“It was a joint decision, that you would stay—”

“Joint?!” She was yelling now. “No one asked me what I wanted. Do you think I want to live with—”

She stopped and looked at him, her lower lip trembling with rage. Kasper felt a pang of fear.

“Don’t you think I know what you did?”

The pang became an all-encompassing wave of dread that washed through him.

“I did it for your sake. For us!”

Iben’s face distorted in a grimace of crying, every bit as fierce as it was unexpected. She shook her head, the tears pouring out of her.

“How could you do it, Dad? Don’t you get it? You’ve ruined everything!”

CHAPTER 23

“So lock all the gates and bolt the chamber door, because nobody leaves or enters anymore…”

Esther turned down Al Jarreau’s more than forty-year-old hymn, which she always played when she was missing her father, and perked up her ears. She got up and opened the door to the hall. Gregers was standing on the other side with a box in his hand and a sheepish look on his face.

“Yes, um,” Gregers began, “I’m sorry to knock so late, but I could hear that you weren’t asleep yet.”

“It’s not that late. Was my music too loud?”

He gestured grumpily with his hands and said, “I just wanted to… thank you for your help at the doctor’s.” Gregers held the cardboard box out to her. “It’s chocolate. Although you’d think it was gold at the prices they charge for it.”

Esther opened the door all the way and took the box.

“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that, Gregers. Should we try some right away?”

“Well, we wouldn’t want them to get stale.”

“Shall we go sit in the kitchen?” she asked with a smile.

“Well, this room is pleasant too…”

“Come in. I have a bottle of red wine open. Would you like a glass?”

Gregers grunted his approval, walked over to the wingback chair, and sat down with a contented sigh. Esther brought the chocolates out into the kitchen, turned on the light, and got out another wineglass. Sure, her roommate could be testy sometimes, but she appreciated his gesture. The clock on the oven revealed that it was a little before nine. Gregers didn’t usually visit with her this late in the evening; surely there must be something on his mind.

She brought back a tray with the wineglass and chocolates on it and saw that he had gotten up and was standing by the window, peering out into the darkness.

“We’ll sit here on the sofa, right?” Esther set the tray on the coffee table and walked over to stand beside him. “Is everything all right, Gregers?”

He smiled in surprise, as if he had only just noticed she was there.

“Ah, there you are. I was just thinking about life. And death.”