The New Husband(64)

“Why is he here?” she asked.

Nina tensed. “Young lady, you do not speak to Simon—or anyone for that matter—like that. Is that understood?”

“She’s upset,” Simon said. “And here I am, everyone’s favorite scapegoat.”

For once he sounded wounded. There may have even been tears in his eyes, and for good reason. The war between Simon and Maggie must have been taking an emotional, perhaps even a physical toll on him. Nina comforted Simon with a quick hug. She felt an irrational fear bubble up that he could smell Hugh on her, as if they’d had an affair instead of a phone call.

“Where do you think it could be?” Nina asked, referencing the missing lab report. “Did you retrace your steps?”

Maggie made daggers with her eyes. “I put it in my backpack, and then when I went to hand it in to my teacher, it wasn’t there. Where would it be?”

“Um, your room,” Connor said. “Have you been in there? It’s like a hurricane went through it.”

“Yeah, because I’ve been looking for my stupid lab report.”

“Well, how about printing off another copy.”

“It’s late so we already got a zero.”

“Then why do you even need to find it?”

“Because I want to make sure I didn’t misplace it, which I didn’t, dummy.”

“Maggie, that’s enough!” Nina snapped.

Maggie shook off the rebuke like a boxer who had taken a jab to the chin.

“Whatever,” she said, sliding off the couch. “It doesn’t even matter now.” Off she went, storming upstairs to her room, slamming the door.

Nina followed, and nearly had a heart attack when she entered Maggie’s bedroom. “Hurricane” wasn’t quite the right description—it was more like a hurricane had detonated a bomb. Drawers were open, papers were everywhere, and clothes from the closet now carpeted the floor.

“Oh, Maggie,” Nina said, bending down to start the cleanup. Usually she’d have made it her daughter’s responsibility, but not tonight, poor thing. She was obviously a wreck.

Maggie rested on her bed, facedown, head under a pillow, while Nina gathered up loose papers from the floor. If she hadn’t had her head turned to the wall, Nina might not have seen the flash of white showing at the bottom of Maggie’s desk. Pulling the desk away from the wall, Nina watched as a stack of stapled papers fell to the floor. She examined the cover page with widening eyes:

The Effects of Stress on Body Temperature

Lab Report by Maggie Garrity and Benjamin Odell

D-Block, Ms. Stone



“Is this what you’ve been looking for?” Nina asked, holding up the report for Maggie to see. Bolting from her bed like she’d been electrocuted, Maggie snatched the report from Nina’s hands.

“Where did you find this?” she demanded.

“It was behind your desk,” said Nina.

“No. No, it was not. I looked.”

“Behind your desk? Really? You checked there?”

Maggie seemed suddenly unsure.

“Well, that’s where it was,” Nina said.

“I don’t believe it!” Maggie spat out the words. “He must have put it there.”

“Maggie!” Nina didn’t mean to raise her voice, and felt even worse when her daughter flinched. Simon appeared in the doorway, drawn to Maggie’s room by the commotion.

“What’s going on?” he asked, the hurt still lingering in his eyes.

“This is what’s going on.” Maggie, red-faced, her jaw tight and teeth clenched, snatched the paper from Nina’s hand and held it up for Simon to read the front page. Nina had not seen her daughter on the verge of a complete meltdown since her toddler years, but felt certain one was coming.

Simon read the cover page, nonplussed. “What’s this?” he asked. “Is it the missing lab report?”

“It was behind her desk,” Nina explained. “It must have fallen there.”

“It didn’t fall there, Mother,” Maggie said with a growl in her voice. “He put it there.”

“Enough!” Nina’s booming voice bounced off the bedroom walls. Now she, not Maggie, was the one about to have a meltdown. It was everything—Glen, Wendy Cooper, Teresa, Simon, Maggie, Hugh, all of it, bubbling up into one volcanic eruption. “That is enough! Enough with these accusations! Maggie, what in heaven has gotten into you?”

“I put the report in my backpack,” Maggie said, tears in her eyes, her voice cracking with emotion. “I remember doing it.”

“Well, you must have thought you did. Again, I’m asking: Did you specifically look behind your desk while you were tearing your room apart?”

The place Maggie looked was at her feet.

“I think so … I don’t remember.”

“I’ll take that as a no,” Nina said. “Maggie, I understand that you miss your dad. I get it. I really do. But I’m running out of patience with you. I don’t know how to help you get over the fact that Simon is a part of our lives now. Do you need a new therapist? Go see mine if you want. I’ll call in the morning. I’m at a loss here, but we have to do something.”

Nina felt utterly defeated. Just as her life was finally coming together after so much heartbreak, Maggie seemed determined to tear it apart. When she’d agreed to these new living arrangements, Nina never considered her relationship with her daughter would hit such a nadir.