Chapter 4 - The Whisper on the Phone
This morning started out perfect in the most boring way. Aaron kissed the top of Lily's head, then kissed mine, and grabbed his travel mug and his laptop bag.
"Have a good one, babe."
"You too. Don't stay late."
"I'll try."
I watched his sedan back down the driveway like it did every single day. Quiet, tidy, careful Aaron, off to his desk at Halloway & Pierce to move numbers around a spreadsheet.
I was at the kitchen table with my coffee when the phone rang. Dana's number.
I answered with a smile, expecting the usual after-playdate chat — how well the girls got along, whether Lily had left a hair clip behind.
"Hi, Dana."
Nothing. Just a long pause, the kind you feel in your gut a second before your brain catches up.
"Dana?"
"Hi. Sorry." Her voice had dropped almost to nothing. On her end I heard a door click shut.
"Is everything okay?"
"I shouldn't be telling you this."
She sounded deeply uncomfortable, almost like she was checking the hallway behind her.
I set the mug down. "Telling me what?"
She let out a slow breath, steadying herself, and my first thought was that Lily had made friends with the kid of some nightmare parent.
"When the girls were playing upstairs yesterday, I walked past Penelope's room and I heard Lily telling her something."
"Okay …"
"I overheard what your daughter found in your husband's trunk yesterday."
I couldn't feel my fingers on the phone.
"What do you mean? What did she find?"
"Megan, I went back and forth all morning about whether to call. But if it were me, I'd want somebody to tell me."
Outside, a car door slammed somewhere down the block. Kids shrieked on a lawn. And I just sat there, coffee going colder by the second, the whole soft ordinary morning tipping sideways while I waited for her to say the next sentence.
"Tell me what, Dana?"
She took a breath. I could hear her picking each word like she was stepping across a creek on loose rocks.
"Lily told Penelope she found a woman's wig in Aaron's trunk. A sparkly dress. Big sunglasses. Lipstick." A pause. "She said it three times. She said it was hidden in Daddy's trunk, in the garage. Penelope decided it was a present for you."
The kitchen went very quiet.
"Are you sure that's what she said?"
"I'm sure. I'm so sorry, Megan. We barely know each other and I hate that this is our second conversation."
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I thanked her. I don't remember the words. I remember hanging up and staring at the fridge, at the crayon drawing Lily made of the three of us holding hands under a lopsided sun.
Aaron. My Aaron. The man who alphabetized the spice rack and got shy ordering dessert in restaurants.
