Natalie's POV
Daniel was gone before Noah woke up. A note on the counter, his handwriting rushed and slanted, said he'd left early for a site visit and would see us tonight, as though the previous evening hadn't happened at all, as though a man hadn't stood in his own kitchen and threatened to burn down his brother's reputation to keep his wife in an apartment she no longer wanted to live in
That, more than anything else, was what finally settled it for me. Not the threat itself, though the threat had been real enough. It was the note. The absolute, practiced ease with which he could return to see you tonight, the morning after, as though nothing between us required acknowledgment in daylight.
I made Noah his eggs. I packed his lunch. I did the small, ordinary chore, my hands moving on
