Morning arrived with pancakes because Simone cooked when she did not know what else to do with her hands. Lily ate three and declared them the best. Aaron drank coffee black and read work email on his phone without absorbing a word. After breakfast he took Lily to the park so the house could breathe without him in it. Simone sat at the kitchen table and wrote a letter she would never send to Isaiah — a letter that said stop, a letter that said I told him, a letter that said do not come near my daughter again — and then she deleted Isaiah's number from her phone with a trembling thumb and felt no cleaner.
Monday, Aaron called Brookhaven Elementary from his office downtown. He spoke to the front desk. He confirmed the removal of Isaiah Grant from the authorized pickup list. He confirmed that only Aaron Blake and Simone Blake and, as secondary, Aaron's sister in Atlanta with advance notice, were permitted to take Lily Blake from campus. The administrative assistant was polite and professional and asked no questions that would have required him to invent a face for public use.
At lunch Aaron sat in his car in the parking garage and called his sister anyway.
"I need you to know something," he said, and told her enough. Not every hotel. Not every text. Enough.
His sister was quiet for a long time. Then she said, "Do you want me to come."
"Not yet."
"Do you want me to hate her for you."
Aaron almost smiled. "I can manage that myself. I just needed someone who knows my voice to hear it shake."