Anna pulled out a chair.
“Please.”
Claire sat.
She kept her coat on, her bag still over her shoulder — not fully committed to staying.
She looked at me with an expression that was trying very hard to be neutral.
“Your mother and I knew each other when we were young,” I said.
“We were together for about two years.
I had to move away for work, and we lost touch.” I paused.
“I didn’t know, until today, that when she came to find me, my wife told her I had moved on.
That wasn’t true.
I never knew she had come.”
Claire’s eyes moved to Anna.
“You never told me that.”
“I didn’t know it was a lie until today,” Anna said.
“I believed what I was told.”
“And what does this have to do with me?” Claire said.
