He didn’t reply for so long she looked at the phone to see if the call had disconnected, but then he was speaking again. “I don’t want to fight with you about this,” he said, and she could hear the fatigue in his voice.

“I don’t want to fight with you, either. I just—I want you to give him a chance. I like him.”

“Fine.”

“Did you just say fine?

“Yes.”

“Mom?” Megan entered her bedroom as she ended the call with Phil. “Can we talk?”

“I’m not going to talk about Katie with—”

“No, about you and Dad,” she said as she came farther into the room.

“Sure.” Lina patted the spot beside her on the mattress.

“Why can’t you forgive him?” Megan asked.

“What? Honey, it’s complicated. Did he say something to you?”

“No,” Megan said. “But I’ve never seen him so sad. I know what he did was really bad, but he loves you so much. I don’t understand why you can’t just forgive him.”

“It’s not that easy,” Lina whispered. “I wish it was.”

“How can you love someone that long and just stop?”

“I haven’t stopped.” Lina looked away from Megan as she fought to keep her emotions in check.

“If you love him, it’s crazy to stay apart. Think about us, Mom. I don’t want to have to go to two different houses every time I come home for break. It’s not fair. I don’t want to be from a broken family.”

In the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Lina’s weekends were normally filled with nonstop shopping and holiday parties, and while the shopping was the same as previous years, with less than a week before Christmas, Lina hadn’t attended a single party. Adele claimed it was because Lina wasn’t comfortable in her new status as a single woman, and that may have been partially true, but it was more that Lina wasn’t in a partying mood. It took enough energy to put on a happy face for her children, and she just wasn’t willing to do it for neighbors and casual friends, so she politely declined invitations from other couples in the neighborhood and passed the invitations from Phil’s colleagues to him.

“What do you mean you’re not coming?” Diane asked when they met at the mall for shopping. “You’re my best friend. You have to come to my Christmas party.”

“I’m not spending the evening with Phil and everyone from the law firm. I’m not up to it,” Lina said. She stopped to look at a black leather jacket.

“Come on. It will be good for you. A couple of glasses of wine and you’ll be fine.”

“No, I really can’t. I’m sorry.”

“I’m really starting to worry about you. You don’t socialize enough.”