Page 3 of The Infinite Light of Dust

“Well . . .” I tried to respond through the hurt of her lying to me so easily.

Putting my own feelings aside, I didn’t know if I should ruin the surprise—if she would even be happy to see Phillips—or if she would want to be warned given the fact that everyone in the friend group just found out that she’s having an affair with my brother. Before I could think straight enough to decide, she spoke again.

“We’re pulling up. I’m coming right in.”

Kael sat up as I handed him back his phone.

“They’re here.”

“You should stay in here. We both should,” he said, nodding at the door. “This isn’t our business and Phillips doesn’t know anything about Fischer and Elodie yet.”

“Are you sure?” I perched on one of his knees. He wrapped his arms around me, but his body still felt stiff as a board.

“If he knew your brother was fucking his wife, your house wouldn’t be standing, and that’s a fact.”

His words rattled me, but they had to be true. Austin and Elodie . . . When? How? What the hell were they thinking? Not only was I still shocked from seeing the photo and them clearly staying the night together, but now she was acting like nothing had happened, which I guess to her, nothing had. I swear my head was going to explode, and we only had seconds before they’d come prancing through the door, totallynotexpecting Elodie’s husband to be here.

“As much as I want to stay out of it, I can’t—we can’t. What if they fight or something?” I asked Kael, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward my bedroom door. He planted his feet and grabbed his hoodie, and pressed it against my chest.

“Put this on, at least.” He looked down my body to my short pajama shorts and thin top. The last thing I was thinking about was my outfit, but I tossed the oversized hoodie, which came to my knees, over my head. Kael led me down the hallway. We passed the bathroom as the door to it and the front door opened at the same time.

“Karina! What’s going on?” Elodie’s voice was full of concern, and her doe eyes fell into relief as she saw me hand in hand with Kael. “You scared me!” she said, holding up the plastic bag in her hand. “We got the baby monitor before it sold out yesterday! And Austin even got them to give me an extra ten dollars off because the box is open and—” Her voice halted abruptly and her blue eyes widened as she looked at the figure behind me.

Austin came barreling in behind her, smiling and tossing his shoes off his feet before looking up. “What’s—”

“Phillip?” Elodie’s voice was barely above a whisper as she said his name.

She didn’t rush toward him and throw her arms around him like I had seen many wives welcoming home their husbands do. She stood still, her eyes frozen on him as he walked into the living room. It had never felt so small.

“El, that’s not the reaction I expected,” Phillips said to her.

There was a confusing mixture of warmth and iciness to his voice. His dark hair was still wet from the shower, a bit longer than the typical required buzz cut. He stood awkwardly, swaying his lower body slightly, as if they were meeting for the first time.

Elodie’s face was frozen for a few seconds before she snapped out of it and broke into a smile. Phillips wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her, lifting her feet off the ground. She yelped in pain, and he put her down.

“The baby,” she said, gently pushing at her husband’s chest to put some distance between them. “You have to be careful of the baby.”

Her direction was calm, but it wasn’t lost on me that the bottom of his jaw twitched as she took another step back, away from him.

My heart sank as I finally took in my brother. Austin looked like he was being burned alive. I couldn’t imagine how he felt, despite the chaos the two of them had caused. There were so many questions, so much confusion, but right then all I felt was his pain. I could see it, as clear as a cloudless sky; he loved her.

My brother was in love with Elodie.

How did I, his twin, not see this until now? Everything he was feeling in that moment was written on his face; the worry and pain in his blue eyes, the longing in his hands stretched out toward her, the helplessness he felt as he dropped them to his sides.

“Sorry, sorry.” Phillips’s hands went to Elodie’s stomach, and he rubbed it gently over her sweatshirt. Austin’s face was turning a sick shade of green.

“Let’s give them some privacy?” I suggested, and Elodie’s eyes darted to me.

“Yeah, I need to—” My brother was struggling to find the words.

“I’ll take you,” Kael offered. Austin looked relieved, but as his twin I could tell he was in some form of shock. I’d never seen him so speechless. “And you”—Kael looked my way—“you’re coming too.”

I wanted to tell him to piss off, that I wasn’t going to leave Elodie here with this man, but the man in question was her husband, so it didn’t make any sense for me to be this worried. None of what was happening did, so I followed Kael’s very direct demand and slid my shoes on, pushing my dead cell phone into the pocket of his hoodie. I’d have to charge it in Kael’s truck or wherever we were going.

I wanted to ask Elodie if it was okay to leave, but I didn’t want to make things worse or more tense between her and Phillips. Neither of them had moved, like they didn’t know what to do around one another, which was also pretty normal when a soldier came home after being gone awhile, and I’m sure having an audience wasn’t helping.

“I’ll be back home tonight, text me if you need anything,” I told Elodie as we made our way out the front door.

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