“I know.”
“Luke.”
“I know.”
He put down the dinosaur.
“Kate had been fighting with Mom forever. There was always something. Clothes. Boyfriends. Her job. Her wedding. When Kate moved to Oregon, Mom said Noah was isolating her.”
“And you believed that too.”
“I wanted to.”
“Why?”
Luke looked at Claire.
“Because the alternative was admitting Kate might have left us to get away from Mom.”
That answer contained more honesty than Claire expected.
Luke called at 10:18 p.m.
Kate answered on the third ring.
“Luke?”
“Hey.”
Claire sat beside him on the couch.
They had agreed she would stay.
“Everything okay?”
Luke swallowed.
“Mom shoved Ellie’s face into her birthday cake today.”
Silence.
Not surprise.
Just silence.
Luke noticed.
“So you heard?”
“Andrew texted.”
“Kate, why aren’t you surprised?”
Another pause.
Then his sister sighed.
“Because she did the same thing to Lucy.”
Luke frowned.
“Who?”
“My daughter.”
Luke stared straight ahead.
“You don’t have a daughter.”
Kate did not answer.
Claire felt cold.
Luke sat forward.
“What did you just say?”
Kate’s voice trembled slightly.
“I had a daughter.”
Luke’s entire body went rigid.
“What do you mean had?”
“She died.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Luke looked as though someone had struck him.
“When?”
“Before Noah.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Luke.”
“No. You don’t get to say that and then— When did you have a child?”
“I was nineteen.”
Luke stood.
“You were living at home.”
“Yes.”
“I lived there too.”
“You were in college.”
“You came to visit me.”
“I know.”
“How did I not know?”
Kate started crying.
Claire could hear it through the phone.
Luke stopped pacing.
His anger vanished.
“Kate.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. Don’t apologize. Just tell me.”
And she did.
At nineteen, Kate Bennett had become pregnant during her first year of community college.