The night was quiet.
Kiana lay listening to the trees rustling outside the window and a distant car horn on the interstate.
Darius’s breathing was steady, almost silent.
She knew he wasn’t asleep.
She felt it.
And she knew that everything would change very soon because in five years of marriage, she had learned to read him not just through his eyes and tone.
She had learned to anticipate.
And the premonition now was so clear she wanted to laugh.
Well, let them try, she thought.
She would wait.
The morning started with a phone call.
Kiana had just gotten out of the shower when she heard Darius’s phone ringing in the entryway.
He grabbed the receiver quickly—too quickly—and his voice sounded guarded.
“Yeah, Mom. Hey.”
Kiana wrapped herself in her robe and listened.
The walls in their modest apartment building were thin.
You could hear almost everything.
“Today? Uh, I don’t know,” Darius said.
He went silent, apparently listening to his mother.
“Okay, fine. Come around six.”
Kiana stepped out of the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel.
Darius stood by the mirror, buttoning his shirt, pretending not to notice her gaze.
“Your mother is coming over?” she asked calmly.
He shrugged.
“Yeah, she wants to talk about some of her business.”
