Chapter 5
I know I walked downstairs feeling as though I were moving underwater.
Daniel was standing in the kitchen preparing a bottle.
He looked up.
“He calm down?”
I leaned against the doorway, studying him.
“What happened when you took Max to get juice?”
His reaction unsettled me more than the question itself.
“What?”
“At the hospital.”
“We got juice.”
“Max said you walked down another hallway.”
“He said he saw you with a woman.”
The expression on Daniel’s face shifted instantly.
Not surprise.
Not confusion.
Calculation.
He carefully placed the bottle on the counter before speaking.
“Are you seriously doing this right now?”
“We have a newborn home. You’re hormonal. Max is acting out. Can we not turn this into some insane thing?”
There it was.
The change in direction happened so quickly I nearly missed it.
By then we’d been married for nine years.
That was long enough for me to recognize when he was buying himself time.
“Who was the woman?”
“No one.”
Daniel laughed again, louder than necessary.
“An envelope? From a five-year-old witness?”
“Stop talking about him like that.”
“Then stop interrogating me over a child’s imagination.”
The baby started crying upstairs.
Daniel glanced toward the ceiling, picked up the bottle, and headed for the stairs.
May you like
“We’re not doing this tonight.”
I remained alone in the kitchen, trembling.
