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whoever else might be in need of a good meal. Why don’t you join us tomorrow?”
    I shifted Lila on my hip. “Oh, well, I don’t—”
    “Very informal affair,” she cut me off. Steamroller, indeed. “My daughter-in-law Maggie will be there. The lawyer. You could ask her some questions.”
    “It’s just…” I glanced down at Drake. He leaned against my leg, heavy with exhaustion, and it hit me all over again. One more day . “I’m not sure I’m going to be in the mood for company tomorrow.”
    Jane nodded, her face full of pity. “Well, if you change your mind…” She scribbled on the receipt some more, her address this time, and handed it to me. “Drop by for a visit sometime, let me know how you’re holding up. Okay?”
    Fighting back yet another onslaught of tears, I tucked her information into my purse and put on my brave smile, the one that fooled the world into believing I had everything under control. Until now, anyway. Clearly, this woman who’d known me for less than two hours didn’t buy it for one second.

Chapter 5
     
     
    I woke up the next morning with a heavy sense of dread. Time had run out. This was happening, today, whether I liked it or not. Alan had called the night before to ask if I’d pack up a few things for the kids. Enough to last a few weeks. They’d probably never come back to the house in Redwood Hills. By the time they did come back, if they ever did, the only home they’d ever known would just be a memory. Maybe their childhoods were destined to mirror mine—thorns in Mom’s side as she dragged them around, moving from place to place, never settling long enough to build a sense of home . Drafty rooms and empty fridges and listening, always listening, for the sound of her key in the door. Loneliness.
    I didn’t want that for them.
    “Where we going?” Lila asked after breakfast. She and Drake were jumping on their beds, giggling, as I packed their tiny clothes into suitcases.
    “On a trip to your grandma and grandpa’s house,” I replied, trying to inject some enthusiasm into my voice, for their sakes.
    “Will Mommy be there?” Drake asked.
    “Not this time.”
    Lila flopped down on her butt. “Grandma and Grandpa have a black cat named Mitzy.”
    It amazed me, how she remembered things like that. She’d only been to her grandparents’ house twice, and the last time was over Christmas. She remembered my cat Tabitha too, even though she got hit by a car and died almost a year ago.
    The doorbell rang a few minutes later, causing all three of us to freeze. The grandparents had arrived. Awesome.
    “There they are,” their grandmother trilled when we greeted them at the front door. She held out her plump arms to the twins. “Come give Grandma a big hug.”
    Lila skipped right up to her, but Drake hung back with me, eyeing the grandfather warily. He had a bald spot, like Alan, only his hair was white instead of brown. When he smiled, his teeth looked unnaturally bright and straight. Dentures. These two were in their late-sixties, at least. Seniors, not stand-in parents.
    The grandmother stood up straight and gave me the once over, her joyous expression sharpening into a critical one. I knew she disapproved of me not because of something I said or did, but because I looked like my mother. And my mother, in their eyes, was a wanton whore who had manipulated their precious son into marriage because she wanted his money. And maybe they were right. Before Alan came along, we’d lived in a leaky old bungalow, scraping by on her dental assistant salary. A guy in an expensive suit who drove a convertible, even a mostly bald guy with a paunchy stomach, must have seemed pretty damn attractive.
    Luckily, the twins—with their brown eyes and round faces—looked more like Alan, so the grandparents could overlook any genes they shared with Mom and me.
    “Where’s your father?” the grandmother asked me.
    “In Pinehill Cemetery,” I replied without missing a beat. She