PART 6
Selina recovered first.
“Damian.”
“Listen to me.”
“This is not what it looks like.”
I turned slowly.
“What does it look like?”
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Then she found her voice.
“Phedra has become impossible.”
“She changed after she got sick.”
“She breaks things.”
“She steals.”
“She lies.”
“She creates scenes.”
Godfrey nodded quickly.
“She’s been a nightmare.”
Phedra clung to my shirt.
Selina continued.
“She even tried to sell family jewelry.”
I looked at the hummingbird pendant around her neck.
“Like that one?”
Selina’s hand flew to it.
Her face changed.
Phedra whispered.
“I tried to sell it.”
“For a doctor’s visit.”
“She took it from me.”
Selina said.
“It was too valuable to waste.”
I stared at her.
“Waste?”
She looked away.
Then I asked the question nobody wanted to answer.
“What illness does she have?”
Phedra touched her chest.
“Cancer.”
The yard seemed to tilt.
“How long?”
“Eleven months.”
Eleven months.
For eleven months, I had sent money every month.
For eleven months, my wife had been sick.
For eleven months, nobody told me.
PART 7
Selina began talking quickly.
“You don’t understand.”
“Treatment is expensive.”
“There are no guarantees.”
“We had to think about the whole family.”
I looked through the open kitchen door.
New granite countertops.
New cabinets.
A massive television in the living room.
Leather furniture.
Fresh tile.
Outside was an SUV I had never seen.
Godfrey’s phone was the newest model.
His watch was probably real.
Phedra had broken sandals.
I asked.
“How much of my money went toward her treatment?”
Selina hesitated.
“We paid for several visits.”
Phedra corrected her.
“Two.”
Silence.
I looked down at my wife.
“Two visits?”
She nodded.
“In eleven months.”
My chest tightened.
I helped her stand.
“We’re going to the hospital.”
Selina stepped in front of the door.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“What did you say?”
“You just got home.”
“You’re emotional.”
“You need to hear the full story.”
“Move.”
She did not.
Then she said.
“You disappeared for four years.”
“And now you return acting like we’re criminals?”
I rolled up my sleeve.
Burn scars crossed my forearm.
Old cuts.
Fresh ones.
“I worked entire nights.”
“I slept in a room with four other men.”
“I spent two Christmases alone.”
“I wore one coat for four winters.”
“I sent everything I could.”
“So nobody here would lack a single thing.”
Selina answered.
“And we didn’t.”
I looked at Phedra.
“She did.”
PART 8
Godfrey stepped forward.
“You chose to leave.”
“No one forced you.”
I turned toward him.
“You’re right.”
“And while I was gone, what did you do?”
His expression shifted.
“I opened a business.”
“With whose money?”
He looked at Selina.
I asked again.
“With whose money?”
Godfrey’s jaw tightened.
“Mom helped.”
I laughed once.
“Mom doesn’t have money.”
Selina said.
“It was an investment.”
I looked at the SUV.
“At the auto shop?”
“Yes.”
“The house?”
“Yes.”
“Your clothes?”
Godfrey said.
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child.”
I looked at him.
“You’re living like one.”
Phedra tightened her grip on my shirt.
She was waiting for me to explode.
I could feel it.
So I did the opposite.
I became calm.
Very calm.
Then I reached into my pocket.
And pulled out my phone.
