Daniel looked at me.
For a second I could see the frightened boy still living somewhere behind his adult face.
Then he looked at June.
“No,” he replied. “I already lost my wife once. I’m not losing my family again.”
We left her standing beneath the chandelier.
Outside, the evening air smelled of wet leaves and approaching rain.
Daniel opened the passenger door for me, then stood beside the car, holding the metal box as though he didn’t know whether to protect it or throw it into the street.
“Sarah,” he said.
I adjusted June’s seat belt.
“Not now.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t want to know.”
He lowered his head.
I wasn’t trying to punish him.
But the difference mattered.
He had watched me search through bank statements until three in the morning. He had watched me call accountants and request records. He had listened when I explained that the transfer couldn’t have come from any account I controlled.
And he had still asked whether there was something I wasn’t telling him.
June touched my sleeve.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Grandma said if I told about the floor, you’d have to go away again.”
I closed my eyes.
Behind me, Daniel made a sound like someone had knocked the breath out of him.
I leaned toward June until our foreheads touched.
“Nobody is sending me away.”
“Promise?”
“I promise I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe. And Daddy and I are going to make sure grown-up problems stay with grown-ups.”
June studied me.
Then she held out her rabbit.
“You can hold Blue if you’re scared.”
