Chapter 6: One Bag

Shane came through the open door still in his scrubs.

He took in the hat, the envelope, Ingrid, and the six inches between Dalton and me.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing that concerns you," Dalton said.

"He's sending me to Maine," I said. "Tonight. With a nurse Marissa picked."

Shane looked at Dalton.

"Is that true?"

"She needs rest."

"She needs formula and a husband. She had neither."

Dalton's face went red.

"You don't get to talk to me about my family."

"Somebody has to. You never come home to talk about it."

Ingrid clicked her tongue.

"Listen to him," she said to the room. "He's practically moved in."

Out on the floor, someone had stood up at their desk to see better.

I stepped past Dalton.

I picked up the straw hat from his desk and put it in Marissa's hands.

She took it without thinking.

"Keep it," I said. "It suits you."

Then I walked out with Poppy and Gloria.

Twenty faces turned to follow me down the row of desks.

Nobody said a word.

Shane caught up at the elevator.

"Where are you going?"

"Home. To pack."

"And then?"

"I don't know yet."

At the house, I put everything I could carry into one duffel bag.

Diapers. Two cans of the formula Shane brought. Poppy's clothes and the blanket my grandmother knit.

Three sweaters, one pair of jeans. My old knife roll from the bakery.

I went to the pharmacy on Harvard Street for diaper cream and wipes.

My card was declined.

I tried it again.

"Card's frozen," the cashier said, not unkindly. "It says contact the account holder."

The account holder was Sumner Household.

I put the cream back on the shelf.

In the parking lot, I checked the app.

The eight hundred dollars was still sitting there. I couldn't touch any of it.

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