Miguel swallowed. "Mom and I need to talk about grown-up things. That's not your job to fix, okay?" Lucia nodded slowly. "Okay."
He kissed her forehead and watched her go upstairs with the drawing under one arm. Sofia waited until the bedroom door closed before saying, "I never wanted her involved." Miguel turned toward her. "Then why did you bring him into her house?"
The words hit with enough force that Sofia flinched. For the next hour, they spoke in the low controlled voices of people trying not to let a child hear her family breaking from upstairs. Sofia said the affair had begun six months earlier, during Miguel's previous offshore rotation. At first, she insisted, Daniel had been only a friend. He had helped her with a difficult client dispute, then stayed for coffee, then became someone she called when the evenings felt too long. Miguel listened without interrupting until she used the phrase "things just blurred," at which point he stood and walked to the sliding glass door because if he remained at the counter he was not sure what he would say.
Outside, the backyard looked obscenely peaceful. Lucia's yellow soccer ball rested near the fence. The patio chairs were stacked neatly because a storm had been forecast the week before. Miguel watched a squirrel run along the top rail while Sofia explained that Daniel's first overnight stay had happened after a late dinner when Lucia was already asleep. The second had happened deliberately. After that, there had been more.
"How many?" Miguel asked again. Sofia whispered, "Maybe eight or nine." Miguel turned around. "In this house?"
She nodded. He pressed both hands against the back of a dining chair and stared at the floor. "You let another man sleep in our bed while our daughter was down the hall." "I know how it sounds."