Tonight Daddy said he was going out with Auntie Benita, and Mommy didn’t fight him about it.

She had a handkerchief balled up in her hand, soaked through with the blood she kept coughing up.

I knew Mommy was going to heaven soon.

That was how Grandpa told me it would be, back when Grandma coughed up blood like this.

Daddy looked at Mommy, narrowed his eyes, and his voice went cold.

“Isa needs a whole family. A smart woman learns to look the other way.”

Mommy didn’t shield me and argue back the way she used to.

She just said, softly, “Fine. I’ll charge by the visit. Every night you spend with her is one million.”

Daddy laughed and wired her the money.

After that night, Daddy went out a lot, and every time, Mommy reminded him to send the money.

Mommy got so thin that her cheeks caved in, but her eyes were still bright.

She took me lots of places, introduced me to lots of people, and made me write my own name over and over.

She said she was going to leave everything to me.

I held her tight.

“I don’t want your things, Mommy. I just want you.”

Something dripped onto my face, and it was cold.

I looked up and saw that Mommy was crying.

“Isa, I’m so sorry. I only have three more months with you.”

Before Grandma left, she had smiled and said she was going up to heaven to be an angel.

Mommy must be going there too.

That was all right. There was no Daddy in heaven, so Mommy wouldn’t be sad anymore.

I counted on my fingers and blinked up at her. “Three months is enough. You can still take me on the kindergarten field trip.”

Right as I said it, Daddy came home with Auntie Benita.

Mommy always said Daddy was the Don, and very busy, so he usually came home late.

Today he was early.

Daddy smiled at me. “Isa, I brought you a present.”

I ran over, and Auntie Benita held out a little puppy.

I stopped, looked back at Mommy, and shook my head.

Auntie Benita hugged the puppy and suddenly started crying, like a puppy somebody had thrown away.

Mommy always said grown-ups don’t cry unless something hurts them deep inside.

I was about to comfort her when I heard Daddy’s cold voice.

“Charlotte Avery. Is this how you’ve been raising my daughter?”

Daddy was angry, and I was so scared that I stood there and didn’t dare move.

Mommy came and held me, and she was warm.

She patted my back gently and started to say something, but Daddy grabbed her face.

His grip was hard, and Mommy went pale and couldn’t get a word out.

It must have hurt so much.

His face was vicious, but the corner of his mouth was smiling.

“Let me guess. You’re the one who taught Isa to keep her distance from Benita.”

“What kind of person uses her own child as a weapon?”

Mommy’s chest was heaving, and the color rushed back into her face, angry and red.

Auntie Benita held the puppy out to me again.

Was Daddy squeezing Mommy because I wouldn’t take the puppy?

I grabbed it fast.

Auntie Benita smiled. “Isa, isn’t the puppy cute?”

I pressed my face into its fur and whispered that it was.

All at once Mommy found her strength. She shoved Daddy away, rushed over, and snatched the puppy out of my arms, her voice frantic.

“Isa can’t touch animals. She’s allergic to fur!”

My eyes were already red and itchy, I couldn’t stop sneezing, and my throat itched something awful.

Daddy froze and said nothing.

Auntie Benita looked even more upset than Mommy, and started crying again.

“Don, I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t. Charlotte never told me—”

Mommy started coughing again.

Daddy ignored her and went to wipe Auntie Benita’s tears.

Then he slapped Mommy across the face.

Her head snapped to the side.

“I knew you were low. I didn’t think you were this low. Using your own daughter to turn me against Benita?”

He shook his head, his voice ugly.

“You don’t deserve to be Isa’s mother.”

Mommy turned her back to him, and I saw her wipe the blood off her mouth with the handkerchief.

Then, slowly, she turned around.

Her face was different than before.

Other times when they fought, Mommy would get furious, so angry her eyes went red.

Now it was as if nothing had happened at all. She just looked at him, quiet.

Daddy paused, and he seemed uneasy. It took him a while before he said, “Don’t make the same mistake again.”

Then he took me to the hospital, and Mommy came too.

Auntie Benita got into Daddy’s car and sat beside him.

Mommy held me in the back seat, her face turned to the window.

Everything outside was running backward, as if a monster were chasing it.

At the hospital, the nurse put me on an IV and told me to be good and stay still.

Mommy said she would go buy my medicine, and then the big hospital room had only me in it.

