Chapter 4 - Camille Refused to Leave Her Own House
Graham emerged from the office an hour later with his car keys.
“I’m staying at Mom’s tonight.”
Camille nodded.
He seemed surprised.
“You’re not going to argue?”
“No.”
“I think space would be good.”
“For you, maybe.”
Graham’s jaw tightened.
“Camille, I’m not doing this while you’re emotional.”
She almost smiled.
He had used that phrase throughout their marriage.
When she was angry, she was emotional.
When he was angry, he was handling a problem.
“Then don’t.”
He picked up his laptop bag.
At the door, he stopped.
“I don’t want Reese here overnight.”
“She won’t be.”
“I don’t want her back tomorrow either.”
“You don’t get to decide that alone anymore.”
“This is my home too.”
“Yes.”
Camille shifted Maisie higher against her shoulder.
“And she’s our daughter. Which is why you’re going to explain exactly what you and your mother expected to happen today before I trust you alone with her.”
Graham’s face changed.
“You’re threatening me with my own child?”
“No.”
Camille’s voice stayed quiet.
“I’m telling you that I watched you protect a setup before you protected Maisie.”
He left.
Camille locked the door behind him.
Not because she believed a lock solved a marriage.
Because she needed one night without Graham explaining away her instincts.
Reese went home after giving Camille a detailed account of the afternoon.
Camille wrote down what she remembered while it was fresh.
Not a dramatic dossier.
Dates.
Comments.
Who had been present.
What Graham had said.
Then she called her older sister, Beth, an elementary-school principal in Evanston.
Beth listened without interrupting.
When Camille finished, Beth said, “Do you feel safe tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Do you feel comfortable with Graham taking Maisie somewhere tomorrow?”
Camille’s answer came too slowly.
“No.”
That frightened her.
Beth advised her to speak with a family-law attorney before making assumptions about what she legally could or could not control.
Camille hated the idea.
Attorneys made the situation sound irreversible.
Then Maisie started crying in the nursery.
Camille went upstairs.
She found the stroller where Reese had stopped it.
For several seconds, Camille simply stared at the brake.
Then she remembered something.
Two weeks earlier, Graham had insisted they stop using the bassinet stroller attachment and switch to the seated configuration early.
Camille had objected because Maisie was still small.
Graham had dropped the subject.
At the time, it seemed meaningless.
Now another memory surfaced.
Judith had complained that the stroller brake was “too easy to knock loose.”
Reese had corrected her.
It required a deliberate downward release.
Camille stood very still.
May you like
Judith knew exactly how the brake worked.
And Graham had been standing beside her when Reese explained it.
