Dominic's POV
We come home Sunday evening to two toddlers who have apparently spent four days testing Mrs. Kowalski's patience and found it finite.
She meets us at the door with Sophia on her hip and the expression of a woman who has fulfilled her contractual obligations and is ready to be relieved.
"Sophia bit her sister," she says. "Twice. Ava pulled the plant off the windowsill. The one I've had for eleven years." She hands Sophia to Emma. "They're fed and bathed. I'm going home."
She takes her coat and leaves before either of us can respond.
Ava is in the playpen reaching for me with both arms and the urgent expression she uses when she's deciding whether to cry about something. I pick her up and she grabs my collar and announces something at length.
"I was gone four days," I tel
