Chapter 5

Grant arrived at the hotel before breakfast, carrying the brass key to our front door as if I had misplaced it.

I stepped into the lobby before his knocking woke Lucy. Morning news played quietly above the coffee station, and a family in matching college sweatshirts dragged suitcases toward the exit. Grant stood beneath the chandelier in yesterday's pressed shirt, looking offended by the ordinary fact that I had slept somewhere he had not chosen.

He held the key between two fingers. "Pack your things. You and Lucy are coming home."

For one raw second, home reached me as a…