
After I hung up, Marcus brought me a cup of tea. Neither of us had much to say. My anger had carried me through the school visit and the locksmith. Now I was simply tired.
He sat across from me. “When Mom first called about the fall, she said she didn’t want you to cut your visit with Lena short. I thought that was considerate.”
“She wanted you here alone.”
“I know that now.”
I watched him turn the cup in his hands.
“Why didn’t you tell me how often she brought up Simone?” I asked.
“I knew she did it. I thought ignoring it would make her stop.”
“It made me feel as if I had to ignore it too.”
He met my eyes. “I’m sorry. I should have told her it hurt you.”
That was the first time we had talked about the old wound without Diane standing somewhere nearby. I told him how hard it had been to hear about Simone at holiday dinners, after Ava was born, even when Marcus opened his shop. Diane had always found a way to say what life might have looked like if he had chosen differently.
Marcus listened. He did not explain Diane’s intentions or ask me to forgive her.
“I thought Mom was holding on to an old idea,” he said. “I didn’t realize she was making you live beside it.”
I reached across the table and took his hand.
A knock came at the door.
We both went still.
Through the window, I saw Simone standing on the porch with a large envelope. Marcus stayed in the kitchen while I opened the door.
“I brought the copy,” she said. “And a note from my supervisor confirming that our office didn’t prepare it.”
I invited her into the hall. She glanced at the new lock before handing me the envelope.
“I’m sorry I stood there last night,” she said. “I saw you holding June and I still waited for Diane to explain you away.”
“You left when you understood.”
“I could have asked you first.”
I opened the envelope. The page about school and medical decisions was there. So was another draft I had not seen.
It said Marcus and I had agreed that Diane could care for Ava and Eli while I recovered from exhaustion.
“Was she planning to take them to Pearl’s?” I asked.
“I don’t know. She told me the children would stay in their own home.”
Marcus came to the doorway. “With me?”
“That’s what she said.”
“And where would Mom stay?”
Simone looked uncomfortable. “Here. She said you’d need help.”
I understood the picture Diane had made for herself. I would be gone. Marcus would be overwhelmed. She would move in and take care of the children, as if my place in the house had been waiting for her all along.
The sound of Ava laughing from the blanket fort reached us. Simone’s eyes filled.
“She talked about you leaving like it was a settled fact,” she said to me. “I should have known better.”
“You’ve told us what you know,” I said.
Simone nodded and left. I put the new papers with the first envelope. Marcus went into the living room, crawled halfway into the fort, and made Eli shriek with laughter.
I watched them from the doorway.
Then my phone rang. It was Pearl.
“Diane is gone,” she said.
May you like
I gripped the phone. “Gone where?”
“She left a note saying she needed to see the children before you turned them against her. Her car isn’t here.”
