I almost admired the reflex.
For months he had survived by keeping each person inside a separate version of reality.
Me in Wilmington.
Tanya in Vineland.
His mother somewhere between us.
Money moving quietly enough that nobody would compare notes.
His whole system depended on walls.
Now we were all standing at the same table.
“Explain the crib,” I said.
His eyes flicked toward Dolores.
She stiffened.
I turned to her.
“I found the receipt in your house.”
Dolores’s mouth opened, but no words came.
Garrett jumped in.
“Mom was helping me store some things.”
“For a baby that wasn’t mine.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Tanya laughed again, but this time tears stood in her eyes.
“Then tell us what it was like.”
Garrett rubbed a hand across his face.
The children had been moved toward the far end of the yard by then.
The music had been turned down.
Nobody pretended not to listen anymore.
Dolores finally spoke.
“He told me you two were having problems.”
I looked at her.
“We were going through fertility treatments.”
“I know.”
“You came to my house after injections made me sick.
You sat at my kitchen table and told me to keep believing.”
Her eyes dropped.
“I thought Garrett had made decisions he hadn’t told you yet.”
The sentence landed harder than I expected.
“You thought my husband had ended my marriage without mentioning it to me?”
Dolores’s face tightened.
“He said things had changed.”
I thought about every comment she had made about my age.
Every sigh about timing.
Every gentle little reference to grandchildren that had made me feel as though my body were failing a family deadline.
“And when you bought things for Tanya’s baby?” I asked.
Dolores looked at Garrett.
That was answer enough.
He stepped between us.
“Stop dragging my mother into this.”
Colleen’s eyebrows lifted.
“You used her address to hold purchases connected to the same pattern of spending.
She is already in it.”
Garrett spun toward her.
“You think because you’re a paralegal you can threaten me?”
“No,” Colleen said.
“I think because I’m a paralegal, I know the difference between threatening someone and preserving records.”
He looked at the folders again.
For the first time, I saw fear replace irritation.
“What exactly have you done?” he asked me.
It was almost funny.
