Chapter 9: You Were Fine

"I saw your list," I said.

Simone's smile didn't move.

"The one on your stationery," I said.

"The one you wrote in the hospital bed."

Something crossed her face and was gone.

"Then you know Colin never mattered," she said. "He does what I tell him."

She put a hand on her belly and looked at the house.

"I'm not the one who'll be crying on Christmas Eve, Jeanie."

She went back up the steps without hurrying and closed the door behind her.

I stood on the lawn in the cold.

The recorder in my pocket was still running.

I took it out and stopped it, and my thumb was so numb I had to try twice.

Nathan's truck rolled up to the curb.

He leaned across and pushed the passenger door open.

"Get in."

I got in.

He didn't ask what had happened.

He turned the heat up and waited.

"Simone is my father's daughter," I said at last. "She's been my sister for twelve years and she knew."

He looked straight ahead.

"I'd have broken a window," he said, "if I'd known you were in there alone."

"I didn't want you in there."

"I know."

"I wanted to see their faces."

"And?"

"My father didn't look at me once until he had to."

My throat closed and I looked out the window until it opened again.

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