A warm, cozy, all-American family dinner, the very picture of the happy home Julian had been telling everyone he was working so hard to provide.

Throughout the meal, Julian played his part beautifully, the devoted husband and father, accepting the warm congratulations of both families on two years of marriage and a beautiful new baby.

His mother beamed at him.

My parents smiled at us both.

And I sat at my end of the table, and I smiled too, and I waited, with a patience that six days of silence had honed to a fine edge, for the plates to be cleared.

When they were, when the last of the pie plates had been gathered and the coffee was being poured, I stood up, with my water glass in my hand.