“Sounds stressful,” I said. “You should call your mother.”
Then I hung up.
Sylvia called twenty minutes later.
“You can’t honestly expect ME to cook for them.”
I answered because, apparently, I hadn’t reached my daily limit of nonsense.
“How dare you do this to him?” she snapped. “You
will go home right now and fix that house for Ethan’s dinner.”
“No.”
Sylvia exhaled sharply.
“You know what? Fine. We don’t need you. I’ll fix the house. I’ll cook.”
I was about to hang up when she added, “We’ll just tell them you’re visiting family. Nobody needs to know what kind of wife you’re being.”
“You will go home right now”
Of course she would.
Sylvia had been cleaning up Ethan’s messes his whole life. She just hadn’t realized this was one mess she couldn’t hide with dinner.
And suddenly, I knew exactly where I was going to be tomorrow night.
If they wanted to pretend we were still one happy family, the least I could do was show up.
***
I left Nora safely with Daniel and my sister-in-law.
When I opened my front door, I barely recognized my own living room.
And suddenly, I knew exactly where
I was going to be tomorrow night.
Sylvia had brought lamps from her house.
Throw pillows.
She’d hidden Ethan’s game console and set the dining table with dishes I had never seen before.
It looked like somebody had rebuilt our marriage from memory.
All that was missing was the wife and baby they were planning to lie about.
Sylvia had brought lamps from her house.
Ethan was standing near the dining table talking to a man in a navy blazer.
Sylvia came out of the kitchen carrying a serving bowl.
Both of them froze.
For once, I was the person in the room they hadn’t planned for.
“Claire,” Ethan said.
His boss turned.
For once, I was the person in the room they hadn’t planned for.
“I thought you were handling a family emergency,” he said. “Is everything okay?”
