Chapter 2

"Are you done wiping?"

My thoughts came back to the present, and I looked coldly at the two of them — one crying without stop, the other endlessly drying her tears.

I didn't want to sit through their little act any longer.

"If neither of you can bear it, then just stay."

"What is there to cry about."

"The Henson family is big enough. If nothing else, there's still the old estate. Are you afraid Jarvis can't afford to keep the three of you?"

It wasn't a kind thing to say.

Once it was out, I ignored the tangled looks on their faces, turned, and walked toward the car.

Behind me, Jarvis dropped his hand and called after me, stunned.

"Victoria, you—"

Then came Hilda's flustered, tearful voice.

"Jarvis, I really didn't mean I wanted to stay. It's only that, it's only that I can't bear to leave."

"You two have already remarried. What am I doing, sitting in the middle of it with my kids? Victoria knows that perfectly well. Saying something like that, isn't she trying to shame me on purpose?"

At that, Jarvis, who had taken two steps after me, stopped, just as I expected.

He hesitated a moment, then made a call and told the driver to take me back first.

As for him, he would take the unsteady Hilda to the apartment where she used to live first.

I pulled the car door shut.

No surprise there.

And more than glad of it.

Coming back to the Henson house again, my mood was a complicated tangle.

Tammy, though.

"Mommy!"

The moment she saw me, the light in her eyes went bright, and she came running toward me, her voice clear and sweet.

Something in me softened, and I quickly crouched down and pulled her into my arms.

"Mommy, did you come to see me?"

"Can you stay tonight and sleep with me? I want you to tell me a bedtime story, and I want the noodle soup you make."

Listening to her innocent little words, my eyes stung, and I nearly cried.

A small child doesn't understand the twists and turns between adults, doesn't understand what it means to be apart. She only knows that one day, all of a sudden, Mommy no longer lived in this house, and only came by once in a very long while.

"I'll stay. Tonight Mommy will tell you a story, and in the daytime I'll make you noodles, just like before, okay?"

"Okay!"

I looked at her excited little face and laughed despite myself as I lifted her up.

"Has Tammy been listening to the nanny these past few days, eating well and taking her medicine on time?"

Her little arms wrapped tight around my neck, and she nodded.

"I ate it. Auntie made me greens and meat. The medicine is bitter, Tammy doesn't like it..."

Right up until night, she was too excited to sleep.

The whole time, Jarvis didn't come back.

He texted to say he was staying at Hilda's for dinner, that she and her kids were low, and he was afraid something might happen, so he had to keep an eye on them.

He added that it was only a friend looking out for a friend, nothing to it, and I shouldn't read too much into it.

Words like that, I'd heard far too many of.

So many I'd gone numb.

So this time I finished reading it, pressed and held, deleted.

Then I turned back and went on coaxing Tammy to sleep.