“Well, they gave me some options.” He tossed the pamphlets down on the kitchen table and took a seat. “There are places. I’ve been looking at them. I don’t like them. They’re expensive.”

“I’ll bet,” she said. “But if that’s what she needs, then that’s what she needs. You just have to pick one and make it happen. She still has money in her savings, doesn’t she? And this is a medical thing. There’s help for that, you know.”

“I was thinking,” the clone said tentatively, “that maybe it would be better to have her live here with us. Just for a while.”

Diana stopped what she was doing and turned around to look the clone straight in the eyes.

“Here? Jeremiah, she can’t stay here.”

“Why not?” he said. “We have the room and I just think it might be easier for her if she could make the transition slowly. I don’t want her to think we’re tearing her away from her friends, from her home. She’s happy there.”

“We can’t take care of her, Jeremiah.” Diana put his dinner into the microwave, turned it on and leaned back against the kitchen counter to face him again. “She needs someone with her and you and I both work during the day. And having her here would disrupt Parker’s whole routine. No, she can’t stay here.”

Jeremiah knew Diana was right. It was entirely unfair to just spring this on her without any warning. It wasn’t even something they’d ever seriously discussed. From the look on his face, he could see the clone knew it, too, so he was surprised to see him keep talking about it.

“You’re home for part of the day,” he said. “We could bring someone in to fill in the gaps. We could make it work. We could at least talk about it. She’s my mother, for God’s sake.”

Jeremiah cringed at the look on Diana’s face.

“And I’m your wife,” she said coolly. “And we are talking about it. What do you expect me to say? I had no idea where you even were tonight because you can’t be bothered to call me, then you waltz in here and drop this kind of a bomb on me out of nowhere? You know perfectly well this can’t work, Jeremiah. It just isn’t feasible.”

“Well,” the clone said, without meeting her gaze, “I suppose with all your extra hours at work these days, you’re right. It just isn’t feasible. You’re not home a lot anymore, are you? If you can’t be here for me and Parker, I don’t suppose it’s fair to think you could be home for my mother.”

Jeremiah leaned in closer to the monitor. Of all the times for his double to man-up and finally nibble at the edges of Diana’s infidelity, this probably wasn’t ideal. She was already pissed off. This could backfire.

“Don’t you dare make this about me,” she said, her words coming out in severe, rapid succession. “Don’t you dare turn this around. That is not fair, Jeremiah.”