If you knew, we wouldn't be here." Ryan sat again, shoulders bowed. Lily had gone strangely quiet. She held one hand against her stomach beneath the edge of the table, and when Ava noticed the gesture this time, she did not feel concern. She felt anger at herself for having noticed it earlier with tenderness.
"Does anyone else know you're pregnant?" Ava asked. "My doctor. Ryan. Mom.
That's it." "Did Mom ask who the father was?" "Yes." "What did you tell her?" "I said I wasn't ready to talk about it."
"And she accepted that?" Lily gave a faint, humorless smile. "No. She asked six more times. I still didn't tell her."
That sounded like Diane. Ava thought about her mother's text from earlier: Start without me. I may not make it tonight. She wondered whether Lily had told Diane the dinner was supposed to be the confession. Maybe their mother had stayed away intentionally, deciding the daughters needed to handle it without her.
It would have been unlike Diane, who usually inserted herself into crises, but lately everything about her had been unlike herself. "Did you tell Mom you were telling me tonight?" Lily hesitated. "I said I probably would." "Did she say she was coming?"
"She said she would try." Ryan shifted again. Ava looked at him. "You keep doing that when we talk about Mom." "Doing what?"
"Getting nervous." His brow furrowed. "I'm nervous because my marriage is falling apart." "You weren't moving around like that when I asked where you slept with my sister." "Ava, you're reading into everything now."
"I have earned the right to read into everything." Ryan looked toward the hallway, then back. "I don't know what you want me to say." "Have you talked to Mom about Lily?" "No."
The answer was immediate. Ava studied him. "At all?" "Not about this." "When did you last talk to her?"
Ryan seemed annoyed now, perhaps because the question felt unrelated. "I don't know. Last week?" "About what?" "She had a question about a property inspection."
Ava remembered Diane mentioning a townhouse listing with foundation concerns. Ryan worked with contractors and inspectors constantly, so the explanation was plausible. In any other week, Ava would not have thought twice about it. Tonight, plausibility meant nothing. "Was that the only time?"
Ryan stared at her. "What are you implying?" "I'm not implying anything. I'm asking questions because apparently my family has been running a second life around me." "Your mother has nothing to do with this."
Lily looked at him. Ava saw it. "Why did you say that so strongly?" Ryan's expression hardened. "Because she doesn't."
"Then you shouldn't mind me asking." "I'm trying to keep this from becoming more insane than it already is." Ava gave him a long look. "You lost the right to define insane when you got my sister pregnant." Ryan pressed his lips together.