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“How?”
“A while back, I told you that, sooner or later, you were gonna have to choose between your mother and me, and you asked me to hang in there a little longer, that you’d make things right, and I said I would, and I have. But now I’m gonna have a baby—yourbaby, in case there’s any doubt—and I can’t hold on anymore.”
“What is it you want me to do?”
“Tell your mother to get out of our house.”
“I think you meanmyhouse, don’t you?” Lisa says from the doorway.
Heidi’s head snaps toward her chest at the sound of Lisa’s voice. Of course, she’d been listening. “Yourhouse,” Heidi agrees. “Mymistake.”
“You’ve made a fair number of those, haven’t you?” Lisa glances pointedly at Heidi’s stomach.
“Look. She’ll only be here a few more weeks,” Aiden tells Heidi. “Till her renovations are finished. Then—”
“Then what?” Heidi asks. “You’re missing the point here, Aiden.”
“Just whatisthe point?” Lisa interjects.
“You heard her, Aiden,” Heidi says. “Her money, her house, her rules. I’ve had enough, Aiden. Haven’t you?”
Outside, a car honks.
“That’ll be Shawna. From work.” Heidi grabs a handful of underwear from the top drawer of the dresser and stuffs it inside the suitcase before closing it. “I’ll be staying with her for the time being.”
“Please don’t go.”
Heidi takes a long, deep breath, deciding to give it one more try. “Come with me.”
Aiden sways toward her, then stops.
“I didn’t think so.” Heidi grabs her bag and walks into the hall. “Congratulations,” she says to Lisa. “You win again.”
Lisa smiles. The smile says,I always do.
—
Maggie returns from the police station at just after noon. She laughs, recalling the surprised look on the officer’s face when she’d surrendered her gun.
“How’d it get so cold?”he’d asked.
She notices an unfamiliar car in the Wilsons’ driveway and automatically checks the license plate.
REL8TOR.
What’s going on there?she wonders, exiting her car at the same time as Julia Fisher steps outside. The old woman stands on her front stoop, staring up and down the street.
“Hi!” Maggie waves. “How’s Mark doing?”
Julia turns around and reenters her house without answering.
“Okay. That was weird,” Maggie says as she opens her front door.
“What’s weird?” Leo asks, rushing to her side.
My beautiful boy,Maggie thinks, kissing the top of his head and hugging him tight, shuddering at the thought of what might have been. “I said hello to Mrs. Fisher and she just ignored me.”
“She’s like a hundred years old, Mom,” Erin says, skipping down the stairs. “She probably didn’t see you.”
