“Of course, I couldn’t tell Sam any of this. I tried once and he turned on me so fiercely, I was afraid he was going to hurt me.” Growing up, I had seen Sam blow up a few times so I knew he was capable of extreme rage. “He told me that I was just selfish.”

“What did you say to that?”

Pamela bowed her head a little. “I told him he was right.”

Neither of us spoke for a while. She was spent, and I wasn’t sure what to say. After a while she said, “Do you mind if I eat something?”

I realized that she probably hadn’t eaten much for several days. “No. Of course not.”

We both ate. Pamela wolfed down her sandwich, looking slightly embarrassed to be eating so quickly. When she’d finished the sandwich, she started on the soup, first with a spoon, then lifting the bowl. She must have been starving, I thought.

When she had finished everything she apologized. “I’m sorry. I haven’t eaten for a while.”

“No, I’m sorry, I should have let you eat. Would you like something else? Some pie?”

“No, thank you,” she said. “Shall I continue?”

“Please,” I said.

She looked down, collecting her thoughts. Her forehead furrowed. “Before I had McKale I was working as an office manager at a plumbing supply store. I had quit when McKale was born, but we struggled on just Sam’s income, so when she started school, I went back to work.

“One day this really handsome man came in. Jeremy. He was a plumber but he could have been a model. I was having one of those really hard days when it was all I could do not to burst into tears. He asked if I was all right, and I started to cry. He was really sweet. He asked if I needed to talk to someone and offered to meet me after work for a coffee. I told him thank you, but I was married and he backed off.

“But it wasn’t the last I saw of him. He became a regular customer and would come in several times a week. He would bring me a little box of chocolate cordials every time he came to sweeten my day. I began looking forward to his visits.

“One day Jeremy came in about lunchtime. As he waited for his order to be filled, we started in on our usual chat when he asked if I wanted to get something to eat. It was the right time, or wrong time, for him to ask. Sam and I had just had another big blowup that morning.” Pamela paused and her voice softened. “I said yes.