Chapter 16: The Second Offer

Derek asked for five minutes, and I gave him the length of a pot of tea.

He sat at my kitchen table at six o'clock that evening, in the chair he had used for ten years.

The order let him come to dinner on Wednesdays.

It was Friday, and I had let him in anyway.

I wanted him to say it where Maddie could not hear.

She was upstairs with her headphones on, drawing.

The baby slept in the bassinet by my feet.

Ben had gone to pick up dinner.

He had said, "I'll be forty minutes," and I knew he had said it so I would not feel watched.

"Say it," I said.

Derek put a folder on the table.

"I've been to see a lawyer," he said. "A cheap one, but he's good with money."

"Is that the offer?"

"No. This is the offer."

He slid out one sheet.

"The freeze on the deposit can be lifted if I get Colleen's name off the contract."

"And?"

"I can do it by Tuesday. Then I have thirty-eight thousand dollars, and I put all of it toward this house."

"This house has no mortgage, Derek."

"Then toward the baby. A fund. Anything."

His voice cracked on the last word.

"Hannah, I will do anything you ask."

"I know you will."

"Then let me come home."

The kitchen clock ticked.

"I'll sleep on the couch," he said. "I'll go to every class. I'll see any counselor you pick."

He leaned forward with both hands open on the table.

"Maddie needs me, and so does the baby."

I said nothing for a while.

I had thought I would be angry, and I was not.

I was tired, and the tiredness felt like a clean floor.

"Do you know what you did on Halloween?" I asked.

"I know."

"No, you don't."

I kept my voice low, for the baby.

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