The tingle turned into stabs that shot up through her neck, making it hard to swallow. Barbara sat on the couch, whimpering. “I’m so sorry,” she cried, but Therese’s focus was locked on Tim.

“What the hell happened here?” she yelled, an angry, scared quiver in her voice.

Tim turned to her and then back to Matilda and then covered his face with his hands.

He tried to hide from her but he wasn’t fast enough. She recognized the look in his eyes. The one she had seen that night in the shed. The one she had tried so hard to forget.

Barbara pushed herself off the couch and shuffled to his side. Tim brought his hands down and his face was white. Suddenly, all Therese could think about were triangles, and even though she did not understand what had happened, she waited.

For Tim to make his choice.

He stood, and she thought he was walking toward her. He reached his hand to her, like he wanted her to pull him out of whatever it was that trapped him. She could feel her arm slowly lifting, too, extending in his direction, but then something happened and he flinched and whatever was between them snapped. He turned away, and then it was so quiet she wondered if she had simply imagined the whole thing. Maybe none of it was really happening.

But then he spoke. “Take her and get out and don’t ever come back.”

He said it quietly, with resignation and a sense of calm that made her stagger backward.

She took Matilda into her arms. Later, she wondered why her daughter never made a sound. She started to walk and then turned back, but he was facing the window, his neck arched in such an unnatural position that she wondered if it was broken. For the second time that day, she waited for the person for whom she cared to come to their senses. When he didn’t, she hugged her child close to her and walked away from the little red house.

In the car, she fumbled with the keys, her fingers numbed by the need to escape and her vision blinded by the most profound betrayal she had ever experienced. Her panic mixed with images of Leah. Broken bones and bloodsplattered shirts swirled through her mind, and then it became hard to breathe, the tightness so intense that her insides felt like they were falling in on themselves.

A day that was suddenly beautiful turned gray, and even though no rain fell, lightning lit up the sky. Tears came and then her body filled with such ache that she could not sit up. The clouds turned black, and she saw Matilda lean toward the basket and whisper something to the little baby inside. She turned away, and when she looked back in the rearview mirror, this time Matilda was looking at her.