She looked toward the living room.
Tessa was leaning sideways on the couch, watching Miles chew on the edge of his soft bib while I held him.
Their mother whispered, “Can we talk about this later?”
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“We can talk about us later. We are talking about the kids now.”
That distinction mattered to me.
I could survive finding out someone had lied to me.
What I couldn’t accept was discovering that my daughter had been recruited into maintaining the lie.
The hidden phone buzzed again.
This time their mother grabbed it before I could even look at the preview.
She held it against her chest.
“Please don’t do this in front of Tessa.”
“I agree.”
I nodded toward the hallway.
“So we’re not.”
I took Miles to the couch and sat beside Tessa while their mother went into the bedroom.
For the next several minutes, I did nothing except take care of the two people who should have been taken care of all day.
