“Is this what you’ve been looking for?” Nina asked, holding up the report for Maggie to see. Bolting from her bed like she’d been electrocuted, Maggie snatched the report from Nina’s hands.
“Where did you find this?” she demanded.
“It was behind your desk,” said Nina.
“No. No, it was not. I looked.”
“Behind your desk? Really? You checked there?”
Maggie seemed suddenly unsure.
“Well, that’s where it was,” Nina said.
“I don’t believe it!” Maggie spat out the words. “He must have put it there.”
“Maggie!” Nina didn’t mean to raise her voice, and felt even worse when her daughter flinched. Simon appeared in the doorway, drawn to Maggie’s room by the commotion.
“What’s going on?” he asked, the hurt still lingering in his eyes.
“This is what’s going on.” Maggie, red-faced, her jaw tight and teeth clenched, snatched the paper from Nina’s hand and held it up for Simon to read the front page. Nina had not seen her daughter on the verge of a complete meltdown since her toddler years, but felt certain one was coming.
Simon read the cover page, nonplussed. “What’s this?” he asked. “Is it the missing lab report?”
“It was behind her desk,” Nina explained. “It must have fallen there.”
“It didn’t fall there, Mother,” Maggie said with a growl in her voice. “He put it there.”
“Enough!” Nina’s booming voice bounced off the bedroom walls. Now she, not Maggie, was the one about to have a meltdown. It was everything—Glen, Wendy Cooper, Teresa, Simon, Maggie, Hugh, all of it, bubbling up into one volcanic eruption. “That is enough! Enough with these accusations! Maggie, what in heaven has gotten into you?”
“I put the report in my backpack,” Maggie said, tears in her eyes, her voice cracking with emotion. “I remember doing it.”
“Well, you must have thought you did. Again, I’m asking: Did you specifically look behind your desk while you were tearing your room apart?”
The place Maggie looked was at her feet.
“I think so … I don’t remember.”
“I’ll take that as a no,” Nina said. “Maggie, I understand that you miss your dad. I get it. I really do. But I’m running out of patience with you. I don’t know how to help you get over the fact that Simon is a part of our lives now. Do you need a new therapist? Go see mine if you want. I’ll call in the morning. I’m at a loss here, but we have to do something.”
Nina felt utterly defeated. Just as her life was finally coming together after so much heartbreak, Maggie seemed determined to tear it apart. When she’d agreed to these new living arrangements, Nina never considered her relationship with her daughter would hit such a nadir.
“Whatever. You’re never going to believe me anyway,” Maggie said, stomping out of the room like she was putting out little fires beneath her feet.
When her daughter was gone, Nina slumped onto the edge of the bed and sighed deeply, feeling on the verge of tears. Simon sat next to her and placed his arm lovingly around her shoulders.
“Well, at least you found the lab report,” he said encouragingly. “I’ll talk to her teacher. We’ll get the grade fixed.”
“Thank you,” Nina said appreciatively.
“But Nina—”
Simon seemed hesitant. Panic flooded her. Did Hugh call?
“I didn’t know you were seeing a therapist,” he said.
Nina’s blood froze. She realized she had let it slip in the heat of the moment.
“Oh yeah … I know. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”
That’s when Nina explained how she got Dr. Wilcox’s name from Ginny.
“I had a bit of a breakdown after we moved in.”
She reassured Simon she was perfectly ready for this new phase in her life, but still needed to sort through her feelings about Glen. She also confessed to wanting something for herself, a little part of her life that she didn’t have to share with anybody.
Nina didn’t mention Hugh, of course, or how she and Dr. Wilcox had talked about Simon and his insecurities, but now at least that topic could be broached without it being too awkward. She worried Simon would be wounded or upset, but his face was brimming with sympathy.
“We can’t keep secrets from each other, Nina,” Simon said in a sweet, understanding tone of voice. “It’s not healthy for a marriage.”
CHAPTER 36
Hours after everyone had gone to sleep, Nina was wide awake. She gazed up at the blackness of the bedroom ceiling, wondering if she had reason to doubt the man lying next to her. The cadence