Chapter 4: The Pill Case

I got home to Maple Court at six and parked behind the empty driveway.

Marshall had found Cadence a spare room with his aunt in Kettering, and I had driven her there myself.

Then I had checked my phone, with eleven voicemails from Grady and two from his father.

I let them all play, one after another, through the speakers while I sat in the car.

They went from furious to wounded to sweet.

Then I went inside and started making dinner, because a woman who is calm cooks dinner.

Grady came in thirty-one minutes after me.

He had flowers, a bag from the Italian place and a face rehearsed in the mirror of his car.

"Cor."

"Hi," I said, and kept stirring.

"The courthouse is eight minutes from here."

"Traffic," he said, and set the flowers on the counter.

It was a Saturday at six, and the street outside was empty.

I wrote the number thirty-one into my head and said nothing.

He came up behind me and laid both hands on my stomach.

I stood still.

His palms were warm and dry and so careful that I wanted to put him through the window.

"We're having a baby," he said into my hair. "Do you understand what that means for us? Nothing else matters."

"Cadence matters."

He let go.

"Cadence," he said lightly, "is a student who got ideas."

"She had your texts."

"Texts anyone can write. Somebody's spoofing me. You know how this works, I'm a candidate."