“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Joan heard Chloe demand as she neared the top of the stairs.
“If you’re going to yell, I’m going to leave,” Matt said with the kind of passive-aggressive calm that made Joan want to go back downstairs and punch him in his handsome face, put a dent in his perfect nose.
She stopped on the landing, straining to hear more of the conversation above the newly turned-on TV in the master bedroom.
“You had no right to take them without telling me,” Joan heard Chloe say.
“I had every right. I’m their father.”
“Is this the way it’s going to be?” Chloe asked.
“That’s up to you. You’re the one who’s being unreasonable.”
“I’mbeing unreasonable?”
There was a long pause.
“Look, Chloe,” Joan heard Matt continue. “You asked for this fight. All I want is to come home and for us to be a family again.”
“And you think that pulling stunts like this is going to help your cause?”
“Just trying to show you how complicated things can get.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning you need to think long and hard about what you’re doing to this family.”
“WhatI’mdoing,” Chloe repeated. “What about what you’ve already done?”
Joan could almost see Matt shrug. “I can’t change what’s happened. You’re responsible for what happens next.”
“I think you’d better leave.”
Another pause. “Next move is up to you, Chloe. But I wouldn’t wait too long, if I were you.”
“Are you threatening me?”
Joan heard the incredulousness in Chloe’s voice, followed by the snicker in Matt’s. The next thing she heard was the sound of the front door slamming shut.