“What exactly did your mother tell you?”
Karen rubbed a thumb around the handle.
“She said she wanted to talk privately after the babies came.”
“About Leo?”
“Mostly Leo.”
“Why him?”
Karen looked toward the sink.
“I don’t know.”
“Did she use the word family?”
Karen nodded.
“She says that word when she wants something to sound settled.”
Karen put the mug down.
“She also said I should be there because I am his aunt.”
I waited.
“She did not tell me what she expected me to say.”
“Did she ask you to take him anywhere?”
Karen’s eyes lifted quickly.
“No.”
“Did she ask you to meet her somewhere?”
wait at the hospital.”
“When?”
“She said she would tell me.”
I glanced at the folded paper beside her plate.
“What’s that?”
“My parking receipt from yesterday.”
She picked it up and folded it once, then again.
“She told me to keep it.”
