And over time, the girls trusted him too.
Maybe that was why the strange behavior bothered me so much when it started.
At first, it was little things.
I would walk into the kitchen and Mike and the girls would suddenly stop talking.
Sometimes Emily would quickly hide something behind her back.
One evening, I came downstairs and found all three of them whispering near the hallway.
The moment they saw me, they separated.
“What are you three doing?”
Emily smiled too quickly.
“Nothing.”
Mike laughed.
“Apparently I’m not allowed to know either.”
But I knew he was lying.
A few days later, I noticed the bathroom door had been locked for almost twenty minutes.
When Mike finally came out, he was holding an old towel and a small screwdriver.
“What were you doing in there?”
“Fixing something.”
“What?”
“The sink.”
He kissed my forehead and walked downstairs before I could ask anything else.
That should have been the end of it.
