She was not using her cane.
She crossed the linoleum quickly, steadily, with the easy stride of a woman who had never had a hip replaced. She took a mug from the cabinet. She dropped a chamomile tea bag into it. She glanced over her shoulder, once, toward the living room.
Then she opened her purse and took out a small pill bottle. She shook two tablets into the palm of her hand. She set them on the counter, picked up a spoon, and crushed them with the back of it, carefully, the way you'd crush a garlic clove.
She swept the powder into the mug with the edge of her palm.
She poured hot water over it. She stirred. She added a spoonful of honey.
And then Derek walked into the frame.
He stood beside his mother at the counter. He didn't speak. Neither did she. She held the mug up, and he looked at it, and gave a small nod.
She kissed her son's cheek.
I don't know how long I sat in that driveway. I remember the streetlight, and the tick of the cooling engine. I remember my own hand pressed flat against my chest, as if I could hold myself together by force.
I had known. I had known, the way you know a stranger is standing behind you.
But knowing is not the same as seeing your husband and his mother stand side by side in your kitchen, calm as a Sunday, and drug your tea.
The passenger door opened.
Marisol Vega slid into the seat beside me, still in her scrubs. She'd been my best friend since fourth grade. She was a pediatric nurse at Akron Children's, and she was also, I should say, Eli's godmother.
She took one look at my face, then at the phone, and held out her hand.
I gave it to her.
She watched the entire video without a word. When it ended, she handed the phone back and said, in a low, shaking voice, "I'm going to kill them."
"Marisol."
"I'm going to kill them. Slowly. With a garden hose."
"Marisol."
"Okay." She pulled in a breath. "Okay. What do you need?"
"I need Eli safe on the fourteenth."
"He's mine," she said instantly. "All night. He can have a sleepover with my kids and he'll never know a thing. Nora, what else?"