Chapter 32: The Lake Day

Bea turned four on the east shore of the lake, in a paper crown, with frosting up to her eyebrows.

The cake was a unicorn again, because she had asked for the same one in a very serious voice.

This time I had picked it up myself.

Winnie had set the folding table on the grass by the water.

Teddy had taped the streamers down with enough tape to survive a hurricane.

There were twelve guests, not thirty.

Two neighbors, three kids from Teddy's class, and the choir teacher with her silver thumb ring.

Winnie wore a sun hat the size of a hubcap.

Behind the cake stood a poster board of Bea's photos.

I had made it myself, over three evenings at our kitchen table.

Daniel had cut the corners straight.

It held a newborn in a striped hat, a baby at three weeks, and a first birthday.

In the top corner was a small square Polaroid that Winnie had dug out of a shoebox.

It showed a red, furious, four-day-old Bea in a hospital blanket.

Winnie had taken it the day she brought a casserole to the unit.

I had looked at that square for a long time before I pinned it up.

I did not remember the day it was taken, and I never would.

But it was on the board, in my own life, and I knew what it was.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Husband, My Sister: A Secret Betrayal from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.