I was a little scared. I wanted to call Daddy to stay with me, but he and Auntie Benita were out on the balcony.

They had their arms around each other, kissing.

I missed Mommy, because Mommy liked to kiss my face too.

I climbed down off the bed to go find her.

I knocked the IV stand over, and the needle popped out of my hand, and it really hurt.

People came running when they heard the noise, and Daddy and Auntie Benita came back in with them.

“What kind of parents are you?”

The nurse looked at the blood on my hand, furious. “You left a little kid all alone on an IV?”

I tried to explain it to her.

“Daddy didn’t mean to. He just went to play the kissing game with Auntie Benita.”

“She’s not my mommy. She’s only Auntie Benita.”

The room got really awkward.

Everyone kept sneaking looks at Daddy and Auntie Benita, afraid to make a sound.

Daddy gave me a vicious stare.

His eyebrows pushed up and then squeezed together, like a heavy mountain pressing down on my head.

I didn’t know whether I had said something wrong, and I didn’t dare ask.

He loosened his tie. “Don’t talk nonsense, kid.”

He swept his eyes over the people around him. “The rest of you aren’t children. I won’t bother spelling it out.”

They bowed and scraped and fled the room as if they couldn’t get out fast enough.

I wasn’t talking nonsense. They really had been kissing out there.

But Daddy was so angry now that I didn’t dare say anything else.

Back home, Daddy told me to go play in my room, because the grown-ups needed to talk.

I peeked through the crack in the door, scared they would pick on Mommy.

Daddy sat in the middle, and Auntie Benita pressed up against him and lit his cigar.

Mommy sat alone at the far end of the couch, a long way from them.

“Charlotte.” Daddy blew out a big mouthful of smoke. “I want Benita to move in.”

Mommy stared at him as if she hadn’t heard right.

Daddy said nothing, and just turned the glass in his hand.

Auntie Benita hooked her arm through his and smiled. “Charlotte, don’t take it the wrong way. It’s all for Isabella. She needs time to adjust.”

Mommy let out a cold laugh.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got the medical team lined up. They arrive next month. They owe me that much.”

Daddy didn’t look at her. He was busy studying the glass in his hand.

“They say there’s an eighty percent chance of a cure, but you never know. Best case, you get better. But if—”

He stopped, as if he had lost track of what he wanted to say.

After a moment, he spoke again.

“If you die, I want Benita to be Isa’s new mother. Letting her move in now is so Isa can get used to it early.”

I hid behind the door, blinking and blinking.

Die? What was die? Was Mommy going to die in three months?

I didn’t understand it, but Mommy must have, because she wasn’t surprised at all.

Mommy shook her head. “As long as I’m alive, that woman doesn’t set foot in this house.”

Daddy got angry all of a sudden and smashed the glass on the floor.

It shattered, and a shard cut Mommy’s calf, and the blood ran out.

I burst into tears and ran out of the room, screaming, “My cup!”

Mommy rushed over right away and scooped me up.

Auntie Benita came too. “Don’t cry, Isa. Auntie will buy you ten more just like it.”

I screamed at her to go away.

She didn’t understand anything.

That cup was a present from Mommy, and it was my favorite cup.

Daddy lost his temper, and the cup made Mommy bleed.

I didn’t like it anymore.

Auntie Benita shot me a quick glare, then turned and gave Daddy a wounded look.

Daddy put his arms around her, but his eyes slid sideways and stuck to the blood on Mommy’s leg.

He looked as if he were worried about Mommy, but what he said was not.

“Grow up, Charlotte. Think long-term. This is all for Isa.”

“I’ll give you a week to decide. Don’t disappoint me.”

Mommy thought about it, kissed me, and said calmly:

“I’ll give you my answer right now. Fine. Sign the beach house over to me, plus a hundred million, and I’ll agree.”

Daddy froze.

He looked a little hurt.

Was it because Mommy didn’t care about him anymore?

Before, when he didn’t come home at night, Mommy would be sad.

When she saw him with Auntie Benita, she would fight with him.

Now Mommy didn’t fight anymore, so why did he look hurt instead?

Daddy suddenly ground his shoe down on the shards, and the soles let out a thin shriek.

“Fine. I get it. So that’s all you’re worth.”

He lifted his head, and his eyes were a little red.

“We’ll do the paperwork tomorrow. I don’t care.”

