I put my phone back in my bag.
If Ethan could go to work without knowing whether his daughter was okay, I could make sure he found something very different waiting for him when he got home.
Apparently, he could live with not knowing.
Daniel took us to his house.
My sister-in-law helped me make a list of everything we’d need for the next few days.
Then Daniel went back with me.
I wasn’t going back to argue with Ethan.
I was going back to sort everything out before he came home.
I wasn’t going back to argue with Ethan.
I packed Nora’s things first, then mine.
I was done with being treated like an inconvenience in my marriage.
Daniel carried everything to his truck without asking whether I was sure. He knew me well enough to know that if I’d gotten this quiet, I was sure.
I left Ethan everything that was his.
By the time we finished, the house looked honest, like one man lived there alone.
I had no idea how desperate Ethan would be to make it look like a family lived there again.
Daniel carried everything to his truck
At the time, I thought I was simply making our house match the reality of our marriage.
***
At three that afternoon, my phone rang.
Video call.
Ethan.
I answered. For one ridiculous second, I wondered if he’d finally remembered why we’d gone to the hospital.
It just looked honest.
His face appeared first.
Then the camera swung around.
“What the hell did you do to the house?”
That was his first question.
I said nothing.
That was his first question.
He swung the camera around the living room.
“Where is everything? Claire, you can’t just empty the house because we had one bad night.”
One bad night.
I looked at the phone and waited for him to ask how Nora was doing.
Instead, he said, “You need to fix this, and fast.”
One bad night.
“Fix what?”
“The house. Martin and his wife are coming to dinner tomorrow.”
“Your boss?”
“Yes. The presentation went great, and this could be really important for me.”
So that was why he’d called. He wasn’t worried about his baby.
His boss was coming over, and suddenly the empty house was an emergency.
“You want me to come back and make the house look normal for your boss.”
“The house. Martin and his wife are coming to dinner tomorrow.”
“I want you to stop overreacting and come home.”
“And cook dinner.”
A pause.
“Well… yes.”
I almost admired the confidence.
Almost.
“I want you to stop overreacting and come home.”
“This is important!” Ethan continued. “What will he think if he sees the house looking like this? And you can’t honestly expect ME to cook for them.”
“Sounds stressful,” I said. “You should call your mother.”
Then I hung up.
Sylvia called twenty minutes later.
“You can’t honestly expect ME to cook for them.”
I answered because, apparently, I hadn’t reached my daily limit of nonsense.
“How dare you do this to him?” she snapped. “You will go home right now and fix that house for Ethan’s dinner.”
“No.”
Sylvia exhaled sharply.
“You know what? Fine. We don’t need you. I’ll fix the house. I’ll cook.”
I was about to hang up when she added, “We’ll just tell them you’re visiting family. Nobody needs to know what kind of wife you’re being.”
“You will go home right now”
Of course she would.
Sylvia had been cleaning up Ethan’s messes his whole life. She just hadn’t realized this was one mess she couldn’t hide with dinner.
And suddenly, I knew exactly where I was going to be tomorrow night.
If they wanted to pretend we were still one happy family, the least I could do was show up.
***
I left Nora safely with Daniel and my sister-in-law.
When I opened my front door, I barely recognized my own living room.
And suddenly, I knew exactly where I was going to be tomorrow night.
Sylvia had brought lamps from her house.
Throw pillows.
She’d hidden Ethan’s game console and set the dining table with dishes I had never seen before.
It looked like somebody had rebuilt our marriage from memory.
All that was missing was the wife and baby they were planning to lie about.
Sylvia had brought lamps from her house.
Ethan was standing near the dining table talking to a man in a navy blazer.
Sylvia came out of the kitchen carrying a serving bowl.
Both of them froze.
For once, I was the person in the room they hadn’t planned for.
“Claire,” Ethan said.
His boss turned.
For once, I was the person in the room they hadn’t planned for.
“I thought you were handling a family emergency,” he said. “Is everything okay?”
“Perfectly, thanks for asking.” I smiled. “I simply couldn’t miss this.”
Sylvia stared at me like she wanted to drag me outside.
Nobody asked me to leave.
