“Actually, Brandon,” I said, “we are finished.” And I walked around him, and I did not look back.

In my handbag, downstairs on the entry table, a small recorder was running since before he came down the hall, and he had no idea it existed.

Chapter 4 — Upstairs

In Lucas’s room, Amelia climbed onto the bed with her stuffed rabbit, and Lucas stood staring at the closed door, and asked me, in a very small voice, “Is that woman really going to live here with us, Mom?”

I lowered myself carefully down in front of both of them.

“No,” I said.