I Walked Into My Son's Father's Engagement Party With Our Four-Year-Old, and His Mother Wasn't Surprised novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: The Sugar Bowl
Kent's father met us at the back door of the house on Chestnut Street at 6:20 in the morning, still in yesterday's flannel.
His eyes were red.
"I've been up all night," he said. "I didn't want to do this alone."
He led us down the hall to a sewing room I'd never seen.
A cedar chest sat under the window with its lid propped open on a dining chair.
"She keeps the key in a sugar bowl," he said. "I've been married to that woman for thirty-six years, and I never once thought to look in the sugar bowl."
Kent knelt beside the chest.
I stayed in the doorway with my arms wrapped around myself.
It was a plain, neat box, a woman's careful filing.
Hanging folders, labeled in blue ink.
E. BIRTH.
E. HEALTH.
E. DAYCARE.
E. CHURCH.
"Dad," Kent said, very softly. "What is all this?"
"She hired a man in Louisville the month your son was born." His father's voice was flat. "A private investigator. Nine hundred dollars every quarter, out of the household account. I found the ledger at four this morning. Four years, and I signed every check."
Kent pulled out a folder and opened it.
I watched his hands.
The reports were typed and tidy, one page every three months.
Subject remains at same address. Subject works full-time, billing office. Child attends in-home daycare. Subject dates no one.
I closed my eyes.
Dates no one.
That was one of the reports.
Four years of my life were summed up in a manila folder.
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