Amanda remained quiet, still looking up at me. And my mind scrambled to come up with a counterargument as the TV played in the background, punctuated by the sounds of Henry’s gurgling.

But Amanda continued to surprise me with her reaction to Blake.

“I know he’s your friend,” she said. “You’ve known him longer than you’ve known me.”

“I like you better. You’re much prettier.”

“Seriously,” she said. “I know he might be in our lives to some extent. I know that none of us are perfect. Maybe I’m trying to be more forgiving of everybody. I don’t want to have such harsh reactions to people like I do sometimes. It doesn’t make me feel very good.”

“I just want to have you and Henry around. No one else matters.”

We kissed before I went out the door. Before she shut it behind me, she said, “It will be nice to have all of this in the past.”

—

I expected Blake to be waiting for me, but when I pulled up to the house, I found the driveway empty, everything placid. We’d left in such a hurry, we hadn’t bothered to open the blinds or turn off the porch light.

As I approached the back door, keys jangling in my hand, I couldn’t help but think about Kyle pounding the wooden surface just a few hours ago, as alive as I was. And so quickly he was wiped out of the world, extinguished like a fragile flame.

I went inside. The quiet in the house emphasized how much I’d grown used to the noises Henry and Amanda had made going about their day during the last six months. Henry’s increased chatter and Amanda’s steady, persistent conversation with him, the clacks and clangs of dishes and toys. Even when he slept, we listened to him breathe through the baby monitor. For a moment, I saw a flash of my life without them, and I breathed a little easier knowing Kyle was gone. Knowing Blake, one of my oldest friends, wasn’t a killer.

In the office, I opened my laptop. Somehow, through a great application of willpower, I managed not to look at all the e-mails that had accumulated in one morning away from the office. I knew they waited for me, the number of messages increasing by the minute, but I’d promised Blake I’d take care of this for him.