Lie, Lie Again - Stacy Wise Page 0,50

angry. Her mom told her to stay put and she’d be there as soon as she could. Sylvia was too scared to leave the sofa. She desperately wanted Grizzly, the bear her dad had won for her at a carnival, but worry kept her rooted to the spot on the saggy sofa. She counted six tiny brown holes on the corduroy cushion.

The sky had grown black by the time she heard the pounding on the door and her mother’s voice. She ran for the door, asking who it was even though she knew it was her mom. When she unlocked the bolt, her mother charged in, grabbing her and checking for injuries. Sylvia melted in her mother’s arms. But too soon, her mom released her to stalk toward her dad’s room. A wild cry emerged from her, and Sylvia peeked in from behind. The closet door was wide open, and nothing remained but a few plastic hangers. He was gone.

“Did he say anything? Try to remember, Sylvia. What did he say? Where did he go?”

“We were playing hide-and-seek. I looked and looked, but I never found him,” Sylvia sobbed.

Her mom pulled her into her arms. “It will be all right now,” she said.

Everything else was a haze. She couldn’t remember packing her things. The only memory that stayed was hugging Grizzly to her chest on the ride back home. Her dad’s face was now a blurry memory. She didn’t try to sharpen the image in her mind. Blurry was better.

She stood and moved to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and some buttered toast. Her laptop had dinged, alerting her that the pictures were loaded, but she wasn’t prepared to look at them just yet. It’d be best to do it with a little something in her belly. It felt like hours had passed since the blueberry muffin. As she reached the bread box, she remembered she didn’t have any bread. Why had she run from the grocery store like a maniac? She should’ve stayed to finish the job. So what if Embry was pregnant? It didn’t affect her in the least. She pulled some crackers from the pantry. Funny that she had saltines but no bread. She should probably offer them to Embry. Poor thing had looked rather green this morning. As she nibbled a cracker in the middle of the kitchen, an idea struck.

Why hadn’t she thought of this sooner? Well, no matter. She would text Embry with her request tonight. Finishing the cracker, she dusted her hands on a kitchen towel and took a swig of water before resuming her spot in front of her laptop. Showtime!

She started with the most recent. How many photos had he taken at the horse races? Scrolling through quickly, she came upon pictures of the two of them at Christmastime. There they were, standing in front of the giant tree at Disneyland. She’d looked so festive in her red-wool Kate Spade coat with the cute bow at the collar. He wore the creamy fisherman’s sweater she’d found for him. She sped past the photos she recognized until she reached one she didn’t.

Hugh was pictured standing proudly next to an adjustable bed where a hospital-gown-clad Lily lay with a freshly born baby in her arms. She studied the photo with interest. It was fascinating that women lost all sense of vanity after childbirth, allowing others to photograph them when they looked like they’d just plowed a field barefoot in the blazing sun. Every picture she’d seen on Facebook or otherwise was essentially the same. If she were to have a child, she’d be certain to apply a touch of makeup before any photos were taken. It’s not like the baby would change in the first fifteen minutes of life. No need to show the world that she’d been through a tough ordeal.

A knock sounded, and she darted her eyes to the door. Flipping her laptop shut, she crossed the room and peered through the peephole. Dave.

“Is it all fixed?” she asked as she opened the door.

“Uh, no.” He looked legitimately disappointed, as though he had really tried. How cute. “All I could do was tape it up.” He shrugged. “I had some bright-orange tape, but it’s not caution tape or anything. It’s a bigger fix than Jonathan described. I’ll let him know he needs to get someone else out here.”

“Well, thanks for trying. Hopefully the garbage disposal will be straightforward.”

“Yeah. No kidding. See you later.”

“Bye.”

She closed the door and sighed.