Elena Ashwood's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Elena knelt on the bedroom floor and pulled another box from under the bed. She was looking for Penny's baby photos, the ones she wanted to label while her hands still worked well. Adrian was at the store. Penny was napping. Elena had maybe an hour. She lifted the lid and found Adrian's old papers instead — tax forms, a broken watch, a folded shirt. Then her fingers brushed something stiff near the bottom. A sealed letter. Her name was not on it. Adrian's was, written in a slanted hand she had never seen before. She held the letter for a long moment. Her thumb pressed the wax. She did not break it. Instead she set it on the rug and reached deeper into the box, where she had hidden her own secret — a half-knit sweater for Penny's stuffed polar bear, loose threads dangling, meant for a birthday two years away. She tucked the letter inside the folded knit and pushed the box back under the bed. She would ask Adrian tonight. She had to. If she was running out of time, she could not afford a stranger's handwriting in her house. She stood and crossed to the carved bookshelf by the window. She slid the unfinished sweater behind a row of books on the lowest shelf, the letter still folded inside it. Her hand shook once. She pressed it flat against the wood until it stopped. Penny's door creaked open down the hall. Small feet padded toward her. Elena turned, smiling before she meant to, and the letter waited behind her like a held breath. Penny held up her arms. Elena lifted her and kissed her warm hair. "Did you sleep, bug?" Penny nodded into her shoulder. Over Penny's curls, Elena watched the bookshelf. The sharp slant of that handwriting stayed behind her eyes. A woman's hand, she thought. Confident. Practiced. Not a doctor. Not a friend she knew. She set Penny down and poured her some milk, and her hands stayed steady. They had to. She would wait for Adrian. She would watch his face when she asked. Tonight the pretending had a new job. That evening, after Penny was tucked in, Elena pulled the letter from behind the books and brought it to Adrian at the kitchen table. She set it down between them. "I found this," she said. Adrian's face went pale. He reached for the letter, then stopped. "I can explain," he said, and could not meet her eyes. Elena sat down across from him. The kitchen clock ticked. Whatever he was about to say, she knew already that her hour with Penny had just gotten shorter, and her list of things to fix had just grown by one.