Page 38 of The Delivery

Her voice shakes: “Did you go over to Jackson’s last night?”

“ Yes, ” Mr. Man says.

Rebecca tries to swallow, but her throat will not comply. She forces out the question: “Why?”

Mr. Man stares at her, unblinking. Mark is on his feet beside her. They stand rib to rib. They wait.

“ I saw your necklace break, ” Mr. Man says. “I went to search for it.”

Relief washes through Rebecca. She exhales through clenched teeth. She wants to believe that so badly, and she mostly does. Maybe it is the truth. Maybe that’s when Mr. Man left the footprint, after the fact.

Mr. Man starts himself up again, seemingly stiff from his low charge. As soon as he clears the threshold to the foyer, Mark and Rebecca look at each other. “Maddy,” they say in unison.

They lean into the hall in time to see Mr. Man disappear into the nursery.

Down the hall together, taking quiet steps.

They arrive at the doorway. The clamshell lid is lowering with a faint hum, the sound more electronic than mechanical. They stand and watch until the coffin-like prism is closed. The sensor light comes on.

Mark walks over, checks the seal. Rebecca sets her hands on the closed lid.

It is shut as tight as a walnut.

Mark shoves it, but it is so heavy it doesn’t budge.

“I’ll sleep on the floor in Maddy’s room,” he says. “In case he wakes up. I don’t want him unsupervised until we can get him returned.”

Rebecca nods.

They start out, and Mark walks her to the bedroom door. They embrace. It feels good, warm and familiar. On his neck she can smell a trace of that sage-and-cedar soap.

They pull apart. “We’ll figure this out,” Mark says. “It’s late, and I’m mostly certain we’re overreacting.”

She nods. He is probably right. What happened to Bao-Bao is terrible, but Mr. Man set it right, and the footprint doesn’t prove anything.

She gives him a kiss, starts into the bedroom.

He catches her by the biceps. “Lock the door anyway,” he says.

Chapter 29

Black smudges mar the pouches beneath Mark’s eyes, and he looks gaunt with stress and lack of sleep. Rebecca looks even worse.

It is 6:30 a.m.

Mark sits on Maddy’s bed, thumbing away at his phone while Rebecca gets Maddy ready for school in the bathroom, making sure she remembers to brush her molars.

“Wha ids Dabby ind hebe?” Maddy says through a mouthful of toothpaste.

Rebecca tries at a translation: “Why is Daddy in here?”

Maddy nods, leaning forward, a pointy beard of Crest froth dangling from her chin. She washes her face clean.

“He just wants to see you.”

“But he isn’t seeing me. He’s on his phone. Like always.”

“He’s just digging out from work, Maddysaurus. There’s been a lot going on.”