Amara had been speaking to her sister in the laundry room, voice low, saying the words affair and watch and back door because sisters sometimes need the real nouns. Sophia stood in the hallway in fuzzy star socks, lavender hoodie, braid coming undone, and listened with the terrible focus of children who have already suspected the outline of a story and are finally being handed the vocabulary.
That night she asked Carlos to sit on her bed. Julian was asleep across the hall. The night-light cast a soft blue oval on the carpet.
"Mommy had another boyfriend," Sophia said. Not a question.
Carlos's brown eyes closed for a second. Medium tan face, tired, still a father's face. "Yes. She did. It was wrong. She ended it. We are working on our family."
"Did you know?"
"Not until Julian found the watch."
Sophia picked at a loose thread on her blanket. "Julian always finds things. Once he found a dead bee and put it in my pencil case."
Carlos almost smiled. The almost mattered. "Your brother is a detective without a license."