“You’re not being entirely truthful, I think. I hope you have someone to talk to, Danika. Your parents, maybe. I hope to talk with them later. After all, we share grandchildren.”
“Right now, I’m angry at Chris because today brought home the extent of his duplicity.” The words rush out of Danika’s mouth almost without conscious thought, and once started, she can’t stop. “The things I thought were ‘special’ to my family…it turns out many of those things were also ‘special’ to his family with Kim and Bella. And I feel more betrayed. Furious, as it shows a calculation in what he did. Before I guess, I thought he just somehow fell into his second relationship and was too weak to level with us.”
“There’s probably a bit of that,” Amanda says thoughtfully. “But you’re right; manipulators and serial liars often stick to one version of the truth so they’re less likely to slip up.”
Danika huffs. “Imagine if one day Chris put on our family song and it wasn’t ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ but was ‘Baby I Love You’ or something. I certainly would have wondered at that.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Amanda says gently. “When you’ve lived with a situation for many years, it’s very hard to pick up on the warning signs.”
“You’re right.” Danika stares down at her untouched wine. The urge to throw up has abated, but there is no way she wants to drink anything except water.
“Kim says you live in Belgrave,” Amanda says. “Are you still in the house you shared with Chris?”
“Yes. Luckily, we were joint tenants, so it automatically came to me.”
“Lucky how?” Amanda’s gaze sharpens. “From what Kim has said, your Chris went by his legal name, so you would have had no issue sorting out his affairs.”
“Not entirely true.” Danika falls silent. She doesn’t want to say too much. She’s made her decision about Chris’s assets, but Kim should learn that first, not Amanda. And now is not the time nor the place.
“How so?”
“It’s never easy, is it? Sorting out anything like that. And you have to do it all while grieving. Even with a solicitor, there’s still so much to do.” Vague enough, she hopes, to throw Amanda off the scent.
Her parents approach. Shirley kisses Danika’s cheek, then holds out a hand to Amanda. “I’m happy to meet you, Amanda. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Kim and Bella.”
Paul clasps her hand as well and murmurs something.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Danika murmurs, and takes the opportunity to slip away. She goes to the kitchen and dumps her untouched wine in the sink, rinses the glass and fills it with water. For a moment, she rests her hands on the edge of the sink and stares unseeing out of the kitchen window. This window overlooks the next apartment block, and Danika stares at curtained windows and a man at his kitchen sink one floor down.
Footsteps sound behind her, then Kim appears at her side. Kim touches her back, runs her hand down to her waist. “Are you okay? You seem uncomfortable.”
Danika forces a smile. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not.” Kim wraps her arm around Danika’s waist and taps her hipbone. “You’re obviously holding something in. Have my parents said something to you?”
“Amanda’s been perfectly lovely. I haven’t talked to Jorge yet.”
“Still.” Kim leans in for a moment. “You can talk to me, Danika. Something has happened today to upset you. I thought we could talk about these things.”
Danika swings around to face Kim. “You’re right, but I don’t want to talk about it today. This day is for Bella and you, and I don’t want to spoil it. It’s just something small to do with Chris, but it made me angry. We’ll talk about it later, I promise. But not today.”
“I understand,” Kim says. “And thank you. I think today will help Bella.” Her hand falls from Danika’s hip. “How long can you stay? We could go out for Thai noodles with the girls after everyone has left.”
“I have to go home.” She bites the inside of her cheek. “We’re eating dinner with my parents tonight. But thank you. I assumed you’d be spending the evening with your parents.”
“They have friends in Melbourne,” Kim says. “They’re having dinner with them tonight.”
“We’ll catch up soon, then.”
“Next weekend? Weeknights are hard when the kids are in school.”
“For sure.” Danika forces a smile. “Thanks for checking in, Kim.” She leans in, kisses her cheek. “Now, go back to your guests. I’m going to look at your photos.” She picks up her glass of water and follows Kim back to the living area.
Danika browses her way along the wall of photos. She tells herself she’s simply looking so she can talk about them with Kim and Bella later, but one part of her mind is searching for more similarities.
And she finds them.
Three photos of Chris wearing the pants he told her he’d ripped and thrown away the week he bought them. No doubt he simply took them to Kim’s. Bella riding piggyback with her hands over Chris’s eyes—the game he used to play with Cami where she’d guide him around the garden with “left a bit, right a bit,stop!” Kim unwrapping a gift box containing a silver bangle shaped like the infinity symbol. The date under the photo wasthree years ago—the year Chris had given Danika the exact same bangle for her birthday.
