They sit down at the small table where Tanya and Dallas eat their meals. It is covered in books and papers that belong to Dallas. The books all have titles like Online Poker Secrets and Winning Strategies from Internet Pros. So far he has broken even, which as far as Tanya is concerned is as good as he can ever hope to do. It saddens her to come home from school and see him sitting there on his laptop in front of the television, in the same position she left him in, his eyes bloodshot from too much screen time, watching his money go up and up and then down while the Home and Garden Network plays renovation shows in the background. Does Finn assume the books are hers? Tanya wonders, having grown used to people making assumptions about her. But as Finn picks up one of the books, she flips through the pages and smiles.

“If this kind of thing had been around when we were together,” she says, before adding, “Sorry,” as if worried she has offended Tanya by talking about her relationship with Dallas.

Tanya wants to clear the awkwardness, to reassure her that she already knows all about their relationship. “What was he like when you were together?” she asks. “Before he cheated on you with your sister?”

Finn clears her throat. “Do you know where he is? I really need to talk to him.”

“You brought the boy to see him,” Tanya says. “You want him to meet his son.” The thought hadn’t occurred to her before. She had assumed that Finn and her nephew had just been in the neighbourhood. She realizes now how silly this sounds, how naive. Everyone has an ulterior motive. She should know this by now.

“Ross,” Finn says. “His name is Ross.”

Hearing his name, Ross raises his head. He has been sitting quietly on the couch, playing with something he took out of his pocket. “My name is Ross,” he says to Tanya. “Remember?”

Finn twists around in her chair at the sound of Ross’s voice, her back to Tanya, and Tanya puts her finger to her lips. She hopes he remembers. Their little secret.

Tanya is good at finding things out. She might even say it is her true calling. She had found out about Ross a month into her relationship with Dallas, almost two months before he told her about him. Dallas wasn’t on Facebook, but the Parker woman was. And she was prolific. Pictures of the boy, mostly. That blond hair. Then after all that effort, Dallas let the whole story come out one day over breakfast at Norma Jean’s, eggs and hash browns and hey by the way I have a son. Oh, she said then. Trying to sound surprised.