Chapter 2 - THE QUESTION A FATHER SHOULD NEVER HAVE ASKED
Emily stared at the phone.
“What did she do?”
Michael exhaled.
“I’m asking what happened.”
“No. You asked what a two-year-old did to deserve being hit.”
“I didn’t say deserve.”
Sarah pulled her wrist free.
“Tell him she slapped me.”
Emily almost laughed.
“Of course.”
“Emily,” Michael said, “everybody needs to calm down.”
Noah lowered his eyes.
Emily noticed.
“What happened before I came in?”
Sarah answered.
“Nothing.”
Emily looked at Noah.
He said nothing.
That silence frightened her more than Sarah’s shouting.
Michael was forty minutes away, supposedly at a Saturday emergency meeting for the commercial HVAC company where he worked as an operations manager.
Emily had taken a morning shift at the community health clinic where she managed billing operations. Sarah had offered to watch the children.
Offered was generous.
Michael had insisted.
Daycare was expensive.
Sarah was family.
Sarah needed to feel useful.
Those had been his arguments for months.
Emily had disliked leaving Emma with her because Sarah constantly compared the children.
Noah was “steady.”
Emma was “dramatic.”
Noah was “a Miller boy.”
Emma was “Emily all over again.”
Michael always shrugged.
“Mom’s old-school.”
Emily had let that explanation survive far too long.
“Come home,” she told him.
“I can’t leave.”
“Your mother hit your daughter.”
“I heard you.”
“Then come home.”
Another pause.
“I’m in the middle of something.”
Sarah folded her arms.
That tiny movement was almost smug.
Emily noticed it.
“You knew he wouldn’t come,” she said.
Sarah looked away.
Emily ended the call.
She crouched in front of Emma.
“Baby, does your face hurt?”
Emma pressed the teddy bear to her mouth.
Noah finally stood.
“I gave her mine.”
Emily turned.
“What?”
“The other hot dog.”
Sarah snapped, “Noah, stop.”
He flinched.
Emily saw it.
Not surprise.
Habit.
“Noah.”
The boy stared at the wooden floor.
“Grandma said Emma already had enough because girls get spoiled when everybody gives them things.”
“How long has she been saying that?”
Sarah stepped forward.
“That child does not need to be interrogated.”
Emily raised one hand.
“Stay where you are.”
Noah swallowed.
“Sometimes.”
“Has she ever hit Emma before?”
His eyes filled.
Sarah said his name again.
This time Noah recoiled before she even moved.
Emily’s stomach dropped.
“Noah.”
He whispered, “She pinched her.”
Emily looked at Sarah.
“When?”
“Last week.”
Sarah rolled her eyes.
“I moved her hand away from the stove.”
Noah shook his head.
“She wasn’t by the stove.”
The entire room changed.
Emily turned back to him.
“Did Dad know?”
Noah began crying.
That answered before his words did.
“He said Grandma gets frustrated.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Michael had known there was already a problem.
Maybe not the slap.
But enough.
Sarah reached for her purse.
“I’m leaving.”
Emily stepped aside.
“Yes.”
Sarah stopped, apparently surprised.
“You’re really throwing me out?”
“Yes.”
“What about my card?”
Emily took out her phone again.
“What about it?”
“My refill is Monday.”
“You have Medicare. You have your supplemental plan. That card was supposed to cover one dental balance.”
Sarah’s expression shifted.
Emily saw fear again.
“How much have you been using it?”
Sarah grabbed her purse.
“Ask your husband.”
Then she walked out.
Emily stood in the bright kitchen listening to Sarah’s car start.
Noah wiped his face with his sleeve.
“Mom?”
Emily turned.
“Dad said not to tell you because Grandma saves us a lot of money.”
May you like
The pressure beneath the family had just acquired a price.
And Emily suddenly wanted to know exactly how much.
