The way that Hailey knelt down in front of him, the way she leaned forward and met his eyes with such sadness, could have meant anything at this point, and yet what she said was not at all what Mack expected.
“Your mother.” He felt her hands press into his knees. “Mack, your mother died this morning. Tilda called earlier. I’m so sorry.”
Mack tipped dangerously sideways. He felt the earth move in the opposite direction; was he still on it? Did he have to be?
“Mack?”
He curled over, his head between his knees. Why couldn’t Hailey ever just leave him alone? Why did she always have to say such awful things?
They can’t stop the contractions. The baby is coming.
I’m just not sure that entertaining students is such a good idea right now.
We can’t stay in this tiny house forever.
We don’thaveten thousand dollars a month.
How could you just cash this without telling me?
“Oh my god,” Mack said, sitting up again. “They killed her, didn’t they? Sunshine Enterprises killed her, I know it.”
“I don’t think so.” Hailey shook her head. “I thought that too, but Tilda said your mom died really early this morning. There’s no way that—”
“Who died?” asked Mabel from the doorway. “Who died, Mommy?”
“Where’s Gigi?” Mack was thinking of the hole in the floor, that it might swallow Gigi up. It felt like anything could happen.
“Upstairs,” Mabel said, but as she spoke they heard feet padding through the furnace room, and then Gigi appeared. For a moment Mack just stared; she really was the spitting image of his mother.
“Daddy, who died?” Mabel tried again.
“My mom.” Mack felt no sadness. How long would that last?
Mabel stilled for a minute, and then out of nowhere she began to howl. She went from zero to a hundred in a few short breaths. She cried so hard that she couldn’t talk, while Hailey held her and smoothed the hair from her instantly drenched cheeks. Gigi looked on coldly—she did not share Mabel’s devotion to a stranger, or maybe, Mack realized, she didn’t know what death was—while Gulliver barked and barked. No one paid any attention to him.
“Grammie?” Mabel finally managed to squeak out.
“Oh no,” Mack said, kneeling down beside her. “No Mabs, Grammie isMommy’smommy. My mom, the one that lives in Florida, she’s the one that died. Remember, I told you she’s been sick for a long time?”
Mabel nodded, hiccupping. “Not Grammie?”
“No, not Grammie.”
“Your mommy died of being sick for a long time?”
Mack looked at Hailey.
“She did,” Hailey told Mabel, but really Mack. “She died right around six this morning, they told me, while you were still asleep, Mabel. She died peacefully.”
“Six?” Mack said, trying to catch hold of one of the thoughts streaking through his brain. “Six a.m.? Not any later? Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure. I asked Tilda. She wasn’t with her, but—”
“It can’t be a coincidence, though, can it. Today? When the deadline—”
“What’s a coincidence?” Gigi asked, and Mack had no more patience left. He scrambled to his feet. He felt like he was suffocating. He could hear Hailey whispering to his daughters as he brushed Gigi aside.
“I could have stopped this,” he said when the girls had been shooed out. “I could’ve—”
