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“There are things I want to talk about but not on the phone.”
“Okay.”
“I found him, Henry. I know who he is.”
Henry didn’t say anything. He felt a hard tug to her, a strong connection. He cared about her even though he was starting to think she might be not just a little unstable as he’d said to West, but actually diagnosable. Henry had suggested that she let all of it go, build a life, stop digging into the past. But it was clear that she couldn’t do that.
“Who is he, Cat?”
“Meet me.”
“Are you in Florida?”
“I am,” she said, and it gave him a little chill. “Not too far from you, Henry.”
Piper had planted herself on the sectional, flipped on the television. She looked small and vulnerable on the big couch, under the plush blanket. He felt a swell of protectiveness—for Piper, for Luke, for their life.
Cat—she was dangerous.
“Let’s talk one last time,” she said. “After that, I’ll leave you alone, okay? I know that’s what you want. You’re a good guy, Henry. One of the few.”
“Okay,” he said. “Where and when?”
He half lied to Piper the next day, told her that he was meeting West after work. Those forensic detectives, he said, had turned up some new information on his mother’s murder.
“Have him here,” she’d suggested on the phone. “I’ll cook.”
“I’d rather not,” he said. “I want to keep the past and the present separate. You know?”
It wasn’t fair to say that, using her words against her. She sighed, unable to argue with her own logic.
“Okay,” she said, sounding worried. “Do you want me to come? My mom can take Luke.”
“No, don’t do that,” he said on the phone, lowering his voice.
He was climbing the ranks fast in the cybersecurity firm where he worked in Tampa; he’d been promoted twice since he started three years ago. But he still sat in a cube when he was in the office.
Around him the office was bright, windows looking out onto Tampa Bay and the glittering waters. The office hummed with conversation, ringing phones, pinging emails. Usually, he was in the data center among the rows and rows of servers and wires, the hum of electricity, the dark and refrigerated space. But today there were meetings. He was happier with machines than people. His degree was in computer engineering; computers made logical sense. People were confusing. This had never stopped being true for him.
“I’ll tell you everything, I promise.”
“Henry,” Piper said. “What’sgoing on?”
He’d been distracted since his call with Cat, restless last night, not sleeping well in general. Piper had noticed, kept pressing him to talk. He hadn’t told her about the Miami murder, or that West had been casting around for more information on the deaths of his other half siblings. Henry had mentioned that he’d talked to Cat, but not that they’d planned to meet.
“It’s time I came clean, honey,” he said, lowering his voice to whisper. “I’m having an affair. With Dawn.”
Dawn was the grandmotherly lady who ran the office.
“Very funny. Seriously.”
“No,” he said. “This stuff—with my mother—it’s just. I don’t want it in our life. Our life now, which we’ve built together. But at the same time I need closure, I guess. It feels dark, poisonous.”
This was true without it being the whole truth.
“It’s just the past, Henry. It can’t hurt us.”
He wishedthatwere true. “You’re right.”
