George slammed the car door and strode across the tarmac toward them.

Jasper was too absorbed in what he was doing but Verena heard the slam and opened her eyes. She saw George, pushed Jasper away, and screamed.

She was too late.

George reached back with his right arm then hit Jasper with a punch that had all the force of his back and shoulders in it. His fist connected with the left side of Jasper’s face. George felt the deeply satisfying squish of soft flesh, then, a split second later, the hardness of teeth and bones. Then pain blazed in his hand.

Jasper staggered backward and fell to the ground.

Verena yelled: “George! What have you done?” She knelt beside Jasper, careless of her stockings.

Jasper lifted himself on one elbow and felt his face. “Fucking animal,” he said to George.

George wanted Jasper to get up off the ground and hit back. He wanted more violence, more pain, more blood. He stared at Jasper for a long moment, seeing through a red mist. Then the fog cleared, and he realized Jasper was not going to get up and fight.

George turned around, went back to his car, and drove away.

When he got home, Jack was in his bedroom, playing with his collection of toy cars. George closed the door, so that Nanny Tiffany could not hear. He sat on the bed, which was covered by a counterpane that looked like a racing car. “I’ve got something very difficult to tell you,” he said.

“What happened to your hand?” Jack said. “It’s all red and puffed up.”

“I banged it on something. You have to listen to me.”

“Okay.”

This was going to be hard for a four-year-old to understand. “You know I’ll always love you,” George said. “Just like Grandma Jacky loves me, even though I’m not a little boy anymore.”

“Is Grandma coming today?”

“Maybe tomorrow.”

“She brings cookies.”

“Listen. Sometimes mommies and daddies stop loving each other. Did you know that?”

“Yeah. Pete Robbins’s daddy doesn’t love his mommy anymore.” Jack’s voice became solemn. “They got divorced.”

“I’m glad you understand that, because your mom and I don’t love each other anymore.”

George watched Jack’s face, trying to see whether he understood or not. The boy looked bewildered, as if something apparently impossible seemed to be happening. The look on his face wrenched George’s heart. He thought: How can I be doing something this cruel to the person I love most in the world?

How did I get here?

“You know I’ve been sleeping in the guest room.”

“Yeah.”

Here comes the hard part. “Well, I’m going to sleep at Grandma’s house tonight.”

“Why?”

“It’s because Mom and I don’t love each other.”

“Okay, then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’m going to be sleeping at Grandma’s a lot from now on.”

Jack began to see that this would affect him. “Will you read my bedtime story?”

“Every night, if you like.” George vowed to keep this promise.