“Elise, darling,” he said into his phone. “I’m on my way. Tell Dr. Ellery to wait. Mother and Maren are coming with me.”
He smiled as he listened.
Nora watched that smile without flinching.
For months, she had thought the worst moment would be seeing him choose another woman. Then she realized the worst moment had been quieter. It was Milo pretending not to hear Graham cancel another school concert. It was Tess asking whether daddies could forget where they lived. It was the night Graham told Nora that some women were simply better suited to being adored.
He tucked his phone into his coat pocket and looked at Nora as if she were already part of the past.
“Don’t make this difficult.”
Nora opened her handbag and placed her house key on the table.
Graham smiled. “Finally. Something reasonable.”
Then she took out two navy passports and set them beside the key.
The room changed temperature.
Graham’s smile disappeared.
“What are those?”
“Milo and Tess’s passports.”
Maren sat upright. “Passports for what?”
Nora closed her handbag and rose. “Lisbon. We fly today.”
Claudine’s bracelet stopped moving.
Graham gave a sharp laugh. “With what money?”
“With the money you forgot I knew how to trace.”
His eyes flicked to Attorney Park. For the first time that morning, the pen in his hand looked less like a weapon and more like a mistake.
“They are my children,” he said.
“Six minutes ago,” Nora replied, “they were shadows.”
No one spoke.
Attorney Park looked down at his notes. Nora knew why. Graham’s sentence had landed in front of a witness.
Out in reception, Milo and Tess waited on a leather sofa too large for them. Tess had fallen asleep against Milo’s shoulder, her small mouth open, her rabbit pressed under one arm. Milo was drawing an airplane in the corner of a worksheet, his backpack shaped like a faded green turtle at his feet.
When Nora approached, he stood quickly.
“Are we going now?” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“To the place with yellow buildings?”
Nora knelt and zipped his jacket to his chin. “Yes, baby. The place with yellow buildings.”
Graham’s footsteps struck the marble behind them.
“Nora.”
She lifted Tess into her arms. Tess stirred, pressed her face into Nora’s neck, and sighed.
“You should hurry,” Nora said. “You wouldn’t want Elise’s baby to meet the family without you.”
Graham’s jaw flexed. “You will regret embarrassing me.”
Nora shifted Tess higher on her hip. “I regret not leaving when Milo started asking why you only smiled at your phone.”
The words reached Milo. Nora felt it in the way his hand tightened around hers. She hated that he had heard them. She hated more that he understood them.
Outside, rain swept beneath the awning. A silver car waited at the curb. The driver stepped out, opened an umbrella, and nodded.
“Mrs. Keane, Mr. Park asked me to take you directly to the airport.”
Graham looked at the driver, then at Nora. “Park arranged this?”
Nora did not answer. She helped Milo into the car, buckled Tess beside him, and slid in with the passports pressed flat beneath her palm.
The car pulled away as Graham stood on the sidewalk, rain darkening the shoulders of his expensive coat.
For three blocks, Nora did
