My sister kissed my husband in front of thirty people at her own anniversary party and called it a joke. kertati Her husband had a wrapped present in his hands and an envelope she had never opened.

“The kiss was the part they finally stopped hiding.”

PART 3 — THE OTHER PHONE

I couldn’t stay in the garden.

I couldn’t breathe.

I walked back into the house.

Nobody stopped me.

I went upstairs.

My son was watching cartoons.

My daughter was drawing at the desk.

Neither knew anything.

Neither knew that their father’s life had just exploded downstairs.

I stood in the doorway for several seconds.

My daughter looked up.

“Mum?”

I smiled.

“I’m fine.”

She went back to drawing.

I walked over and kissed her forehead.

Then I kissed my son.

I stayed there longer than I needed to.

I memorised the sound of the television.

The smell of their room.

The little marks on the wall beside my son’s bed.

Normal things.

Because downstairs, everything had stopped being normal.

I went back down.

Callan was waiting in the hallway.

“Bryony.”

I walked past him.

“Please.”

I stopped.