Chapter 4: Her Robe

"No," I said. "I'm not coming in. You're coming out."

Lacey laughed.

"Mar. It's Garner's house."

"The lease has my name on it. Only my name."

"He pays the rent."

"He pays me his half of it, when he remembers." I shifted Tilly in the carrier. "You have five minutes to pack."

"Or what?"

I did not answer.

I stepped past her through the door, and Greg came in behind me.

She stepped back and let us.

Her eyes went to him, and for the first time her smile slipped.

"Gregory," she said. "Did you tell her the rest?"

"What rest?" I said.

"Nothing," Lacey said quickly. "Just family stuff."

I walked down the hall.

The front room looked like someone else lived there.

My throw blanket was folded into a different shape.

My books had been pushed to one shelf to make room for a ring light and a tripod, and a glass vase of white roses stood on my dresser.

In the nursery the new banner hung above the crib, gold letters on white.

I looked at it for a second.

Then I reached up, pulled it off its two nails, and dropped it in the trash can.

"That's custom!" Lacey said. "That was forty dollars!"

"Then you can have it back."

I went into the guest room.

Her makeup was across the whole dresser, and her clothes had taken over my closet.

My own side of the closet was empty.

My clothes were gone, and my shoes, and my wedding album.

"Where's my stuff?" I said.

"Garner put it in the garage so you'd have room to heal."

"Greg," I said.

"On it," he said, and he was out the door.

I heard the garage door go up.

I took the pink duffel from the hall and unzipped it.

It had a hospital gown in it, still tagged, the kind you buy in a pack.

It also had two outfits for a newborn girl, and a pink pacifier, and a tiny hospital wristband for a baby.