My Husband, My Sister: A Secret Betrayal novel · Chapter 2 of 32

Chapter 2: Winnie's Spare Room

Winnie takes the family in, Daniel arrives calm and blames Laura's tiredness, and he names a Dr. Ames Laura has never met; Winnie says Ames is a psychiatrist.

Winnie Kemp opened her front door before I knocked.

She was sixty-nine, in a gardening cardigan with her glasses on a beaded chain, and she looked at the three of us on her porch.

She didn't ask a single question.

"Spare room's made up," she said. "Bea can have the trundle. Teddy gets the quilt with the owls."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know where else."

"Laura. Come in."

She took Bea out of my arms, still sticky with frosting, and carried her up the stairs like she had done it a hundred times.

By seven the kids were in borrowed pajamas, and Bea was asleep on top of the owls with one shoe still on.

Teddy sat on the edge of the bed with his hands between his knees.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No."

"I only read what it said."

"I know, baby. You read it perfectly."

"Are we going home tomorrow?"

I didn't have an answer, so I kissed his hair and told him to sleep.

Downstairs, Winnie put a mug of tea in front of me and sat across the kitchen table.

I had known her for eleven years and had never once seen her kitchen in the dark.

The only light was the stove hood.

"I don't want to say anything about your husband," she said. "I'll say this. He walked out into your yard tonight and didn't run after you."

"He told me I get like this when I'm tired."

"Do you?"

"No." I stared into the tea. "Maybe. I don't know. I couldn't remember what happened last March."

Winnie's hand stopped halfway to her cup.

Then she picked it up and drank.

The doorbell rang at ten to eight.

Winnie looked at me, and I nodded, and she went to the door with her shoulders square.

Daniel stood on the porch in his party shirt, the one with the little blue anchors I had bought him in the spring.

He had cleaned the frosting off his sleeve.

"Hi, Winnie. I'm sorry. May I come in for one minute?"

"One minute," she said.

He came into the kitchen and didn't sit.

He looked like he had practiced in the car.

"Laura, I'm not going to fight with you."

"Then don't."

"Last March you stood in our kitchen at midnight," he said gently. "You asked me what happened to you on the lake road. You were crying, and you didn't know where you were."

"I had a bad dream."

"You said that then, too."

"Daniel, what payment is B?"

"I told you. It's Claire. She's fine, it's handled, and I should have said." He rubbed his forehead. "Honey, you've been looking for something wrong for weeks. Dr. Ames said exactly this would happen if you got stressed."

I put the mug down.

"Who is Dr. Ames?"

The kitchen got very quiet.

"The doctor," Daniel said. "From when you were sick after Bea."

"I had a fever."

"Right."

"A fever, and the hospital kept me ten days. You said so. You've always said so."

"Yes. That's right." He said it too fast. "Laura, come home. Let's put the kids in their own beds. We can talk in the morning, when you've slept."

"She's staying," said Winnie.

She had not moved from the doorway.

Daniel looked at her, then at me, and something went out of his shoulders.

"Okay," he said. "Okay. I'll call in the morning. Tell Teddy I love him."

He kissed my forehead before I could turn away.

Then he was gone, and the screen door tapped twice against the frame.

I sat there with my hands around the cold tea.

I had never met a Dr. Ames.

I didn't know a single doctor by that name.

Winnie sat down slowly across from me and folded her glasses.

"Laura," she said. "A fever doesn't get a doctor like that."

"What do you mean?"

"I was a nurse for thirty-four years. Ames is the psychiatrist at Lakeshore Behavioral."

I looked at her.

"It's a psychiatric clinic, sweetheart. You don't see him for a fever."

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