Chapter 6: Simone's List

Colin went out on Sunday afternoon to play squash.

He said it at the door, kissing my cheek, with his keys already in his hand.

I waited until his car left the street.

Then I went into his study and shut the door.

I had never searched his things.

In eight years I had never needed to.

The desk had three drawers.

The top one held pens, a stapler and a phone charger.

The second held tax folders, labeled in his neat block letters.

The third was locked.

I knew where he kept the small key, because I had watched him hide it for years.

It was taped under the lamp base.

I peeled it off and opened the drawer.

There was one folder inside, a plain manila one, with no label.

I opened it on the desk.

The first page was a closing statement for a house in Medina.

Four bedrooms, a lake view, a purchase price I had to read twice.

The buyer's name was Simone Kinross.

The closing date was December twentieth.

Under it, stapled to the corner, was a receipt for a crib and a rocking chair.

They had been delivered to my parents' address.

I thought of the yellow room and the paper stars.

Colin had paid for them, and he had let me fall asleep beside him every night since.

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