All Fall Down by Megan Hart Page B

me.”
    “Don’t you want to help her?” Liesel cried, accusing. “Or would you rather pretend you didn’t know she exists, just like you did for the first nineteen years of her life?”
    Silence swirled after she said that. At least her husband looked a little bit ashamed, but she felt just as guilty for saying something so mean. It had been true, she saw that on his face. But still mean, and sometimes what saved a marriage wasn’t love or patience or mutual respect, but the ability to simply not be mean.
    “What do you think we should do?” Christopher said after a moment.
    “Well, you said you would get in touch with her mother, find out why she sent them here.”
    Christopher said nothing, which wasn’t strange. What was odd, though, was how easily and quickly his expression became blank. He’d put on a mask of Christopher’s face, but the man beneath it seemed like someone else.
    “It’s not like I can just call her up,” he said after a moment.
    “There has to be a way to get in touch with her. With them. Maybe you have to go out there, I don’t know.” Liesel paused, trying for honesty. “Look, it’s not like I’m all rah-rah-rah about you hooking up again with your ex-wife.”
    First he looked startled. Then guilty. That told her more than anything else, and a stone settled in her gut.
    “Until then—” she continued to push past what had risen up between them “—they can stay here.”
    “We don’t know anything about them.”
    Liesel frowned. “She’s your daughter. ”
    “She’s Trish’s daughter,” Christopher said.
    More silence.
    “I don’t blame you for thinking I’m a jerk,” he said after another few long seconds. “But this isn’t something we should just rush into. Anyway, who knows. Maybe she only wants to stay for a few days.”
    “We’ll see.” Liesel stood. “And I don’t think you’re being a jerk.”
    Before she could say anything else, a piercing scream ripped through the house. Christopher was on his feet before Liesel could even turn, through the door and into the hall. She heard another garbled scream and took off after him, catching up to him just as he hit the kitchen.
    Peace had gotten down from the stool and stood in the middle of the kitchen, eyes wide. She wasn’t the one screaming. That had come from upstairs. Sunny, then. There was a pounding of feet on the stairs, and Sunny flew into the kitchen, too, her bare toes squeaking on the tiles.
    “Oh…” She sagged in the doorway. “Oh, thank goodness. I got up, she was gone, I was confused. I thought they took her.”
    “Who took her? Where?” Liesel tried to catch Christopher’s eye, but he was looking away.
    Sunny shook her head, her long blond hair falling over her shoulders. She looked apologetically at Christopher and Liesel. Her face had been the color of chalk, but now her cheeks bloomed with pink.
    “I’m sorry. I was dreaming. I had a nightmare. And then I woke up, and Peace was gone. I’m sorry I scared you.”
    Peace burst into tears just as the patter of liquid on the tiles came from beneath the hem of her nightgown. Urine spread in a swiftly growing puddle around the little girl’s feet, then the soft plop of something worse.
    “Oops,” Liesel said.
    “What the—!” Christopher leaped across the room like he was going after a racquetball on the court to grab up a handful of paper towels. He tossed them onto the puddle, then took the entire roll and dropped to his knees. “Hey, kid, cut it out!”
    That’s when Peace threw up on his head.

Chapter 6
    “T his is all you brought?” Liesel looked over what Sunny had laid out on the guest bed.
    Heat settled in Sunny’s face again. It was bad enough that she’d embarrassed herself by screaming this morning when Peace had only been in the kitchen. Not stolen away by John Second to make sure Sunny understood how important it was to obey. It was worse that Peace had puked on Christopher and all over herself. The floor,