Chapter 4

David came home forty minutes early on Friday.

He carried a new chocolate cake in one hand and turned off his phone before taking off his coat.

“See?” he said. “I’m here.”

Jamie ran to the kitchen calendar. He erased the small plate he had drawn in pencil and carefully drew it again with a black pen.

David helped me mash the potatoes. He remembered that Ava hated thick icing and scraped some from her slice before we even sat down.

For a few minutes, we looked like the family we had been trying to protect.

“You’re staying for cake too?” Jamie asked.

“I’m staying for all of it.”

I wanted to believe him.

The doorbell rang at five fifty-eight.

Jenna stood outside without a coat. David’s sister-in-law looked tired, not dangerous.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Lucas and Owen are fighting.”

“What happened?” David asked.

“Owen took his phone. Lucas locked himself in his room, and they’re yelling through the door. He won’t talk to either of us.”

“Is Lucas safe?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Is Owen with him?”

“Yes, but Lucas only listens to David.”

Jenna looked past me at the table.

“I know tonight matters. I just need ten minutes.”

David glanced at the kitchen drawer where he had left his phone.

“Let Owen handle it,” I said.

“He’s making it worse.”

“He’s Lucas’s father.”

David lowered his voice. “Nora, the kid is asking for me.”

I looked at our table. Four plates. Four glasses. Jamie sitting beside the calendar with a smile he was trying to hold still.

“Are you staying for the dinner you promised, or are you leaving?”

David stared at me. “You’re really doing this?”

“I’m asking a question.”

“You’re asking me to ignore a child who needs help.”

“I’m asking you to let his father be his father.”

Jenna stepped back. “I shouldn’t have come.”

But David was already reaching for his coat.

Jamie’s smile disappeared.

“I’ll talk to Lucas and come straight back,” David said. “We’ll have cake when I return.”

“Another twenty minutes?” Jamie asked.

“Less than that.”

David opened the drawer and took out his phone.

Jamie looked at the calendar.

“Should I use pencil again?”

“You won’t need to,” David said.

Then he followed Jenna outside.

The door closed.

For several seconds, none of us moved.

Jamie walked to the calendar and erased Friday’s plate. This time, he did not draw another one.

He returned to the table and carried David’s plate to the cupboard.

“Should we give him ten minutes?” I asked.

The question came from habit.

Ava looked at me. “If we wait, he’ll learn this worked again.”

At six ten, I served dinner.

We ate while it was hot.

No one saved David a plate.

Afterward, Jamie took a folded picture from his backpack. It showed three people sitting at a bright kitchen table.

The fourth chair had been colored black.

On the back, he had written: Maybe three people can still be a whole family.

“Can we eat somewhere Dad can’t make us wait?” he asked.

I looked at Ava.

“Do you mean tonight,” she asked, “or for real?”

“For real,” I said.

I went upstairs and took three suitcases from the closet.

David had promised to be back before cake.

This time, we would be gone before he returned.