Chapter 1

We were celebrating Christmas in the house I owned.

Then my husband handed me his phone and asked me to take a picture of him with his ex-wife and their children—his “real family.”

I looked at David. “Your real family?”

“The original four,” he said. “You know what I mean.”

I did.

Rebecca stood beside our Christmas tree in red plaid pajamas identical to the ones I had bought for myself. Emma and Noah were already positioned between their parents.

“Come on, Claire,” David said. “The kids are waiting.”

Emma lowered her eyes. Noah began pulling I didn’t understand, but he said nothing.

I took the phone.

The four of them moved closer together. David put one arm around Emma. Rebecca rested her hand lightly against his back.

“Ready?” I asked.

They smiled.

I took the picture.

David came over to check it. “Rebecca blinked.”

I took another.

Emma wasn’t looking at the camera.

The third was too dark. Rebecca didn’t like her smile in the fourth. In the fifth, David said Noah looked tired.

By then, the dinner I had started preparing at five that morning was getting cold behind me.

“Maybe we have enough,” I said.

“One good one.” David returned to Rebecca’s side. “That’s all I’m asking.”

Rebecca had been supposed to drop off the children and leave. Instead, she had arrived carrying a bottle of red wine, then spilled some down the front of her dress before dinner.

David had gone upstairs and brought her the pajamas I had left folded on our bed.

When I objected, he had leaned close and whispered, “It’s just clothes, Claire. Don’t embarrass her.”

Now she was wearing them in front of the tree I had decorated, surrounded by gifts I had bought.

I raised the phone again.

“Get closer,” David told the children. “Let’s look like a real family.”

Rebecca glanced at me.

She had heard him. So had I.

I took the picture.

David checked it and frowned. “There’s something in the background.”

He pointed toward the mantel.

Our wedding photograph stood beside the garland. Part of its silver frame appeared behind Rebecca’s shoulder.

“Can you move that?” he asked.

“You want me to move our wedding photo?”

“Just for the picture.”

“It’s a picture taken in our house.”

David looked toward Emma and Noah.

“Please don’t make this uncomfortable for the kids.”

Rebecca folded her arms and waited.

I walked to the mantel and picked up the photograph. David and I were smiling beneath an arch of white flowers. He had spent that entire day introducing me as the woman who had made his family complete.

I placed the frame facedown on the side table.

“Better,” David said.

I took the last picture.

No one offered to take one with me.

When dinner ended, David and the children went into the living room. Rebecca stayed with them while I carried the dishes into the kitchen.

My phone vibrated beside the sink.

Rebecca had postedposted posted the photograph.

Christmas has a way of bringing a family home.

She had tagged David and added my address as the location.

The comments were already coming in.

The kids look so happy.

You four belong together.

This is what a family should look like.

I waited for David to correct them.

A moment later, his name appeared beneath the post.

He had liked the photograph.

Then he added a red heart.