Okay! See you soon!
I quickly texted McKinney, back on Cleo watch himself, who confirmed that he would stay on her until she arrived at the house.
Shit, food.Cleo was supposed to be coming for dinner. It would make what I had to tell her seem less alarming:Look, I cooked dinner. How bad can it really be that someone is threatening to kill you unless I pay them off because once upon a time I murdered someone?
A quick rummage in the refrigerator turned up a roasting chicken and some green beans. I set the water to boil and grabbeda box of couscous. As I ripped open the top, the doorbell rang. Too soon for Cleo, I was pretty sure. I put down the box and made my way over to the living room window. Janine was standing on the stoop.
“I was beginning to worry you weren’t home,” she said when I opened the door.
“Oh, hi,” I said. “Thank you again for the other night. That was really above and beyond.”
“No problem,” she said. But she looked stressed.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, though whatever this was, I had no time for it now.
“Do you have—could I come in?”
“Cleo is actually coming home for dinner. She should be here any second.” I was hoping she’d take the hint.
“Only until she gets here, then?” Janine’s tone was a little manic. “I sort of need to avoid going home myself.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s kind of a long story …” Her eyes were brimming. “I really won’t stay long, I promise. I’ll vanish as soon as Cleo shows up.”
Crap.
“Sure,” I said, forcing a smile. She’d spent hours sitting in the dark, helping me watch Cleo. “Come in and have a seat.” I gestured toward the kitchen counter. “I’m glad for the company. But if you could maybe kind of slip out as soon as Cleo gets here? I barely got her to come. I don’t want to set her off.” I also couldn’t run the risk of Janine mentioning our little dorm-side vigil to Cleo.
“Say no more,” Janine said, snapping her fingers. “I’ll vanish. And don’t worry, I will not breathe a word about the other night.” She made a locking motion near her lips. “As far as I’m concerned, that never happened.”
I exhaled louder than I’d intended to. “Thank you,” I said. “Can I get you anything?”
“A glass of water would be great,” she said, looking around.“God, your house is always so spotless.Andyou work. I don’t know how you do it all.”
“You should see my office,” I said, which would have been funny were it not for the mess Darden’s men had left behind.
“I find that hard to believe, but okay,” Janine said, a tightness to her voice. Like I’d stuck my foot in my mouth somehow.
Janine still looked uneasy as she sat on the edge of one of the stools. Like maybe she regretted coming, that bond we’d formed in Washington Square Park dissipating in the light of day. Friendships grounded solely in motherhood did tend to be extremely fragile. I grabbed two glasses from the cabinet and filled them from the spout in the refrigerator. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had anything to eat or drink.
“I’m sorry. I’m really on edge,” Janine said as I handed her one of the waters. The prickly edge was gone again from her voice, like some kind of storm had blown through. She sounded sad now, and vulnerable. “Things at home are just … Liam and I got into this huge argument a second ago—like out-of-control explosive.” She shifted uncomfortably on the stool. “He’s got a temper. People don’t realize that about him. Anyway, I confronted him about something and … He completely flew off the handle.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, and I was. I was also aware this might not be a throw-someone-out-when-Cleo-gets-here kind of situation. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Liam has been having an affair, foryears.I just found out. I told him that I want a divorce.” I stared at her in shock. Liam may have been a cold fish, but he had always seemed so devoted. “And, you know, he had the nerve to refuse to leave? So there he is, over there at the house … And there’s … Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s his house.”
“Did you buy the house while you were married?”
Janine nodded. “Yes. But he earns all the money.”
“It’s still half your house,” I said. “Half of everything is yours.It doesn’t matter if you contributed financially … Half of everything I have is Aidan’s.”
She looked at me quizzically.
“Aidan and I are getting a divorce,” I said. And what a relief it was to tell someone. “He cheated on me, too.”
“What?” It was Janine’s turn to look stunned. “Why would he do that?” Like she genuinely couldn’t imagine.
