Chapter 3
I left my phone on the table and stared at Drew’s March message for a long time.
He had written it carefully.
He hadn’t called me cruel. He hadn’t said he’d fallen in love with someone else.
He had simply announced, before I even knew there was anything to announce, that we were making a “peaceful transition.”
So his mother worried about him. His aunt kept his secret. And when the family saw Nadine today, they assumed I was the one refusing to face reality.
Upstairs, I heard Poppy turn over in bed.
I closed the family chat and texted Drew.
Bring the frame back. Tonight.
He replied fifteen minutes later.
I’m on my way.
At 9:40, someone knocked on the front door.
I didn’t turn on the overhead lights. I only switched on the lamp in the entryway.
Drew stood outside with the walnut frame tucked under his arm.
He had changed out of the pale shirt he’d worn to the reunion. He still smelled faintly of smoke from the fire pit by the lake.
“Is Poppy asleep?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He came inside and set the frame on the console table.
I didn’t reach for it right away.
“Why did you take it?”
Drew glanced at the photo still inside it. The one of him, Nadine, and Poppy.
“I asked Nadine to help set up the photo table today.”
“That’s something Poppy and I made.”
“I know.”
“You know what picture used to be in it.”
He rubbed a hand over his forehead.
“Elise, I don’t want to fight about a picture frame.”
“You didn’t lie to everyone over a picture frame,” I said. “You lied so they would believe I was already gone from this family.”
His expression darkened.
“I never said you were gone. I said we’d been working through problems.”
“Since March?”
He didn’t answer.
This time, I didn’t fill the silence for him.
I didn’t tell myself he was afraid of conflict, or that he just hadn’t known how to tell me.
The date on the photograph, Poppy’s words in the car, and all those messages from his relatives wishing him a fresh start had made his silence far too clear.
I walked to the console table and picked up the frame.
I opened the back, removed the photograph, and held it out to Drew.
“Take this with you tomorrow.”
He didn’t take it.
“You can’t keep pretending nothing happened.”
“I’m not pretending,” I said. “I just won’t let you pull Poppy into this.”
“She already knows Nadine.”
“She knows you have a friend. She doesn’t know you asked her to hide things from me. She doesn’t know you planned for another woman to stand in our family picture.”
“You always make everything sound ugly.”
“Then tell me how I should say it.”
He braced one hand against the console table and lowered his voice.
“Nadine isn’t some casual thing. She isn’t a temporary relationship you can wait out. I’m seriously considering a new life with her.”
The words didn’t make me cry.
They made me think of Poppy standing on the lawn that afternoon, unable to decide which parent she was supposed to walk toward.
“That’s your choice,” I said. “But you don’t get to use Poppy as a trial run.”
His eyes went cold.
“She isn’t your private property.”
“Of course she isn’t.”
“Then who are you to decide whether she sees Nadine?”
“Her mother. The one who knows you already asked her to keep one secret. The one who won’t let you use her to prove this relationship doesn’t hurt her.”
He gave a short laugh, full of frustration.
“Nadine has been good to Poppy. She took her to dinner. She took her bowling. She spent all afternoon with her at the lake today. She’s done more for this family than you’re willing to admit.”
I looked at him.
“What has she done for this family?”
Drew’s mouth opened, but nothing came out at first.
I didn’t wait for an answer.
“Starting now, Poppy will not spend the night alone with Nadine. She does not have to call Nadine family. She does not have to comfort her, and she does not have to explain to anyone whether she likes her.”
“You don’t get to make rules on your own.”
“I’m not deciding who you can be with,” I said. “I’m telling you Poppy will not carry the consequences of your choices anymore.”
Drew took a step toward me.
“Elise, you’re only going to make this harder for her. She has to adjust.”
“She doesn’t have to adjust to something you planned for her six weeks ago.”
A car door shut outside.
I looked toward the front window.
Drew didn’t turn around.
“She just wants to say something to you,” he said.
My stomach dropped.
“Nadine is outside?”
“She’s been waiting in the car.”
“You said you were coming to return the frame, and you brought her here.”
“She doesn’t want to hide anymore.”
Before I could answer, the front door opened a few inches from outside.
Nadine stood on the step with her hands clasped in front of her. She didn’t come in, but she had clearly heard enough.
“I’m not here to take your daughter from you,” she said.
I didn’t invite her inside.
She looked at me, her voice calm enough to sound as if she were thinking about Poppy.
“Poppy doesn’t need two women fighting over her,” she said. “She needs one home that feels happy.”