She hung up. Her heart raced in her chest. It wasn’t until she uttered those words that she knew them to be true. A few years ago, they separated for three months. Max stayed with a friend. When he returned, they drew up a budget, cut up a few credit cards. He promised to stay on track. But then he got his own credit card behind her back and started spending again. She had given him yet another chance, as she always did. But no more. Not even the prospect of bringing a child into the marriage had changed him.

She closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths. The urge for a brisk walk, a good, soaking sweat, seized her. She needed to get out of the house, away from these four walls.

She rolled off the bed and headed downstairs. In the closet, she yanked a hoodie off the hanger, slipped her arms through, pulled it over her head. The scent of Max’s cologne lingered on the collar. She rolled up the sleeves, turned the doorknob.

The front door wouldn’t budge. It warped in the frame whenever the season changed. Max had some sort of trick for dislodging it, but she couldn’t quite remember it now. She wrapped both hands around the knob, braced her foot against the wall, yanked. The force of its release nearly knocked her over. She regained her balance, stepped outside onto the porch. A breeze kicked up leaves in a swirl, shimmied the branches of the maple tree.

“I guess he forgot all about me.”

She whirled around. “Oh,” she gasped. “I didn’t see you there.”

Chandani Singh, their neighbor three doors down the street, perched at the end of the porch swing. She pushed off the floorboards, rocked back, reveled, it seemed, in Shan’s surprise at her presence. Her hair, dark and frizzy, resembled an unpruned shrub. Purple bifocals dangled on the tip of her nose. She was so thin Shan could practically see the blood traveling through her wiry veins. Her voice was deep, throaty, outsized for her four-foot-ten-inch frame.

“Max said he’d be by to look at my lawn mower this evening,” Chandani said. “It’s broken. I waited at home for him, and when he didn’t come, I came here. I guess he forgot about it. Perhaps he has more pressing matters to deal with and can’t make time to bother with an old woman?”

“Uh, of course not. Max was … he was called into work, rushed out of the house. He must have forgotten. I was upstairs and couldn’t hear your knocking. I’m sorry.”

“All right then. I suppose I’ll have to find someone else to fix it.” She sighed heavily but didn’t move. Waited, it seemed, for something. Shan glanced at her shoes, fiddled with her hands, sensed Chandani’s stare burrowing into her.