Chapter 9 — The Cover Story

And then, as I sat there on the floor with both my children, my daughter told me one last detail, almost as an afterthought, and it turned the cold fury in my chest into something harder and more permanent than fury.

“Dad,” she said, in a small voice.

“There’s one more thing.

Mom said — she said if you came home early from the field, before she got back, I was supposed to tell you she just went to the store to buy groceries.”

I kept my face very still, for Lily’s sake, and I said, gently, “Thank you for telling me that, sweetheart.