Children asked them because they did not know they were forbidden.
Edward took the photograph from Lilly.
“No.”
The honesty startled Maria more than anger would have.
Lilly climbed into the chair beside his desk.
“Why?”
Edward looked toward the garden.
“Because I lost too much.”
Lilly hugged Bunny against her chest.
Then she said, “You still have some.”
Edward’s eyes shifted toward her.
She pointed at the photograph.
“Ellen.”
Then toward the garden.
“Her bench.”
Then at Maria.
“Mommy.”
Then at herself.
“Me.”
Maria could not speak.
Edward stared at Lilly for a long time.
Finally he said, “That is a very aggressive accounting method.”
Lilly smiled because she had no idea what that meant.
Edward smiled because she didn’t.
Later that evening, after Maria had finished cleaning, Edward stopped her near the front hall.
“How long have you been sleeping on your couch?”
Maria went rigid.
She had never told him that.
Edward seemed to read the question on her face.
“Lilly talks.”
Maria exhaled.
“That is not your concern, Mr.
Vance.”
“No.
It isn’t.”
She waited.
He looked toward the office.
“I have been informed in considerable detail that your couch makes a noise like a sick duck.”
Maria covered her face with one hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“She tells everyone everything.”
“So did Ellen.”
The words landed differently now.
Edward looked down at his hands.
“I spent a long time believing that needing people was a weakness.”
Maria said nothing.
“I was wrong.”
It was perhaps the hardest sentence she had ever heard him say.
He did not offer to rescue Maria.
He did not hand her a fortune or turn her life into a fairy tale overnight.
What he did was more practical.
He adjusted her working hours so she no longer had to choose between keeping her job and caring for Lilly when childcare failed.
He increased her pay after realizing it had not been reviewed in years.
When Maria protested that she had never asked for special treatment, he told her it was not special treatment to pay someone fairly.
And he began treating the rest of the household differently too.
