The laughter stopped.
“My wife was quiet even at the spa?”
“Really quiet. She stepped out a lot to make phone calls. Megan kept going with her.”
“Rachel. I have to go.”
“Paul, what is going on?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ll call you back.”
“She stepped out a lot.”
I sat in the dark with the engine ticking and the headlights pointed at nothing.
The story Megan had told me an hour ago was falling apart in my hands, piece by piece, and underneath it was something else. Something they’d clearly built together to hold me back until Claire was ready.
I sat in the dark.
I thought about Megan’s voice on the phone and the way she’d blatantly lied about their younger sister’s situation. She’s sick about it, Megan had said. She can’t face anybody right now. Not even Claire.
But I knew Rachel. She would’ve picked up the phone to call my wife the second Megan told her I knew. Rachel would’ve been crying and apologizing before I finished my first sentence. Rachel would not have laughed at the question of whether she needed money.
I put the car in gear and turned it around toward home.
But I knew Rachel.
***
I pulled into the driveway and sat there with the engine off for a full minute. The porch light was on. Claire was sitting on the top step in her robe, waiting.
She stood up when she saw me.
“Megan called you,” I said.
“She told me she cracked.”
“She didn’t tell me the real thing. Rachel did, because she didn’t know about the plot you two devised.”
Claire’s face crumpled.
“Megan called you.”
I climbed the steps and pulled her down with me.
“Just say it,” I whispered. “Whatever it is. Say it out loud.”
My wife pressed her forehead into my shoulder. Her voice came out so small I almost missed it.
“They found a lump. On the trip. The clinic called on Monday with the biopsy results.”
I sat there, stunned.
“Say it out loud.”
“I moved our money because I didn’t want to wait for insurance. Not the kids’ college account; that was Megan’s cover story. I withdrew the money from our emergency fund. I’ll put it back. I made my sister lie because I couldn’t tell you the truth yet. I don’t even think I believe it myself or have processed it.”
