“What?”
“Your phone case, Ellie. Will pointed at it and said ‘Dad’s there.’ I want to see it.”
I watched her face change — not confusion exactly, but the specific recalibration of someone realizing, in real time, that something they’d believed was hidden had just become visible.“Hannah,” she said slowly, “I can explain.”
“That’s not what I asked,” I said. “I asked you to show me your phone.”
She handed it to me, her hands not quite steady.
The case was exactly what Will had pointed at — two intertwined hands, intimate, close-cropped. Marcus’s watch. Marcus’s ring, the new one, the one I’d given him nine days ago.
Ezoic
The case had clearly been recently ordered. I could see the slight gloss of fresh printing, the kind that hasn’t yet developed the small scuffs and wear of months of daily handling.
“When did you order this?” I asked.
“Hannah—”
“When, Ellie.”
