Chapter 3

The following afternoon, Eve's elementary school held its annual charity sports day in the community park.

I parked beneath an oak tree across from the field and joined the crowd near the bleachers.

Brennan stood at the finish line in a navy baseball cap and an off-duty firefighter T-shirt. Sloane was beside him, holding a thermos of lemonade.

When the whistle blew, Eve ran across the grass with her braids flying behind her.

"Daddy! I won third place!"

She ran past the other children and threw herself into Brennan's arms.

He lifted her onto his shoulders.

"I saw that sprint, peanut," he said. "Nobody could catch you."

I took out my phone.

The first photograph caught Eve laughing above him, one small hand tangled in his hair.

The second caught Sloane reaching up to wipe dirt from Brennan's jaw. He turned his face toward her hand.

Eve's teacher approached with a ribbon.

"You must be Eve's parents," she said.

Brennan took the ribbon and pinned it to Eve's shirt.

"We are," he said.

The third photograph caught him smiling at the teacher while Sloane stood close at his side.

My phone vibrated as I turned away from the field.

JOINT ACCOUNT ALERT

Transfer approved: $2,400

Recipient: Sloane Carter

I stopped beside my car.

For a second, I thought the name had to belong to someone else.

Then I opened the alert.

The payment memo was one word.

Rent.

I scrolled down.

March. February. January.

The same amount. The same recipient. The same account Brennan and I used to pay the mortgage on our home.

At the bottom sat the first transfer.

Three days after the fire.

On the field behind me, Eve was still sitting on Brennan's shoulders.

I put my phone facedown and rested my palm over my stomach.

Then I got into the car.

At 6:18 that evening, Brennan called.

"Captain asked me to stay late," he said. "There was a problem with the incident report from the Carter fire."

I watched the rain begin to bead against the kitchen window.

"Drive safe," I said.

At 6:31, Sloane's account posted a photograph from an ice-cream shop downtown.

Eve sat between Brennan and Sloane in a red vinyl booth, holding a strawberry cone in both hands. Brennan's arm stretched along the back of the seat behind her. Sloane leaned toward them, smiling.

I saved the post beside the three photographs from the field.

At 11:46, Brennan came home quietly and found me asleep on my side of the bed.

"Brennan."

He stopped in the doorway.

"Did I wake you?"

I turned onto my back and looked at the ceiling.

"Do you ever think about having a baby?"

The question used to make Brennan smile.

He had once sent me a photograph of a firefighter's baby onesie and said our kid would look good in red. He used to point at fathers carrying sleepy toddlers through restaurants and tell me he couldn't wait.

That night, he only looked at me.

"Why are you asking that?"

"Just answer me."

His eyes dropped to the phone in his hand.

"Scarlett... not yet. Let me get through this mess at work first."

I waited for him to say that there would still be room for us.

He didn't.

"Go to sleep," I said.

He stood in the doorway for a few more seconds before turning off the light.