I turned my head slowly toward her.
“Us?”
Her chin lifted. “You heard me.”
Marcus muttered, “Diane, stop.”
“No,” she snapped. “I’m not going to sit here while she acts like Mother Teresa because she wears scrubs. You’re never here, Lauren. You work nights, you sleep days, you walk around like everyone should worship you because you’re tired.”
Something cold and clean moved through me.
“You came into my house,” I said. “You got drunk with my husband. You slept in my guest bed. And my child froze on the floor.”
“Your child?” Diane laughed once. “That’s exactly the problem. He’s always your child when you want sympathy. But when Marcus is stuck doing everything alone while you play hero at the hospital, suddenly it’s our responsibility.”
Marcus stood, fumbling for his jeans on the floor. “Lauren, please. Let me explain.”
“No,” I said. “You will answer one question.”
His face crumpled with relief, thinking maybe there was still a way out.
I let him think that for half a breath.
“Who turned off the heat?”
Silence.
Diane looked toward the window.
Marcus froze with one leg in his jeans.
I took one step closer. “Who turned off the heat, Marcus?”
“It was too hot,” Diane said.
Marcus closed his eyes.
“It was November,” I said.
“We were drinking,” Diane snapped. “The house felt stuffy. I turned it down. I didn’t know the kid was on the floor.”
“The kid has a name.”
She rolled her eyes.
That was the moment my marriage died completely.
Not when I saw them in bed.
Not when I saw the ring beside her earrings.
Not even when Marcus failed to answer me.
It died when my sister rolled her eyes at the suffering of my five-year-old son.
I pulled my phone from my scrub pocket.
Marcus noticed immediately. “What are you doing?”
“Documenting.”
His face changed. “Lauren, don’t.”
I took pictures.
The wine bottles. The glasses. The ring. Diane in my sheets. Marcus half-dressed and pale. The thermostat in the hallway reading fifty-eight degrees. The kitchen floor where Noah’s little denim jacket still lay folded like a pillow. The pizza boxes, the wine cups, the pink shoes.