Chapter 4: The Driveway

"You have a house," I said. "It has a floor."

Daniel stood at the end of the driveway with his keys in his hand.

He looked at the porch, where his mother was holding her wooden spoon against her chest.

"Mom, what happened?"

"She took everything, Daniel," Judith said. "Everything. I begged her."

Across the street, the woman in the bathrobe was still filming.

"Lydia." Daniel came up the drive.

He kept his voice low, which made it worse.

"Can we do this inside?"

"There's no inside left. Look."

He looked through the open front door at the bare hall. His mouth opened and closed.

"I said I was sorry," he said. "At the hospital. I said it."

"You said you were sorry I was upset."

"It's the same thing."

"It isn't."

"Lydia, I didn't mean for any of this." He flung out a hand toward the truck. "The test came back. I was wrong. It's done. What else do you want?"

Kate shifted June on her hip behind me. I heard her take a breath, and I put a hand up behind my back to stop her.

"I'll tell you what I want," I said. "I'll say it once, so listen."

Ben had gone quiet on the lawn. The movers had stopped too.

"I had an IV in my hand," I said. "I was bleeding. I hadn't held our daughter yet."

"Lydia."

"You put a form on my knees. You asked me to prove I wasn't a liar, with your mother standing over me."

"I just needed to know."

"You never asked if I was okay. Not before the form. Not after the result. You asked why we were still talking about it."

His face had gone red.

"You're punishing me for being careful."