September 20, Sunday
THE SCREEN filled with three faces jammed into the frame. Elaine sat wedged between Lily and Josh on the couch like a referee. I knew before anyone said a word that this call was going to cost me something.
"Heidi is moving in?" Lily's voice hit a pitch I hadn't heard from her since she was small enough to throw herself on a grocery store floor. "Dad told us this morning like it was already decided!"
"I know," I said. "I said it was okay."
"Are you insane?" She threw her hands up. "You're just handing us over to Dad's girlfriend to raise?"
"It's not like that, Lily. It means your dad will actually be home more, instead of leaving you two to fend for yourselves."
"So instead we get supervised by some twenty-six-year-old who calls herself a 'wellness coach.'" She spat the last two words like they tasted bad. Then, quieter, sharper in a different way: "Does this mean you're never coming home?"
"Of course not." My chest tightened at the fear underneath the anger, finally visible. "This is temporary, all of it. I'll be home the moment the trial ends."
Josh said nothing, just worked at the ragged edge of his thumbnail until a thin line of blood appeared.
Elaine, watching the whole thing unravel, finally raised a hand like a crossing guard. "Okay, you two—give your mom and me a minute, would you?"
They left without a word, without so much as a glance back at the screen, and the silence they left behind felt louder than the shouting had.
Elaine waited until the door clicked somewhere on her end before she leaned toward the camera, arms crossed. "Are you insane? You're letting Warren's baby girlfriend move into your house? Sleep in your sheets? Use your good pans? Your—" she lowered her voice for effect, "—husband?"
"Ex-husband," I said. "And I think it's for the best. The kids need supervision I can't provide from here."
"There are other ways to get supervision that don't involve handing Heidi the keys to your entire former life."
I didn't have an answer that would satisfy her, so I didn't try. Elaine studied me for a beat, her expression softening into something more careful.
"Are you doing okay?" she asked. "With all of it. Really."
"I'm fine."
"Good." Then one eyebrow crept upward. "Making any... friends out there?" She waggled both eyebrows for emphasis, the way she'd done since we were teenagers sharing a bedroom.
Heat climbed my neck before I could stop it, and my eyes flicked, entirely against my will, toward the doorway where Deputy Wells stood in his usual post.
Elaine caught it instantly. She leaned closer to her camera, dropping her voice to a stage whisper. "Is that the handsome marshal? Is he listening right now?"
Wells's gaze shifted toward me, just slightly, just enough that I knew he'd heard every syllable.
"I have to go," I said quickly, now overheating. "Love you. Tell the kids I love them too."
I ended the call before Elaine could get another word in, closing the laptop with more force than necessary.
Walking back down the corridor, my footsteps loud in my own ears, I made myself ask before I lost my nerve. "Did you hear all of that?"
"Hear all of what?" Wells said, eyes forward, expression perfectly composed.
But something in the set of his mouth told me he'd heard every word.