That night, Lucy left the curtain around her bed halfway open. Matthew noticed but said nothing.

The following afternoon, Amelia arrived. She climbed the apartment stairs wearing leather gloves despite the warm weather, her eyes moving across the small room, recording every flaw.

“The ceiling leaks,” she said.

“Only when it rains,” Rebecca replied.

“That is generally when ceilings leak.”

Matthew had left a pot of lentil soup on the stove. Rebecca served her mother a bowl. Amelia tasted it with the expression of someone accepting medicine.