“Didn’t you two talk at all when we were at the cabin?”
It was the first time she’d asked her the question. Some things weren’t her business. Unless Chloe needed to talk about them.
“Yeah, we talked. I told him what I thought. He told me what he thought...”
“Which was?”
“That while he’d been out of line, I was overreacting. He wants us to go to marital counseling together. I told him I’d think about it. That first I had to have this time to myself to figure out what’s going on inside of me with all of this.”
“And have you found any clarity?”
She asked only because she’d been noticing the difference in her sister-in-law.
“Yes.” Chloe gave up pretending to eat. “I know that Jeff pushed me into that doorjamb on purpose. And that’s all I need to know to be certain that I can’t go back there, can’t take Cody back there, until he’s able to admit what he did and get some help.”
“Are you going to tell him that?”
Cody stuffed his last piece of hot dog into his mouth. Chloe watched her son and then leaned on the table, looking at Ella. “I told Sara that I’m going to tell him. I’m just not sure I’m ready yet. I need to do it in person. And I need to be certain that when I see him, I can stand strong.”
“You left him two Sundays ago.”
With a sad smile Chloe nodded. “I know. That was the turning point for me,” she said. “I knew in my heart that I couldn’t go home. And I found out that I was strong enough to do what had to be done.”
Chloe was going to be all right.
Ella smiled. Squeezed her sister-in-law’s hand. Told her she could stay as long as she liked, that she’d always be there for her, no matter what, and prayed that her brother would get his shit together.
* * *
JEFF CALLED BRETT four times over those same two weeks. In Boston. In Atlanta. And twice at home. They didn’t talk long. Only long enough for Brett to know that Jeff was slowly losing hope. He was drinking more.
And had mentioned a woman in his office on a couple occasions.
He’d somehow convinced himself, in spite of Brett’s warnings, that once he and Chloe slept together, she would come home.
With another two weeks of their lives gone, with no word from her, Jeff was running out of explanations for his wife’s behavior.
Brett was a bit surprised himself. He’d expected Chloe to leave with Ella that day from the cabin. But he’d also thought she’d be back home in Palm Desert within the week.
He hadn’t called Ella. Because he was pretty much obsessed with thoughts of her. He thought about her on the plane. In the airport. On the road. And even at the boardroom table, when a gesture, a sound, a smell or some other woman’s hair reminded him of her. He couldn’t trust himself to hold on to his resolve feeling that way. And to do anything else would be opening them both up to the nightmare of the past.
His mother seemed to be more absent than usual, as well. Used to getting a text or email at least once a day, he’d gone three in a row with no communication.
But when he’d finally called her, leaving a message insisting that she let him know she was okay, he received an immediate reply. Reminding him that she’d been in his house to see to the cleaners the day before.
He’d told her he’d seen Jeff. Whom she knew to be his ex-brother-in-law.
She’d never met him and didn’t respond.
He didn’t mention Ella to her. Didn’t mention the High Risk team at all. She didn’t, either.
And then on Saturday night, two weeks after he’d spent the night with his ex-wife, he saw her. He’d stopped in at the Bistro after a game of golf, not because he knew she’d be off her shift soon, but because they had the wine he liked, and no one knew him there.
No one but Ella.
His nerves tightened when he saw her car in the parking lot, and he almost pulled back out to the road and went to the little pub on the corner by his house instead. But then he thought about Jeff and figured he could ask Ella how Chloe was doing, and then leave her alone.
Determined to decline any invitation she might extend to join her for a glass of wine, Brett waited for his gaze to adjust from the bright sun to the restaurant interior before he walked all the way into the room.