I looked at her.
“What would you like me to do?”
“Perhaps talk to him. Hear him out.”
“Dad, do you remember my twenty-seventh birthday?”
“Hear him out.”
He frowned.
“The year Kai got promoted?”
“Yes.”
Mom nodded.
“We apologized for forgetting. We sent you a gift.”
“I brought a cake that night.”
“We sent you a gift.”
She looked puzzled.
“A cake?”
“Chocolate. I put it in your refrigerator while everyone congratulated Kai. Nobody noticed. I took it home unopened.”
Dad set down his coffee.
“Why didn’t you say something?”
She looked puzzled.
“I did. I told you it was my birthday.”
Mom looked at the table.
“We thought the present made up for it.”
“I didn’t want a bigger present. I wanted you to remember I was there.”
Neither spoke.
“We thought the present made up for it.”
I stood.
“I’m not helping Kai explain this away. And I’m not discussing my marriage with him.”
