Colin was not consistently cooperative. Some weeks he apologized and offered to attend counseling; other weeks he accused Nora of turning their son against him. He sent messages asking whether Reid was at the house, then objected when Nora refused to answer questions that were not about Oliver. His frustration was becoming public in a way the affair itself had not been.
The confrontation I had feared occurred outside Alder & Frame on a Friday evening in March. I had arrived to help Nora carry several large framed photographs into the shop before the exhibition. We were lifting a crate from the back of her car when Colin pulled up in a dark SUV. He stepped out without closing the door and walked toward us, his expression set.
"So it's true," he said. "You two have been seeing each other."
Nora lowered her end of the crate. "Colin, this is a bad time. Oliver is expecting you at seven."
"You have time to play house with him but not to talk to your husband?" Colin looked at me. "I told you to stay away from my family."
I kept both hands on the crate. "Your family's choices aren't mine to control. Nora asked me to help move these photographs. That's what I'm doing."
"You expect me to believe that's all?"
"You don't need to believe anything about me," I said. "You need to speak respectfully to Nora, especially when you're standing outside her business."
His face reddened. I thought for a moment he might step closer, but Nora moved in front of the crate, not between us like a shield but into her own space. Her voice was calm enough that I could hear how much effort it took.
"You don't get to show up at my shop and conduct my personal life as an interrogation," she said. "If this is about Oliver, we can talk. If it's about what you think I'm allowed to do after you betrayed me, the conversation is over."
Colin looked toward the window. Two customers were inside, waiting for Nora to open the door. He seemed suddenly aware that making the scene he had always accused other people of creating would not help him. He lowered his voice and said he wanted his family back, that he had made terrible decisions but did not deserve to be erased from his son's life.
"Nobody is erasing you," Nora replied. "You have your time with Oliver. You have his phone number. He knows you love him. But you keep using his name to demand things from me that have nothing to do with him."
Colin looked at me once more. I said nothing. A few seconds later he returned to his vehicle and drove away. Nora stood with her hands at her sides for a long time, breathing as though she had been running.
"I'm sorry," she said finally.
"You didn't invite him."
"I mean I'm sorry you had to stand there and listen."
"I can survive a conversation with an angry man. Are you okay?"