Chapter 2

Maya answers on the second ring.

"Tell me you're back."

"I'm back."

"Finally. Dinner tonight?"

"Ethan has a baby."

Silence.

Then, "What?"

"I just approved his paternity leave."

"You approved his—"

She stops.

"Oh, that son of a bitch."

I send her the photograph.

"That's Brianna Lane. Apparently, everyone here thinks she's his wife."

"Does he know you're the new boss?"

"No."

"Good."

"Maya."

"I'm not doing anything. Yet."

"I need to know where she is."

"Give me a minute."

Maya and I have been friends since college. She knows what Ethan looked like when he proposed. She helped me zip my wedding dress.

She was the first person to hold Lily after our parents.

I don't have to explain what this costs me.

At six, I pull into our driveway.

Ethan opens the door before I get out of the car.

"There's my girl."

He takes my suitcase.

Reaches for my waist.

I turn to lock the car.

His hand falls away.

Inside, the table is set for two.

Short ribs. Roasted potatoes. Green beans.

He's opened my favorite wine.

"Sit down," he says. "You must be starving."

I sit.

He fills my plate, then watches me take a bite.

"Well?"

"It's good."

He grins.

"Still know how to make you happy."

I set down my fork.

"Where's Lily?"

"With Mom."

"Where?"

"Aunt Carol's. That anniversary party."

"I didn't know there was a party."

"I told you, Nat."

He pours himself wine.

"You've had a lot going on."

I look at our daughter's chair.

Her purple cup sits beside the sink.

Six years old. She still likes drinking from the same cup she used when she was three.

"When are they coming back?"

"Soon."

"I want to talk to her."

"You can call later. Let the kid have fun."

He reaches across the table and touches my hand.

"Tell me about Seattle."

For two years, I've worked at headquarters while Ethan stayed in Denver with Lily and his mother.

The promotion nearly doubled my salary.

We agreed I'd go first. Get established. Help him find a position there.

Then we'd be together again.

Every time an opening came up, he found a reason to stay.

His clients needed him.

His team depended on him.

Lily liked her school.

His mother hated Seattle.

"Why should we both start over?" he asked. "You're doing so well. Give me a little time."

I gave him two years.

Paid the mortgage.

Paid for preschool.

Sent money when he said his commissions were late or his mother needed something.

Now he asks whether my hotel in Seattle has finally fixed the elevators.

I've been renting an apartment there for eighteen months.

"They're fine," I say.

After dinner, he clears the plates.

I watch him wash them.

This is the man who held my hand through contractions. The man who cried when Lily was born.

The man in Laura's photograph.

He dries his hands and sits beside me.

"Bad timing, but I have to leave tomorrow."

"Where are you going?"

"Client trip. Could be three weeks."

"Three weeks?"

"Maybe less."

Twenty extra days.

He looks apologetic.

"I hate leaving right after you get back."

"That's okay. I'll be working, too."

His shoulders relax.

"Knew you'd understand."

He leans toward me.

I stand before he reaches my face.

"I need a shower."

In the bathroom, I lock the door.

Maya has sent a link.

Brianna's account is public.

Most of the early photographs show only pieces of him.

His hand across a restaurant table.

His watch beside two drinks.

The back of his head on a beach.

The first one is nearly three years old.

Then the pregnancy photographs begin.

Finally, a newborn.

Daddy's whole world.

I open the next post.

A wide sofa. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Flowers on the coffee table. A bassinet beside the bed.

The caption thanks Ethan for arranging a private night nurse and "a whole month of being spoiled."

She's tagged the apartment building.

Maya calls.

"It's one of those luxury serviced places downtown," she says. "I looked up the address."

I play the video again.

My mother-in-law walks through the background carrying a bowl.

"That's Diane," I say.

"I saw."

"She told me she was taking Lily to a family party."

"Nat. Don't go there tonight."

I lean against the sink.

"Tomorrow."

"I'm coming with you."

Ethan leaves the next morning with a suitcase.

He kisses the top of my head.

"Love you."

I wait until his car disappears.

Then I call Maya.

We're in the apartment building's lobby when I see Lily.

She comes out of the small market next door, holding a bag of cookies.

My mother-in-law follows with a grocery bag.

"Come on," Diane tells her. "Your brother's waiting."

Your brother.

Maya catches my eye.

We follow them toward the elevators.

Lily is busy trying to open the cookies. Diane is looking at her phone.

Neither turns around.

Upstairs, they walk to a suite near the end of the hall.

Diane opens the door and props it with her foot while Lily goes inside.

"Get the other bag, sweetheart."

I stop several feet away.

Close enough to hear Ethan.

"There's my big girl. What did you get?"

"Cookies."

"Did you get enough for Daddy?"

Lily giggles.

Diane carries the groceries into the kitchenette, leaving the door ajar.

I move closer.

Brianna is sitting on the sofa in a pale blue robe.

Ethan is beside her with the baby in his arms.

Diane picks up a bowl and sits on Brianna's other side.

"A little more soup," she says. "You need your strength."

When I came home from my C-section, Diane told me I was lucky she'd made pasta.

When I asked Ethan to take Lily for an hour so I could sleep, he told me he had work in the morning.

Now he shifts the baby carefully against his chest.

"Need anything, babe?"

Brianna smiles.

"I'm good."

He kisses her forehead.

"You've done enough. Let us take care of you."

I grip the strap of my bag.

Lily climbs onto the sofa.

She leans against Brianna as if she's done it a hundred times.

"Mommy?"

Brianna looks down.

"Can I hold my little brother?"