Chapter 3
Series 1 Chapter 3
“Does Daddy sleep at Aunt Julia’s house now?”
“No, sweetheart.”
The answer came too quickly.
I knelt in front of Lily and smoothed her hair. “Daddy is just helping Aunt Julia. He’ll be home soon.”
But Ethan didn’t come home until after Lily had fallen asleep beside me on the couch.
He stopped when he saw us.
His gaze moved to the unopened cake on the dining table.
“I’m sorry dinner got ruined,” he said quietly.
Not I’m sorry I left.
Not I’m sorry I stayed with her.
Just dinner. As if the evening had ruined itself.
I carefully lifted Lily into my arms.
“She asked if you sleep at Julia’s house now.”
Ethan stared at me. “Why would she ask that?”
“Because you weren’t here.”
“She’s five, Claire. She wouldn’t think that unless someone put the idea in her head.”
My arms tightened around our daughter.
“I told her you were helping Julia. That was the truth.”
“Julia was upset. Her divorce is barely final, and tonight brought everything back. I couldn’t just leave her alone.”
“But you could leave us.”
His face hardened. “Don’t bring Lily into this.”
“I didn’t. Your empty chair did.”
I carried Lily upstairs before he could answer.
The next afternoon, she came home from kindergarten waving a piece of paper.
“Mommy, look! I drew our family.”
She spread the picture across the kitchen table.
The words MY FAMILY were printed in purple crayon at the top.
I stood beside our square yellow house, wearing a blue triangle dress. Lily had drawn herself next to me, our hands joined by one long pink line.
Ethan stood on the other side of the page.
Julia was beside him.
She had yellow hair, red shoes, and an enormous silver key in her hand.
My throat tightened.
“Why is Aunt Julia in our family picture?”
Lily shrugged. “She’s Daddy’s best friend.”
“I see.” I sat beside her. “Why did you put her next to Daddy?”
She looked at me as though the answer were obvious.
“Because Daddy always goes with her.”
I couldn’t speak.
Lily pointed at the two sides of the picture.
“You stay with me, and Daddy goes with Aunt Julia.”
Her voice held no anger. That made it worse.
She picked up a brown crayon.
“Should I draw Daddy over here with us?”
“If you want to.”
She pressed the crayon to the paper, then stopped.
“If Aunt Julia has her own house, why does she need our daddy?”
“Daddy loves you very much,” I said.
It was the answer I had given her a hundred times.
Lily frowned at the untouched cake still sitting beneath its plastic cover.
“Then why didn’t he eat our cake?”
I had no answer that a five-year-old should have to hear.
When Lily went to wash her hands, I left the drawing on the table and looked at our front door.
For seven years, I had called this our home.
Yet Ethan believed someone else had a greater right to enter it than I had to feel safe inside it.
I searched for a local locksmith and called the first company with good reviews.
A man answered on the third ring.
“How can I help you?”
“I need the locks changed.”
“Was a key lost?”
My eyes returned to Lily’s picture.
Julia’s silver key was almost as large as the house.
“No,” I said. “Someone has one who shouldn’t.”
“We can send somebody tomorrow morning. Does ten work?”
Ethan would be at the dealership. Lily would be at school.
He had already made his decision about Julia’s key.
Now I was making mine.
“Tomorrow at ten,” I said. “And change every lock.”