Water Broke at Midnight, Husband Waited for Her BFF's Hair, Baby's New Daddy Didn't novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Sister

Greg admits Lacey is his sister and that he never said so; Kira goes home for Tilly's things with him and finds Lacey in her robe in the nursery and the locks changed.

"Your sister," I said.

"Younger sister. Twenty-eight."

"Lacey told me she had no family."

"She says that." Greg sat down on the plastic chair and rested his forearms on his knees.

He did not look at me.

"We haven't spoken in two years. I changed my number. She changed hers."

"And then you rented the apartment under mine."

"Yes."

The room was quiet except for Tilly's tiny breathing in the bassinet.

"Six weeks ago," I said. "You fixed my porch light. You said hello to me on the stairs every morning for six weeks."

"I did."

"You knew she lived in my guest room."

"I saw her carrying a suitcase up your steps the second week." He finally looked up. "I told myself it was a visit."

"Three weeks of her coming and going past your door."

"Three weeks."

"And you said nothing."

"I didn't know how to say it so you'd believe me." His voice stayed even, but his hand flexed on his knee. "She's good, Kira. People like her right away. She's the one who gets believed."

"So you watched."

"I watched," he said. "I should have knocked on your door the first night."

I wanted to throw something.

The only thing within reach was a cup of ice chips, and I did not want to waste it.

"Why were you home at midnight?" I said. "Your shift runs till one."

"I traded it." He rubbed his eyebrow, where the old scar ran through it. "I had a bad feeling. I was pulling up with my window down when I heard voices from your open hall window."

"You heard Garner."

"I heard her, telling you that you'd be fine." He swallowed. "That voice. I've heard it say 'ten minutes' before."

I stared at him.

"Before when?"

"Not today." He stood up. "I'll tell you. Not in a hospital room with a day-old baby. But I will tell you. I swear it."

"A promise from a man who hid his sister from me for six weeks."

"Yes," Greg said. "That's what I'm offering."

I should have thrown him out.

Instead I thought about the front seat of his truck, and how he had buckled my belt before I could ask.

"She did it on purpose, didn't she," I said.

He didn't answer, which was an answer.

"If you want me to leave, I'll leave," he said. "I'll put the car seat in your trunk and I'll never come up your steps again."

"I don't have a car."

"Then I'll put it in my truck."

Something in my chest let go a little.

"Stay," I said. "For now."

The doctor discharged us two days later.

Nobody from my family came, because I do not have one.

My mother died when I was nineteen, and my father stopped calling after the funeral.

Garner texted me all through those two days.

*I'm sorry.*

*Come home and we'll talk.*

*Lace feels terrible.*

*You're being cruel to a person who loves you.*

I did not answer any of them.

I wrote one text to a coworker who owed me a favor, asking for the name of a lawyer, and she sent it right away.

Greg drove us home with Tilly in the back seat in the car seat he had bought.

He drove well under the speed limit the entire way and checked the mirror at every light.

"She's fine," I said. "She's asleep."

"I know. I'm checking anyway."

I did not have the heart to tell him to stop.

We pulled up in front of the brick house at four in the afternoon.

The porch light I had always liked was on in full daylight.

"I need her things," I said. "The diaper bag, my pump, the clothes I bought at the sale. And my laptop."

"I'll carry," Greg said. "Where do you want me?"

"Right behind me."

I climbed the porch steps with Tilly on my chest in the carrier and my hand on the rail.

My key did not turn in the lock.

I tried it again.

I looked down at the knob.

It was a new brass one, still shiny, with a sticker from the hardware store on the latch.

"They changed the locks," I said.

"The lease is in my name only," I said. "His credit was bad. He can't lock me out."

"He just did," Greg said.

I knocked.

I heard a chain, and a bolt I had never seen before.

The door opened and Lacey stood there in my robe, the white one Garner's mother gave me at the baby shower.

Her hair was done.

Her feet were bare on my hall floor.

She had a mug in her hand, my mug, the one with the chipped handle.

"Mar!" she said, bright and warm. "You're home! We have so much to show you."

Behind her I could see the hall.

My hospital bag was gone.

Her pink duffel stood in its place by the door, unzipped, with a pair of her heels on top.

"Where is Garner?" I said.

"At work. He said I should let you in." She tilted her head. "Aren't you going to say hi to your brother, Greg?"

She said it lightly, and she did not look at him.

Then she stepped to one side and I saw the nursery door standing open.

Inside it, the crib had been moved against the other wall.

Over the crib a banner hung from two nails.

It was gold letters on white.

*Welcome Baby Tilly, from Aunt Lacey.*

"We figured you'd want a fresh start," Lacey said. "Come on in."

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