Chapter 5: The Pink Door

"Take your hand off her arm," I said.

Garner let go at once.

Poppy stepped back against my legs, and I put one hand on her head.

"I wasn't hurting her," Garner said, to the gym more than to me. "Fenella is making a scene."

"You asked our daughter why she told her mother the truth," I said. "Say it again, a little louder."

He didn't.

The boy and the girl stood very still beside him, each holding a yellow balloon.

The girl was looking up at Poppy with her whole face.

Maeve took Poppy's other hand.

"We're going home," my sister said, and the three of us walked out through the double doors with half the school watching.

In the parking lot, Poppy whispered the name of the road.

"Brandt Road," she said. "Past the apple stand. The door's pink, Mom. I wasn't supposed to say that either."

"You're not in trouble," I said. "Not for any of it."

The next morning I drove out there with Maeve.

I left Poppy home with the neighbor from two doors down, a retired schoolteacher who had once taught Garner's cousin.

Brandt Road ran east out of town between orchards, and the apple stand was shut for the season.

The cottage was the fourth house after it.

It was small and white, with a porch and a stone chimney.

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