I had built my entire sense of peace around that steadiness. If Nolan was not falling apart, then nothing in our life was truly broken.
But lately, something had become quiet in a different way.
He stayed out in the garage long past midnight. Some mornings, his eyes looked raw and rubbed red, and he blamed it on dust.
“Allergies,” he kept saying. “I’ll grab something at the pharmacy.”
I let it pass. Maybe that was the bargain between us. He stayed steady, and I stayed grateful.
That Saturday, the supermarket parking lot was bright and ordinary. Nolan was loading bags into the trunk while Ivy swung my hand back and forth like a little metronome.
“Mommy, can we get the cereal with the bear?”
“Next time, sweetheart.”
She giggled, and I felt that small, simple happiness of a woman who still believed her life was uncomplicated.
Then a woman walked past us. Blonde hair pinned back. A red coat I had seen before. A red car parked two rows away, blinking its lights when she pressed the key.
I remembered her from Nolan’s company party a month earlier. Her husband worked with Nolan and had brought her as his guest. I had not caught her name that night.
“Hi, Nolan,” she said, politely, with a carefully measured smile.
Nolan’s hand froze on one of the grocery bags.
His shoulders stiffened in a way I had never seen before.
“Rachel.”
