Lucinda was awake as well as the rest of the household, it seemed. Neither her or her husband had gone to bed yet, and Lucinda was in the kitchen with a glass of water when she heard Kelsey yelling from inside of his study. It happened so suddenly, so loudly, that she accidentally dropped her glass and made a mess of water all around her feet. Luckily, the cup was plastic and she didn’t have any glass to worry about.

Quickly, Lucinda dropped to the floor with a dish towel to mop it up, but she left the towel on the floor and hurried down the hallway to figure out what had happened. On her way to her husband’s study, the arguing voices became louder and she looked down at the floor outside of the study’s door to see Adrienne crouching on the ground and shaking. Worried to death, Lucinda immediately dropped to the younger woman’s side and touched Adrienne’s face with a gentle hand. “Adrienne,” she said, but her eyes glanced up at the doorway.

“What in the world is going on?” Lucinda asked, though it wasn’t directed particularly at Adrienne, as she moved to stand on her two feet again. She heard her son yelling behind the door—at his father.

Just at that moment, the door to the study flew open.