A Secret in Her Father's House, A Pregnancy Neither Can Hide novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Janice

Henrik got to the front door first.

He had buttoned his shirt wrong, and he fixed it on the way down the hall with one hand.

Alana followed, with his jacket still around her shoulders and her heart in her throat.

He opened the door.

Janice Nisbet stood on the porch under the light, with a cake box in her arms and a weekend bag at her feet.

She was fifty-five.

She looked exactly as she had looked every Sunday of Alana's life, in a pressed linen blouse with her reading glasses on a chain.

She had not changed her hair in twenty years.

"Surprise," Janice said, and she did not smile.

"Janice," Henrik said.

"Henrik."

They looked at each other.

Alana had watched this look across a hundred drop-offs and pick-ups.

It was a carefully ironed courtesy with something sharp folded inside.

"You're a week early," he said.

"I closed the office. I had a feeling." Janice's eyes went over his shirt, and over Alana's, and over the jacket on Alana's shoulders. "Are you going to let me in or do I stand out here with the cake?"

"Come in."

Janice came into the hall.

She set the cake box down on the table and kissed Alana's cheek.

Her lips were cool.

"You're thin," she said. "And you're wearing his jacket."

"It was cold on the deck."

"At night, in September." Janice put a hand under Alana's chin and looked at her face. "You look flushed."

"I'm fine, Mom."

"Hm."

She let go.

She took off her coat and hung it on the hook where Henrik's jacket always hung.

She looked at the empty hook for a second and said nothing.

Henrik carried the weekend bag up to the guest room and came back down with his face closed.

In the kitchen, with Janice in the next room admiring the river, Alana caught his sleeve.

"Don't say anything," she whispered. "Please. Not tonight."

"I won't."

"I mean it. Whatever she asks."

"I said I won't." His voice was low. "I'll follow your lead. I told you I'd ask."

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