“God, those dicks. You think they’d at least pretend to care. Cricket said she hasn’t heard one peep from them.”

This didn’t surprise me. Not anymore, at least. “Their years with our father are now nothing but a huge blemish on their résumés. It’s not entirely their fault they don’t want to be seen with us.”

“Let me ask you a question, Daisy. If Miles had a boyfriend—”

“He claims he’s in a relationship with his job.”

“Fine. If he was even casually sleeping with someone, would you know?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Right. So, they knew about Dad’s affair. Maybe even the money he spent on her. They should be out here, on their knees, begging for our forgiveness.”

“All right,” I said, waving toward the door. “Go in there and tell them that.”

“Maybe I should. Sometimes I think making a scene would help me feel better. The only thing that’s stopping me is that I would really like to come back to this restaurant one day. God! Let’s just go to La Vic. I need to drown my emotions in a giant bowl of French onion soup.”

“Are you going to tell clipboard lady that we’re leaving?” I asked.

“I’m over clipboard lady,” said Wallis as we began walking. “Just like the man in there formerly known as Uncle Danny.”

Our old faithful—La Victoire—the corner brasserie equally beloved by tourists and Washingtonians, was relatively quiet, and we were able to get two seats at the bar without divulging our names. As promised, Wallis did feel better after enjoying her soup, and we spent a long time talking, feet entangled in each other’s bar stools, sipping on the cheapest wine from the menu. For a minute, I even forgot about Uncle Danny, our father, Agent Finkle and his warrant, the vandal with the brick, who’d managed to stay anonymous despite Atlas’s pursuit and the police’s half-hearted efforts. I was just with my sister, reminiscing, giggling about her series of college boyfriends, several of whom I’d met when I’d traveled to Williamstown for Wallis’s championship soccer games. For someone who had spent most of high school in cleats, she sure had a knack for choosing indoor boys. We laughed about the one who quoted David Foster Wallace in bed. The one who claimed never to watch television. The one who loved his a cappella group like it was his own child.