Chapter 2: What My Mother Kept in the Drawer
I drove to my mother's house with both children asleep in the back seat before we reached the end of the street.
My cheek had stopped burning by then.
My hands had stopped shaking.
What remained was something colder and much more useful.
Clarity.
My mother opened the door before I could knock.
She took one look at my face and stepped aside without a word.
I sat at her kitchen table.
She made tea.
She did not ask what happened.
She already knew the shape of it, even if she didn't know the details.
"How bad?" she finally said.
"Vanessa sl*pped me at the table.
In front of Lily and Owen."
My mother set down her cup very carefully.
"And Nathan?"
"He told me not to make things worse."
The kitchen went silent.
Then my mother said something I was not expecting.
"Emily.
There is something I should have told you three years ago."
She crossed to the drawer beside the refrigerator and took out an envelope.
My name was written on the front in handwriting I did not recognize.
"It came to this address," she said quietly.
"I was afraid of what it would do to you.
I was wrong to wait."
I looked at the envelope.
Then at her.
"What is this?"
She sat down across from me and folded her hands.
May you like
"It's about Nathan.
And it's about the house."
