“Danny, what did she say? Tell me exactly what she said.”

“I’m not coming home to Cambridge after this, Mads. I’m supposed to meet her in New York City.”

“What?”

No, no, no, no, no.

“At least you can go to Maryland now,” he said. “You don’t have to choose between us.”

“I wasn’t, Danny, there was never any choice.”

“She said I don’t have to choose either. Dad already agreed.”

Sure he did. And they both did this behind my back.

“I’ll fix it,” she said.

“And I can’t come to your demo thing anymore. She said none of us can because of the move—”

An unexpected tightness spread across Maddie’s chest. “It’s no big deal. Forget it.” She forced a lighthearted “Now tell me about rock climbing.”

When he finally sounded more like himself, she let him go. The goodbye still hung on her lips when she traded it for “What the hell, Mom?”

“Maddie?” her mom said. “This is my private line. You never call this line.”

Because you never answer it. “News flash, Mom, I’m part of your private life. At least I’m supposed to be.”

“Does that mean you want to be? Because that hasn’t always been clear.”

Maddie’s nostrils flared. “When were you going to tell me about New York?”

She gave an exasperated sigh. “My assistant was supposed to schedule a call. But between negotiating the office lease and educating this fetus of a designer on what mid-century modern means, I’ve been—”

“Did you even . . .” Maddie tried to breathe. Her birthday didn’t matter. Neither did asking if this meant separation or divorce for the business, for their marriage, or both. All that mattered was what always had. “You can’t do this. You can’t just take him from me.”

“He’s my son, Maddie.”

“Since when?” The stabbing in Maddie’s chest made it hard to see straight. “Did you even send him the socks?”

“The what?”

“The socks. Socks, Mom, socks! Ridiculous, splinter-spitting, bushy-eyebrowed socks! Socks!”

Maddie screamed. Every. Last. Word.

Lucy poked her head into the hall. “Maddie? Are you okay?”

Maddie hung up on her mother and slumped against the wall. “I’m grand. Just grand.”

“Well, in that case, would you mind taking another spin through the lost and founds?” Lucy held up the notebook Maddie had given her. “I love it, really. It’s just that I’m trying to nail this last section, which I know I’d already summed up perfectly.”

Though Maddie needed one as big as Central Park, at least this was a distraction. “I’ll start with the study hall.”

*   *   *

The ache in her chest consumed her as she trudged across campus to the ValleyStart headquarters. New York? Her mother was moving to New York? With Danny? And her dad . . . he was just letting it happen? No one told her. How could no one have told her?