The doorbell rang at exactly 6:15 on Christmas Eve, slicing through the warm hum of conversation in our dining room like a knife through butter. I was in the middle of fussing over the last details of the holiday table—straightening the burgundy napkins I’d ironed twice, nudging a pinecone centerpiece a fraction of an inch—when that sound pierced the comfortable bubble I’d spent all day building. “Are you expecting someone else?” Damian asked from his spot at the head of the table, barely looking up from his phone.
At seventy-one, my husband had perfected the art of appearing busy while doing absolutely nothing. His salt-and-pepper hair was slicked back the way he’d worn it for forty years, and his reading glasses perched low on his nose gave him the kind of faux-professorial air he loved. Distinguished, he called it.
I called it theatrical. “No one I know of,” I replied, wiping my hands on my apron. The scent of rosemary and garlic from our Christmas roast filled the air, mingling with the piney fragrance from the tree in the corner and the faint wax smell of the candles I’d lit along the buffet.
Outside, Portland’s winter twilight pressed against the windows, all cold blue shadows and the promise of snow that hadn’t quite committed. Everything was perfect. Or at least, it looked that way.
Alina, my daughter-in-law, looked up from her wine glass with that carefully curated expression of mild annoyance she’d perfected in the five years since she married my son, James. “Probably carolers,” she said, her voice edged with boredom. “Just ignore them.
They’ll go away.”
At thirty-four, Alina had the kind of sharp, camera-ready beauty that photographs well but feels cold in person. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a sleek twist, not a strand out of place. The deep red dress she wore probably cost more than I spent on groceries in two months.
She’d been checking her reflection in the stainless steel of my serving spoons all evening, angling them just so to use as a mirror. The doorbell rang again, longer this time. More insistent.
Whoever it was, they weren’t giving up. “I’ll get it,” I said, already moving toward the hallway. James, my forty-three-year-old son, was deep in conversation with his father about some investment opportunity I didn’t understand and probably couldn’t afford.
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