“But this is our chance to have a fresh start, to right the past,” I begin. “And I think Mom and Dad would be happy to know we’re speaking again. Especially Mom. She’d want this.” I smooth one hand over my belly. “You know she always loved it when we helped each other.”

Alex picks at a crumb of old muffin on the table. “How are you helping me?” she mutters, but my mention of Mom has made her soften.

I sit quietly, let the pathway widen.

“If you stay, there are rules,” she says slowly.

Bingo. I’m in. “Okay.”

“I’m serious, Ruth. You can’t break them.”

“Okay,” I repeat. “Whatever you say, Alex. I don’t want to be any trouble.”

“Number one, you don’t do anything that can harm your baby. Not one thing. You take responsibility. Agree? You will have this baby. We’ll figure out the next steps from there. Do you get that? No drugs, no alcohol. Nothing.”

I balk, but I don’t show it. “I want this baby, Alex.”

“Do you?”

“Yes, of course. I already told you it feels like a second chance, you know, a way to have a family of my own that doesn’t—”

“Number two,” she plows on, “you don’t tell Hal Nightingale where you are.”

How little she understands. I nod, a contrite agreement.

“And three.” She leans forward on her elbows. “You don’t talk about the past. Not with me. And more important, not with Chase. Ever.”

I blink at her. What does she mean? I’m not to talk about anything from before? Surely she can’t mean all of our past.

“The life we had is a tunnel that caved in a long time ago, Ruth, and I’ve no interest in digging it out.”

“But—”

“You left. You left me with all of it.”

“Alex, what I did—”

“You can show up out of the blue, waltz into my house, guilt-trip me with your pregnancy, and insinuate yourself into my life, but there’s no way you’re destroying it. Never again.”

“Me? Destroy your life?” I can’t believe her gall.

“Yes, you.” She stands over me, gathering her things, yanking her satchel strap over top of her. “You, you, you. This might be a new town for you, Ruth, but I know you. I know how you operate. We’re adults now. Do you know the meaning of that word? You say nothing to Chase. Nothing. Now I have to go to work. I’ll be home at the loft by four thirty. Break any of the rules and you’re done.”