a school pickup. Some days I stayed home. I’d spent so much time defending my schedule to Daniel that I almost felt obliged to fill every free hour with something impressive. Then I remembered the point was that the hours were mine.
Claire did not become a villain in my mind because of one sentence in the kitchen. I remembered the night she’d admitted how frightened she was about the promotion and about disappointing her children. Her fear had been genuine. So was the way she’d come to treat my
