He heard the shriek when she saw Eduardo. Carlos cringed. What had he done?

“Ed, what did you do?” He could hear the shrill in her voice.

“Dad shaved mom’s head, so I made her shave mine.”

“He shaved your mother’s head?” Her voice shook with the underlying tones of understanding, jealousy, and anger. But the anger prevailed as it hissed through what he knew were gritted teeth.

“All of her hair fell out,” Clara added as she hung up her backpack.

“I can’t believe you did that. What does your father think?”

“I took my cue from him,” Ed said just as Carlos walked through the door.

“Oh my God!” Her voice stabbed him in the chest. “What in the hell did you do?”

Carlos swallowed hard. “I shaved off my hair.”

“Why?”

“I was being supportive.”

“It’s horrible.” The color in her cheeks rose, and he knew it wasn’t just the hair. She was mad he’d gone to Madeline in a time of need.

“Thanks, dear,” he said shutting the door and hanging up his coat on one of the pegs aligned on the wall. “Where are your parents?”

“They’re in the living room, waiting for my family to get home and have dinner. You’re late.” Her voice had dropped into almost a whisper, but the tears forming in her eyes didn’t diminish her disgust with what he’d done.

“I know. I’m sorry.” He kissed her gently and held his lips to hers, wanting to make the pain of the kiss he’d laid on Madeline’s lips go away.

She pushed against him and stepped away. “We are going to talk about this later.”

“I know.” He passed by her and headed toward the living room to welcome her parents. Perhaps if he made them feel welcome and happy to be in his home, he’d be less likely to be in trouble later, but he was sure that was still coming.

Her mother didn’t have too much to say, which was amazing since the woman was a gossip. Her father, on the other hand, usually never spoke, but during dinner he had plenty to say. And the one thing he’d brought up was grandchildren. Grandchildren of his own.

He and Kathy hadn’t even approached the subject of children. In fact, Carlos thought, he had his children. It had never been in his plans to have more. But when her father mentioned it, the hope on her face made his chest ache.

It was well past ten before her parents left. He turned off Christian’s light. He’d fallen asleep in his clothes, he was so tired. Carlos left him.

He moved into Clara’s room to tuck her in next.

“Will mom’s hair grow back in?” Clara asked.

“I think so. When the cancer is gone for sure and they can let her stop taking her medication, it should come back.”

“I think she looks funny.”

“Don’t tell her that.”

“I won’t.” Clara snuggled into her sheets, and Carlos pulled them up around her chin. She reached up and grabbed his hand. “She’s not going to die, is she?”

“Not until she’s a very old woman.”

“Thank you, Daddy, for taking care of her.” Clara smiled up at him and then turned onto her side and closed her eyes.

Carlos sat there for a moment longer and then kissed her on the head.

Eduardo was looking in the mirror when Carlos made it to his door. He watched for a moment as he ran his hand over his head.

“Feels funny, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” his son said, still examining himself. “I have a scar on my head.”

“You fell when you were about two. Cracked it on the coffee table.”

“Coffee table? We didn’t have a coffee table.”

“Not after you cracked your head open on it.”

Eduardo nodded. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

“It’ll be all grown back in before you know it.”

He nodded, turning his head from side to side, examining it further in the mirror. “I’ll keep it like this until all of Mom’s grows back. That’s only fair.”

“That’s mighty nice of you.” He walked fully into the room. “I think it meant a lot to your mom.”

“I want her to know she’s not alone.”

“I think she knows that.” Carlos turned down the sheets on Eduardo’s bed and sat down. “She’s going to be okay. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but I’m still freaked out. She’s skinny, pale, bald,” he said, throwing his hands in the air. “She looks so different.” He shook his head. “I hope she doesn’t notice when I stare at her because she looks like a stranger.”

“I think she feels like a stranger.”

“I just can’t wait until she’s all better. I don’t like seeing her like this.”

Tears threatened Carlos’s voice. He took a moment to collect himself. Could a father be more proud of a teenage son? “I know. It’s only been a few months. In a few more she’ll be stronger. In a few more after that she’ll be able to have reconstructive surgery, and that’ll make her feel better.”

“I just can’t believe Matt left.” He shook his head again and fell down onto the bed next to his father. “Why did he do that to her?”

So many reasons raced through Carlos’s head. But the main one stuck. He wondered if Matt had ever really loved Madeline, or if he’d just taken her in as a sign to Carlos that he too could have what Carlos had. He’d always been that way when it had come to Carlos’s family. “I don’t know.”

“But it’s like she didn’t even care anyway. I don’t even think it upset her. She was more upset when we told her you were getting married.”

The twisting in his gut was back. Just when everything should have been falling into place, it was falling apart.

“You’d better get some sleep. I love you.”

“I love you too, Dad.”

Carlos turned off the light and trudged toward his own room and the wrath he assumed was waiting for him.

Kathy was in the bathroom, and he could hear her going through her nightly ritual with a little more zeal than usual. Containers clanked and water ran on high. After a thud came a string of curses. She must’ve hit her hand on a drawer.