“Hannah, I consider this your home as much as it is mine. Your choosing not to come over as often, or to stay overnight, isn’t what I want, you know that.”

“Things aren’t the same, Max. They just aren’t. Going on as we were before they came no longer seems feasible.”

Max replied, “How is it different from my spending nights with you at your place?”

“There’s no hostility in the air at my place. I don’t get the feeling the walls have ears and eyes.”

They had had this discussion, or argument, several times of late. Max was for biding their time. He brushed aside the idea of confronting Zachary about his attitude toward Hannah, his future plans, and his treatment of Sarina. Hannah was dumbfounded at his seeming indifference. “You’re burying your head in the sand,” Hannah had said. “Can’t you see that Sarina’s miserable?”

But Max did not. From his point of view, Sarina should be happy not to be living in a place where there was fighting in the streets.

To Hannah, Zachary’s look clearly said, What the devil are you doing here?

Max refused to see what was happening all around him, and this drove Hannah to distraction.

“I’m going home,” Hannah said. “See you at work.”

Grace’s car slipped into their driveway just as Hannah crossed Cove Road, and they walked up the steps onto the front porch together.

Hannah said, “I am fit to be tied.”

The strain around her friend’s eyes and mouth troubled Grace. “What’s going on? Sit down and talk to me.” They walked to the rockers and sat.

“I’m totally frustrated. It’s no longer pleasant to be at Max’s place. Nothing’s the same anymore. I’m concerned for Sarina, who’s obviously depressed. Mostly, I don’t like or trust Zachary.”

“It’ll be better for Sarina once she has the baby,” Grace said.

“You keep saying that, while things keep getting worse. What if she has the baby and slides into postpartum depression like Laura did after Andy was born?”

“We’ll watch for that,” Grace said. “We know what to look for now. We can’t replace Sarina’s family, and her customs are very different. We don’t even know what they are around the issues of childbirth and child rearing. I do know that she trusts you, Hannah, and depends on you.”

Hannah grasped the arm of her rocker. “So, I should form an attachment to the baby and have it break my heart when Zachary snatches his wife and child away? He’d like nothing better than to do that to me—to his father. That young man’s consumed with anger and resentment. I just wish I understood why.”

They could hear the puppies barking inside. Hannah’s eyes hardened. “Let’s go in and see what those animals of yours are doing in the house.”