Chapter 9: What He Said to Them
Nolan sat with the kids on the sofa in my living room after dinner.
I stayed in the kitchen.
I didn't try to listen.
But the house was quiet enough that some of it reached me anyway.
I heard him say Chloe's name.
I heard Owen ask if they were going to have to move again.
I heard Nolan say no.
I heard Lily ask if it was her fault, and I heard Nolan's voice go very low and very steady as he answered, and I heard nothing from Lily for a moment, and then I heard her cry — not loudly, just the quiet kind, the kind that has been held in for a long time.
I stood at the kitchen counter and looked at the wall and let them have the room.
After a while it went quiet.
Then I heard Owen's voice, clear and practical: "So we can keep the Legos here?"
And Nolan said yes.
And Owen said, "Okay.
That's okay then."
I had to turn the tap on so they wouldn't hear me.
Later, after the kids were in bed, Nolan came and sat with me.
We didn't talk much.
He showed me a message from his lawyer — Chloe's realtor contact had confirmed one preliminary meeting, nothing signed, which matched what she'd told Nolan.
The school had confirmed the enrollment could be withdrawn without penalty if done within thirty days.
He had thirty-one days left.
"I'm withdrawing it tomorrow," he said.
"Good."
"I'm also separating the joint account."
"Also good."
He leaned back in the chair and looked at the ceiling.
"Lauren called me today," he said.
"She apologized again.
I told her she had nothing to apologize for." He paused.
"She said she'd been carrying it for months.
The guilt of knowing and not saying anything."
"She said something when it mattered," I said.
"That counts."
"Yeah." He was quiet for a moment.
"Chloe called her too.
This morning.
She told Lauren she had betrayed her and that she'd regret it."
I looked at him.
"Lauren said she told Chloe she could live with that," Nolan said.
"And then she hung up."
He smiled slightly.
It was the first time I'd seen him smile in days.
"I'm filing for divorce," he said.
"I told my lawyer this afternoon.
He's drawing up the paperwork."
I nodded.
"She's going to fight it," he said.
"She already told me she would.
She said she'd tell people I abandoned the marriage.
That I chose my mother over my wife."
"Let her say it," I said.
"I know." He looked at me.
"I just wanted to warn you.
In case she contacts you."
"Nolan.
I set my coffee cup down the moment she took that toy out of your son's hands.
She can say whatever she likes."
He looked at me for a long moment.
"I know you never trusted her," he said.
"You never said it.
But I knew."
"You needed to find out for yourself."
"I should have listened."
"You listened when it mattered," I said.
"Same as Lauren."
He didn't answer.
May you like
He reached over and put his hand over mine on the table, and we sat like that for a while, the house quiet around us, the kids asleep upstairs, the shoebox sitting on the counter where he'd left it.
Outside, it had started to rain.
