Chapter 14: Say It to Her Face

I had not slept in the house since the night I left it.

The porch light was on, and the key still fit my hand.

Bennett went in first and stopped in the hall, and I stopped behind him.

Everything was where I had left it. My camel coat was still on the hook by the stairs.

Randall was in the living room, standing at the fireplace with a drink he hadn't touched.

His mother sat in the armchair by the window with her cane across her knees.

She nodded to me once, and said nothing.

"Sit down, both of you," Randall said.

"I'll stand," said Bennett.

My son stood in the middle of the carpet, and I stood where I could see his face.

"You said you'd answer me in front of her," Bennett said.

"I will."

"Then did she agree?"

Randall set the glass on the mantel.

"Bennett, we've been over this."

"Not like this. I'm asking you with her in the room. Did Mom agree to Danica?"

"I told you what I believed she'd say, once she'd had time to think."

"That isn't what you told me."

"I told you she would come around."

"You told me she had agreed."

I watched my husband's face try three answers and keep none.

"It was the kindest way to put it," he said.

"Kind to who?"

Randall looked at me.

"To everyone," he said. "To her. I didn't want her to be the one who had to say yes out loud. It's easier to be told it's already done."

It was so exactly the thing he would do that I almost laughed.

For twenty-four years it had been easier for me to be told.