Chapter 4: The Look Between Them
"I found out two weeks ago," Sarah said.
She sat down at the table.
Not next to Diane.
Across from her.
Like she was putting distance between herself and what she was about to say.
"I came home early from a client dinner.
Lily was already downstairs.
I didn't know until I heard her moving around." She looked at her hands.
"I confronted Diane that night."
"And you didn't tell me."
"I told her it had to stop.
She agreed.
I thought it was handled."
"You thought it was handled." I pulled out the chair and sat down.
"Sarah.
Our daughter sleeps on a mattress on a concrete floor.
She drew a picture and taped it to the wall so she'd have something to look at.
You knew this and you said nothing to me."
"I was going to tell you when you got home Friday."
"It's Wednesday."
"I know what day it is."
"Two weeks, Sarah."
She flinched.
"I know."
Diane leaned forward.
"This is exactly what I was afraid of.
Ryan, your wife handled it.
It stopped.
There's no reason to—"
"Don't." I held up one hand toward my mother.
"You don't get to speak right now."
Diane sat back.
I looked at Sarah.
"Why didn't you call me the night you found out?"
"Because I knew you'd react like this."
"Like what?
Like a father?"
"Like someone who makes every problem bigger than it needs to be." Her voice had an edge now.
"You would have driven home in the middle of the night, you would have screamed at Diane, and then what?
She's your mother, Ryan.
She lives forty minutes away.
She's the only childcare we have."
"She is not childcare.
She's a woman who was locking my daughter in a basement."
"She wasn't locking her—"
"The lock was on the outside of the door."
Sarah stopped.
"I already explained that to your mother," I said.
"Now I'm explaining it to you.
You lock a door from the outside when you want to keep someone in.
Lily is four years old.
She was in that basement alone.
At night."
Sarah's eyes filled.
She blinked it back hard.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly.
"I should have called you.
I know that."
"Why didn't you?"
She didn't answer right away.
She looked at the table.
Then at Diane.
Then back at me.
"Because Diane asked me not to."
The room went very still.
I turned to my mother.
"You asked my wife to keep this from me."
Diane straightened in her chair.
"I asked her to give me a chance to correct my behavior before you overreacted."
"You asked her to lie to me."
"I asked her to wait."
"About something happening to my child."
Diane's voice hardened.
"You want to talk about your child?
Let's talk about your child.
Lily is four years old and she cannot sit still for five minutes.
She screams when she doesn't get what she wants.
She throws food.
She bit me twice last month.
Twice, Ryan.
I have been managing that little girl alone for three and four days at a stretch while you fly around the country and your wife works twelve-hour days, and nobody ever asks if I'm managing.
Nobody ever asks if I need help."
"So you put her in the basement."
"I gave her a quiet space when she needed to calm down."
"With a lock on the door."
Diane pressed her lips together.
"Say it," I said.
"Say it out loud.
Tell me you locked a four-year-old in a basement to calm down."
"Ryan." Sarah put her hand on my arm again.
I didn't move away.
But I looked at her hand like I didn't recognize it.
"You knew," I said.
"For two weeks."
"I'm sorry."
"I need to know something." I kept my voice quiet.
Steady.
"Is there anything else you know that I don't?
Anything else about Lily.
About this house.
About what happens here when I'm gone."
Sarah looked at me.
Her eyes were wet now and she wasn't blinking it back anymore.
"Ryan—"
"Yes or no."
May you like
She looked down at the table.
That was not a no.
