When Anneliese tears the card into strips, she has to use extra strength, her biceps rippling as the thick stock pirouettes into the open trash can.

The truth is, Mrs. Keller has not only been apologizing to Anneliese. In the quiet corners of the house, she hears her apologizing to her husband, to Suzy, on the phone with her myriad friends, her assistant. No, I can’t go to dinner with Fred and Robin. No, I can’t play Candy Land right now, sorry, sweetie. No, I can’t come into the city this weekend. No, I’ll be working from home today. I’m just so tired. No, I’m definitely not pregnant. Something’s in the air. Am I a horrible woman? A horrible mother? This whispered to her best friend, Nance, late at night, a damp washcloth pressed to her head, using the phone in the den, cigarette dangling out of her mouth like an actress in an old movie. I just can’t get myself to do anything anymore. My limbs are shrinking. Of course I’m still seeing my analyst. I’m not depressed. I’m just tired. So, so tired.

She looks tired, too. Annie has noticed. Vacant eyes sunk into her face like a corpse, lank hair, gray roots showing at her temples. She’s skinny, too. Her jeans hanging off her hips, her bones turned knobby, her feet veined and skeletal.

Annie watches her struggle up a hill after Suzy, the breath wheezing out of her until she collapses on the grass, hands clawing at the blades, trying to right herself. Annie watches from the kitchen window, like always, defrosting the chicken, waiting ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty, before coming out onto the porch and calling to her, “Do you need help?”

One night, she hears Mrs. Keller through the walls of the master bedroom. “Of course Suzy likes her better. She can walk. She can run. She can play. She’s young, too.” And then a choked sob, gulped back, as Mr. Keller murmurs soft, comforting words into her ear, muffled by the wall.

Which is why Mrs. Keller decides to go all out for Suzy’s third birthday. A toddler-sized bounce house. A pony from the petting zoo. A magician. Annie clenches her jaw into a smile as Mrs. Keller writes it all down, makes the necessary calls, a glow reentering her cheeks if only fleetingly.

Later, alone in her bedroom, Annie massages her cramped jaw muscles. She wants Suzy to have the best birthday, but she should be the purveyor of this jubilation, not Mrs. Keller.