“She did. So you do know.”
“Of course I know.”
“I guess I thought, if you knew, you would have done something about it.”
I felt that familiar prickling at the back of my neck. I didn’t want to get into this with her, but couldn’t let her get away with it. “I’m doing something about it, Fiona. Rest easy.”
“Are you moving her to another school?”
“Fiona, she only told me about this last night. I don’t know what it was like where you went to school, but in Milford the schools aren’t open on weekends. But I’ll be getting in touch with the principal first thing Monday morning.”
Fiona glared at me a moment, then looked away. When she met my eyes again, she seemed to have made an effort to soften her look. “I had an idea that might preclude you from having to do that, Glen.”
“What might that be?”
“Marcus and I talked about the possibility of Kelly going to school in Darien.”
He gave me another uncomfortable look. It seemed clear this idea had not originated with him.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
She nodded, as though she anticipated my reaction. “I can understand your reluctance. But let’s look at the situation objectively. All the stress Kelly is being subjected to now can’t be good for her academic performance. If she were in another school, where the other students don’t know her situation, or that other boy, it would be a fresh start for her.”
“It’ll pass,” I said.
“And,” she continued, ignoring me, “there are several schools within a few miles of our place that come very highly recommended. Their test scores are far superior to the results being achieved in the public schools. Even if Kelly had not suffered such a tragedy, were not being subjected to this harassment at her school, it would be an alternative worth considering. These are good, solid institutions with impeccable credentials. Many of Fairfield County’s more prominent families have enrolled their children in these schools.”
“I’m sure they can afford them,” I said.
Fiona shook her head. “Money’s not a problem, Glen. I’ll look after any tuition-related expenses.”
I thought I glimpsed something in Marcus’s face at that moment. I told Fiona, “I think it would be a bit much for Kelly to commute from here to Darien every day for school.”
She smiled slyly at me. “Kelly would be with us through the week, of course, and back here with you on weekends. We’ve already been talking to a designer, someone Marcus knows, about making over the room Kelly stays in when she sleeps over now. She’d have a place for her computer, a desk where she could do her homework, and-”
“You’re not taking her away from me,” I said bluntly.
“Not at all,” Fiona said, feigning offense. “I can’t believe you’d think such a thing. I’m trying to help you, Glen. You and Kelly. Believe me, I know how hard it is to raise a child on your own. I’ve been there. I understand what it must be like for you, trying to juggle work and being a father. You’re probably only just getting back into the swing of things, but you wait and see. You’re on a job site, outside of town, you’re waiting for a delivery or an inspection or a client-I don’t know, I don’t pretend to understand what you do-and suddenly realize you have to be at the school to pick Kelly up.”
“I’ll have to roll with it,” I said.
Fiona reached out and touched one of my folded arms, quite a gesture for her. “Glen-I know you and I, we haven’t always seen eye to eye. But what I’m proposing here, it’s in Kelly’s best interest. Surely even you can see that. I’m trying to give her every possible opportunity.”
The thing was, it wasn’t an entirely terrible idea, if I could swallow my pride about who’d be paying for it- there was no way I could afford to send Kelly to a private school here or anywhere else. And if I believed Fiona’s motives were genuine, I might have been willing to entertain the proposal. But I couldn’t help but feel this was an attempt on her part to drive a wedge between my own daughter and me. With Sheila gone, Fiona wanted control over her granddaughter.
“I told you,” Marcus said to his wife. “I told you this would come across as too pushy.”
“This really doesn’t involve you, Marcus,” she said. “Kelly is my granddaughter, not yours. There’s no blood connection.”
He looked my way, as if to say, I know what you’re going through, pal.
“I am involved,” Marcus insisted. “Kelly would be coming to live with us. ” He glanced at me again and clarified. “Through the week. And I’m okay with that, but don’t say it doesn’t involve me, goddamn it. Don’t say that for one second.”
“Kelly’s staying with me,” I said.
“Well,” Fiona said, not accepting defeat, “clearly you need some time to think about it. And of course, we’ll want to see what Kelly has to say. She might like the idea very much.”
“It’s my call,” I reminded her.
“Of course it is.” She patted my arm again. “Where is the little princess, anyway? I was thinking we could at least take her on a little excursion for the afternoon-maybe to the Stamford mall. Get her a new winter coat or something.”
“I think Kelly should stay at home today,” I said. “The thing is, something’s happened, something I haven’t even had a chance to tell Kelly about yet, and I don’t know how she’s going to react, but I think she’s going to be very upset.”
“What?” Marcus was frowning. Probably anticipating his wife lighting into me again, whatever the problem.
“You know Sheila’s friend Ann? She has a daughter named Emily who’s friends with Kelly?”
Fiona nodded. To Marcus, she said, “You remember her. She had the purse party here.”
Marcus looked blank.
“I can’t believe you don’t remember. She was a real dish,” Fiona said with more than a hint of disapproval. To me, “What about her?”
“We saw her only last night. Kelly had gone over for a sleepover. But Kelly called me to pick her up early, she wasn’t having a good time, and sometime after that-”
“Daddy!”
The three of us turned our heads toward the stairs as Kelly screamed.
“ Daddy, come here! Quick! ”
I took the stairs two at a time and was in her bedroom a good ten seconds before either Fiona or Marcus could get there. Kelly was at her desk, still in her yellow pajamas, perched on the edge of her chair, one hand on the mouse, the other pointing at the screen. She was on one of the sites where she chats with her friends.
“Emily’s mom,” she said. “It’s about Emily’s mom-”
“I was going to tell you,” I said, getting my arm around her and giving Marcus and Fiona a look that said Get out of here. They retreated. “I just found out myself, honey-”
“What happened?” There were tears in Kelly’s eyes. “Did she just die?”
“I don’t know. I mean, yeah, I guess she did. When I called their house this morning-”
Kelly squirmed in my arms. “I told you not to call!”
“It’s okay, honey. It doesn’t matter. I thought it was Emily’s mom who answered, but it was her aunt, her mother’s sister. She told me that Mrs. Slocum had died.”
“But I saw her. Last night. She wasn’t dead then!”
“I know, sweetheart. It’s a shock.”
Kelly thought a moment. “What should I do? Should I call Emily?”
“Maybe later, okay? Emily and her dad, they need some time alone.”
“I feel all weird.”
“Yeah.”
We sat there for what seemed a very long time. I held on to her, cradling her in my arms as she cried.
“My mom, and now Emily’s mom,” she said softly. “Maybe I’m, like, a bad luck charm or something.”
“Don’t say that, sweetheart. Never say that. It isn’t true.”
When she stopped sobbing, I knew I needed to broach the subject of our visitors. “Your grandmother and
