Chapter 5: Eight Months
"I was standing near the pool because I was watching the baby," Vivienne said.
"That's what I've been doing for eight months, Daniel.
Watching.
Helping.
Being here."
"You were on the far side of the patio," the Father said.
"The stroller was on the near side.
Between you and the stroller, there was twelve feet of open stone."
Vivienne laughed softly.
"Are you seriously suggesting—"
"I'm asking you to explain the distance."
"I had just walked over from the table.
I heard the splash and I turned around." She spread her hands.
"I was frightened.
I panicked.
I pointed to the person standing closest to where it happened."
"Rosa was in the kitchen."
"I didn't know that."
"The kitchen window looks directly onto the patio.
You've had lunch at that table forty times." He didn't move.
"You know exactly where the kitchen is."
The Baby made a soft sound on the mat.
Nobody looked at him.
Vivienne lowered her voice.
"I think grief has made you suspicious of people who are trying to help you.
That's understandable.
Losing Claire was—"
"Don't."
The word was quiet.
It landed like something heavy set down on a table.
Vivienne closed her mouth.
"Don't use her name to change the subject," the Father said.
Rosa sat very still with her mug.
She had worked in enough houses to know when a conversation had moved past the point where her presence mattered to either person.
She was furniture now.
She didn't mind.
Furniture heard everything.
"I want to know," the Father said, "what you were doing on that patio this afternoon.
You called this morning and said you were coming for lunch.
You arrived forty minutes early.
Rosa was inside preparing.
I was upstairs on a call.
The baby was in his stroller on the patio." He paused.
"Alone."
"The stroller was in the shade.
He was perfectly—"
"He was alone on a patio with a pool, Vivienne.
And you were the only adult outside."
Vivienne's jaw tightened.
"I stepped inside to get my sunglasses.
I was gone thirty seconds."
"Which is when the stroller moved."
"Strollers don't move on their own, Daniel."
"No," he said.
"They don't."
The room held the silence for a moment.
Then Vivienne straightened.
The soft expression was gone.
What replaced it was something Rosa recognized — the face a person puts on when they have decided that being reasonable is no longer useful.
"I have been a loyal friend to this family," Vivienne said.
"To Claire.
To you.
To that little boy.
I have given eight months of my life to making sure you didn't fall apart after she died.
And this is what I get.
Accusations.
From a man who is clearly not thinking clearly, in front of a maid who has already proven she cannot be trusted with children."
"She pulled my son out of a pool."
"After he went in on her watch."
"He went in on your watch," the Father said.
"I was upstairs.
Rosa was inside.
You were the only one out there."
Vivienne picked up her handbag from the chair by the door.
Her movements were precise and controlled.
"I'm going to leave before either of us says something we regret.
When you've had time to think, you'll understand that I was trying to protect you." She looked at Rosa.
"Both of you should be more careful about who you trust."
She walked out.
Her heels crossed the tile.
The front door opened and closed.
Rosa let out a slow breath.
The Father sat without moving for a long moment.
Then he looked at Rosa.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, sir."
"I owe you an apology.
For the moment on the patio when I hesitated."
"You had just heard an accusation.
Hesitating was reasonable."
"It wasn't," he said.
"I had just watched you pull my son out of the water.
There was nothing reasonable about hesitating." He looked at the Baby on the mat.
"I'm sorry."
Rosa nodded once.
She didn't know what to do with the apology so she set it aside carefully, the way you set aside something valuable when your hands are still too full to hold it properly.
"She's not going to stop," Rosa said quietly.
"No," the Father agreed.
"She's not."
His phone buzzed on the table between them.
He turned it over.
Read the screen.
His expression didn't change, but his hand went flat against the table.
He turned the phone so Rosa could see it.
The message was from an unknown number.
May you like
Four words.
*Ask her about Claire.*
