Chapter 3
Another parent came through the door with a child crying and refusing to let go of her hand.
I broke eye contact with Ethan and turned to help.
That was where the conversation stopped.
The rest of the school day came in pieces.
Lunch count.
Bathroom reminders.
A missing sweater that turned out to be under the reading table.
Two children arguing over the same red truck.
Noah made it through the day without trouble and slept for forty minutes.
When he woke up, he asked where his mother was.
I told him she would be back after afternoon play.
He accepted that and went to the block area.
By dismissal, every child had been handed back to the correct adult.
Every note had been finished.
Every cup had been stacked for washing.
Only then did I collect my bag.
For most of the day, Ethan's name had existed in two places at once.
On Noah's enrollment form.
And somewhere behind every ordinary thing I had forced myself to finish.
When I walked outside, Ethan was waiting for me in the parking lot.
He was standing beside my car.
"We need to talk."
"Yes."
I stopped several feet away.
"You told me San Francisco was work."
He didn't answer.
"Caroline thinks Seattle is work."
Ethan rubbed a hand over his forehead.
"Harborline's core operations have always been in Seattle. And San Francisco really does have investors and business partners."
"So both things are true."
He looked at me.
"I didn't lie about those trips."
"You just left out whose home you went back to when you got there."
Something shifted in his face.
I thought about Noah's enrollment form.
"You knew Caroline chose this center."
Silence.
"You knew I worked here."
"Yes."
"You tried to get her to pick somewhere else?"
"I showed her other centers."
"But you couldn't tell her the real reason."
He looked away.
I let that go.
"Room B?"
His eyes came back to mine.
"Noah was originally assigned to Room B."
"So you thought it would be fine."
"I didn't know they were going to move him before school started."
I looked at him.
Caroline had been in San Francisco.
I had been in Seattle.
She believed Seattle was where he worked.
I believed San Francisco was where he traveled for work.
And even Noah's original classroom assignment had given him one more layer of distance between us.
"Did you know we were going to run into each other eventually?"
Ethan didn't answer right away.
"Maya, I was going to handle it."
"When?"
He went quiet.
I watched him.
"Caroline has been your wife for four years."
His expression tightened.
"Three years ago, we had a wedding."
A car drove past behind us.
I kept my eyes on him.
"So what exactly was that?"
Ethan was silent for a long time.
Finally, he said,
"Our wedding needs a separate explanation."