Chapter 6: The Morning After
Miah woke to sunlight and silence.
No footsteps in the hallway.
No sound of Renee's heels on the kitchen tile.
No low television in the next room.
She sat up slowly.
On her nightstand was a plate covered with a folded piece of kitchen paper.
Beneath it: two pieces of buttered toast and a small bowl of sliced apple.
Next to it, a glass of orange juice and a note in her father's handwriting.
*Gone to work early.
Mrs.
Alderman knows you're coming.
I'll be home by four.
— Dad*
Miah read it twice.
Then she ate every bite.
She dressed herself and walked next door.
Mrs.
Alderman opened the door before she could knock, as if she'd been watching for her.
"There she is." The old woman stepped back to let her in.
The house smelled like toast and something sweet — cinnamon, maybe.
"Sit down.
I've got porridge on."
Miah sat at the small kitchen table.
Mrs.
Alderman moved around her stove without fuss, setting a bowl down in front of her, then sitting across with her own cup of tea.
"Your father called me this morning," Mrs.
Alderman said.
Miah looked up.
"He thanked me." She wrapped both hands around her mug.
"I told him he had nothing to thank me for.
I told him any decent person would have done the same."
"Did he say anything else?"
"He said things are going to be different." Mrs.
Alderman looked at her steadily.
"I believe him."
Miah looked back down at her bowl.
"She's still in the house."
"I know."
"She was there when I left this morning.
In the bedroom.
The door was closed."
Mrs.
Alderman was quiet for a moment.
"Sometimes it takes a little time to move the pieces.
That doesn't mean they don't move."
Miah stirred her porridge.
"She told him he'd regret choosing me."
The old woman set her mug down.
"And what did he do?"
"He brought me toast and went to sleep on the sofa."
Mrs.
Alderman looked at her for a long moment.
Then she said, simply, "That's your answer."
Miah didn't respond.
But something in her chest loosened — just slightly, just enough.
She finished her breakfast.
Mrs.
Alderman walked her to the school gate, which she hadn't done before, and stood there until Miah was through the door.
When Miah got home that afternoon, her father's car was in the driveway.
So was a second car she didn't recognize.
She pushed open the front door.
Two suitcases stood in the hallway.
Large ones.
Renee's monogram on the side.
Renee was on the phone in the living room, her back to the door, her voice tight and controlled.
"I'll be there by six," she was saying.
"No, don't ask me to explain right now.
Just have the room ready."
She turned and saw Miah standing in the doorway.
May you like
Neither of them spoke.
Then Renee looked away first.
