The Border: Part One by Amy Cross

magically happens without any human involvement? Like everything else in this family.”
    “Huh.” He stared at her for a moment. “You’ve definitely seemed a little off lately.”
    She smiled flatly, but said nothing.
    “Have I done anything to -”
    “Shouldn’t you get going?” she asked him curtly. “I’m sure you’re required to get there before things can really get going. I imagine Tom and Candy will be pleased to see you.”
    “Tom and Candy?” He frowned. “Well, I guess…”
    Making his way around the tree, he tried again to kiss her, and again she stepped neatly out of the way.
    “Beth -”
    “Daddy!” Lucy called out, running to him with some baubles in her hands. “Can you put these up near the top for me?”
    “Of course,” he replied, taking the baubles and hooking them onto a few branches. “I wish I could stay home this evening, guys, and help with all of this. I always love when we do stuff as a family, but duty calls. Seriously, Lanegan would have me over the coals if I called in sick.” He waited for Beth to reply, but after a moment he realized she was deliberately and carefully avoiding eye contact, preferring to focus on adding more decorations to the tree. “Okay,” he said finally, leaning closer to try one more time to kiss her, before thinking better of it and heading to the door. “See you guys tomorrow!”
    “See you tomorrow,” Beth replied through gritted teeth.
    “Daddy! Daddy!” Lucy ran after him, out into the hallway.
    As she listened to Bob and Lucy talking at the front door, Beth tried to focus on the tree and block out everything else. She knew that in a couple of weeks’ time, the entire family would be filling the house, including Ben, and everyone would have to pretend to be excruciatingly friendly. There was a part of her that wanted to get Bob out of the house before then, to cut things off cleanly, but she still didn’t know how she was going to make her move. As she grabbed the stepladder and dragged it over to the tree, she heard the front door closing and realized that he was off, probably to meet up with the little bimbo from his office for another night of fun.
    “Mummy!” Lucy shouted, running back through and grabbing the angel from the shoebox. “Can you put her on top of the tree?”
    “It’s a little early,” she replied.
    “Please, Mummy!”
    “Fine.” Taking the angel, she looked at it for a moment. Blonde and with a big smile on its face, the damn thing momentarily reminded her of Candy from Bob’s office.
    “Can we give her a name?” Lucy asked.
    “Sure,” Beth muttered, climbing the stepladder so she could reach the top of the tree. “What do you want to call her?”
    “Candy!”
    Freezing for a moment, Beth looked down at her daughter.
    “That’s one of Daddy’s friend’s names, isn’t it?” the little girl asked. “I heard him talking to someone named Candy on the phone earlier!”
    “You did, huh?” she replied, feeling a sense of pure anger starting to rise up through her body until it seemed as if it was going to burst out through the top of her head. “Well, that’s lovely, isn’t it? I’m so glad Daddy has friends .” Climbing the steps, she raised the angel, ready to place her on top of the tree. “What exactly did you hear Daddy saying?”
    “Just that he’d see her later.”
    “So he was making plans?”
    “Can we get fake snow this year?”
    “Where was Daddy when you overheard him?”
    “In the bathroom.”
    “And was he talking kind of quietly?”
    “A little bit.”
    “Huh,” she replied, forcing herself to stay calm.
    “Are you going to do it?”
    “What?” It took a moment before she remembered the angel she was holding. “Right. Yeah, sure.”
    “She’s beautiful,” Lucy said with a smile. “I think Candy’s the prettiest angel ever. I love her!”
    “Yep,” Beth muttered. “She’s a stunner alright.” With that, she rammed the angel into place with such force that