Then Daddy left with Auntie Benita.

I held on to Mommy’s neck and looked at the shards all over the floor, and I felt sad.

The cup was broken, and you can’t glue it back together.

Daddy and Mommy were like that too.

For the kindergarten field trip, both Daddy and Mommy came.

But Auntie Benita came too, and I didn’t understand why.

The teacher had only said parents could come.

When we lined up, the rowdy boys circled around me.

“Isabella’s got two mommies! One takes Isa, one takes Bella.”

The teacher stopped them, but I was still sad.

Mommy wasn’t like Daddy. Daddy was the Don, and everybody was scared of him.

Mommy only had me. She only had two more months with me, and I couldn’t let anyone take Bella away.

I buried my face in her chest and whispered, “Mommy, can you make Auntie Benita go home?”

Mommy shivered and held me tighter.

Her face was wet, and it stuck against mine.

I licked it, and it was salty and bitter.

Mommy carried me over to Daddy.

“Marco, send Benita home. Just our family today. Please?”

Daddy gave a cold laugh and looked at her out of the side of his eye.

“What? The house is signed over, the money’s in your account, and now you’re backing out?”

Auntie Benita came closer, a cigarette between her fingers.

“Charlotte, you’re not well. The Don only brought me along just in case.”

She blew smoke at Mommy.

“If you collapse, the Don can only see to you, and I’ll be the one looking after Isa.”

Mommy’s body went stiff. It took her a while to say, “I’m doing fine today. I don’t need you.”

“Marco.” She looked at him, her voice low. “Send her home. Let’s have one day together. It might be the last one.”

When he didn’t answer, her voice started to shake.

“Please? Just take it as my last request.”

Daddy shrugged, his tone hard.

“Don’t try to bargain with me. Did you forget? I already bought out your right to say no.”

“What?” He stared at her. “Regretting it? Too late. You made your choice, so live with it.”

Mommy swayed and slowly closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she had steadied herself.

“Fine. Have it your way.”

Then she carried me off.

The whole way, she kept soothing me, pointing out scenery in the distance.

But I wasn’t happy.

I had been looking forward to this trip so much.

When Mommy told me Daddy was coming, I had been happy for a long time.

Why did it have to turn out like this?

The sky was as unhappy as me, gray and heavy, and then it started to rain.

The rain came down harder and harder.

I saw Daddy put up an umbrella, and Auntie Benita stood under it.

Mommy didn’t have one. She gathered me into her chest and used her body to keep the rain off me.

I waved at Daddy. “Daddy, come get us.”

Daddy heard me and started to come over, but Auntie Benita caught his arm.

Her makeup was running, and she said something to him.

Daddy looked up at the umbrella, then looked at us, then turned and walked off into the distance.

A gust of wind blew, and the rain got colder.

Mommy ran with me, looking for somewhere to shelter.

She was breathing hard, harder and harder, and then she couldn’t stop coughing.

Her throat made a dull, muffled sound, and her chest heaved so violently that it made my head ring.

I looked up and saw blood seep from the corner of her mouth, and then the rain washed it away.

Finally Mommy got us under an overhang.

Auntie Benita was already there.

She had a little mirror out, fixing her makeup and complaining. “Don, what were you spacing out about back there? My whole face got rained off.”

Daddy ignored her. He looked at the two of us, soaked through, and opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

He took out a handkerchief and came over to wipe my face, his voice thick.

“Why didn’t you even bring an umbrella? Is this how you take care of your daughter?”

Mommy didn’t say anything. The rain dripped off her hair onto the ground, as if her hair were crying.

“Daddy, there was only one umbrella in the car. Mommy packed it, but Auntie took it.”

Daddy froze and shut his mouth.

Auntie Benita leaned in. “Oh, sorry. The umbrella was too small. It only covered two people, so we couldn’t come get you.”

Then she reached for the handkerchief in Daddy’s hand, to wipe my face.

I snatched it away and used it to dry the rain from Mommy’s hair.

I didn’t want her touching me, because I hated her.

Daddy should have held the umbrella over Mommy, and Mommy should have held me, and that would have been just right.

It was Auntie Benita who didn’t belong.

While I wiped Mommy’s hair, I said, “Mommy, this isn’t fun. I want to go home.”

Mommy kissed me.

“Okay. I’ll take you home. I’ll take you to see Grandpa.”