Doreen had puzzled over exactly what to say to her husband all the way home. When she pulled her sedan into the driveway, she still hadn’t completely formulated all her words. Taking a deep breath, she turned off the engine and opened her car door.

She stood for a moment in the driveway, still hoping for inspiration to strike her. She gave up finally and walked up the front steps and into the house, calling out a greeting as she entered.

“Hello, honey,” Phillip said, coming in from the living room. In his hands was the newspaper that had distracted him during her absence, but now a simple glance at the clock told him she was overdue. “You’re a little late getting in today... and I don’t see any fast food bags. Is everything okay?”

Doreen forced herself to breathe evenly and said, “No. Not really. But it’s going to be. Phillip, I think you should sit down. We need to talk.”

“Well, wait a minute now, look how late it is!” he protested, somewhat fearing what she had to tell him. “You can’t give a man bad news on an empty stomach!”

Doreen grimaced irritably at him. “This is more important than food, Phillip.”

They stared at each other stubbornly for a moment, but they had been married a long time, and Doreen knew better than to back down now. Sure enough, Phillip sighed and acknowledged his defeat.

“Very well, dear,” he said. “Let’s go into the living room and sit down for a chat.”

He started back toward the room from whence he’d come, but paused to say, “Just one question first: you’re not planning to divorce me, are you?”

“No, Phillip,” Doreen said peevishly, “but kindly move it. What I do have to say can’t wait.”

“All right,” he said, fearing the urgency he heard in her voice. He laid aside his newspaper and sat down on the classic navy blue couch with the matching throw pillows. He waited as she took a seat beside him and reached out for his hand.

Doreen cleared her throat and looked her husband in the eye. “Our daughter is alive, and she’s awake.”

“What?!” Phillip shouted, his face splitting into a wide grin as he jumped up excitedly. “That’s wonderful! What are we doing here? I want to see her! Let’s get moving! Why didn’t you call me? When did she wake up?”

“This afternoon,” Doreen said, grabbing Phillip’s arms and forcibly pulling him back onto the couch. “But you can’t see her—not yet. There’s a lot more to this story, and I’m afraid you’re going to have to hear it all before I can let you leave this house.”

Phillip sat back against the couch cushions warily and said, “All right.”

He frowned at the look of distress on his wife’s face. For a long moment she didn’t say anything; Phillip was really beginning to worry. “Honey, what? Just tell me. Whatever it is, just tell me! You’re scaring me, Doreen.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to pull herself together. “It’s just today... and everything... it was a big shock, and now I’m going to turn around and lay that big shock on you. I just wish I could prepare you a little better. I wish I knew where to start!”

“Just start with when our daughter woke up from her coma,” Phillip suggested practically.

“All right,” Doreen agreed. “This afternoon when I was getting ready to leave, Desiree woke up. She knew me, and she didn’t show any signs of amnesia or degenerated motor skills or any of the awful things the doctors warned us might happen. She seemed fine.”

“Well,” Phillip said slowly. “That’s good news.”

“Yes, but there’s more.”

Phillip closed his mouth; Doreen continued, “Desiree asked me to close the door, and the window blinds, and not to tell anyone that she was awake. She wants everyone to still believe that she is in a coma, and when you hear why, I know that you will agree with her as I do, that it is best if everyone goes on believing this is true.”

Phillip waited; he couldn’t possibly imagine what his wife was going to say next. Doreen took her time. After several deep breaths to keep herself from bursting into tears and blurting out the whole ugly story, Doreen finally said, “Our daughter has borne witness to a heinous crime, one so hideous that I cannot bear to repeat to you what she has told me. All you really need to know is that because she witnessed this crime, her life is in danger. There is someone out there willing to do her serious harm because of it. Therefore, she has decided, and I support her, that she will enter into witness protection, change her identity, and move away.”

Doreen paused to let this information sink into Phillip’s brain. They sat together quietly in their living room listening to the clock on the mantle tick.

“You have to understand, Phillip,” Doreen said. “We really don’t have much of a choice here, and you have to agree to keep your daughter’s secret, to keep her safe.”

Phillip stared stoically at the fireplace. There were only cold ashes in it now, but Phillip felt hot all over.

“How long will she have to live in the protection program? Who is her attorney?” he wanted to know, turning to Doreen. “When will she be free of this person who wants to harm her?”

Doreen shook her head. “It’s not that simple. I don’t know everything, really, myself. I just know that we have to protect our daughter, Phillip. We have to do whatever it takes.”

Phillip gave Doreen a quizzical look and rubbed his jaw. “What do you mean? What do we have to do?”

“Well, for starters,” Doreen said, bracing herself for Phillip’s reaction, “we have to pretend that our daughter is dead, and we have to make everyone in town believe it.”

“What?” Phillip asked, looking at Doreen as though she’d lost her mind. “What do you mean? We have to tell people she’s dead?”

“Yes,” Doreen said earnestly, “and we have to make it convincing when we do.”

“Convincing?” Phillip repeated, feeling the familiar tang of bile rising in his throat. “What do you mean convincing? You’re suggesting that we lie to people, to our friends, to the community. That is what you’re implying, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Doreen said firmly. “And we don’t have a choice.”

“I have a choice!” Phillip asserted. “In this country, everyone has a choice.”

“Phillip, please!” Doreen said desperately. “You have to listen to me! This situation is beyond our control. Someone is trying to kill our daughter! Can you understand that? A lawyer is not going to be enough to protect her, not from this person. A restraining order looks good on paper, honey, but in the end, it is just a piece of paper. Do you understand what I’m saying? Do you understand that this is Desiree’s life we’re talking about?”

“Yes, I understand that!” Phillip bellowed. “You think I don’t understand that? But you cannot in good conscience ask me to look my fellow masons in the eye and tell them that Desiree has gone to her Maker when in reality she’s shooting pool at some safe house in South Carolina!”

“South Carolina? What on earth are you talking about?” Doreen said, bewildered by her husband’s behavior.

“I won’t have her running from this creep,” Phillip said, getting to his feet and pacing the length of the room. “She’s a Carlson. Carlson’s don’t run, damn it! We get mad. You push us, we push back.”

“Phillip, honey, listen to me, please,” Doreen pleaded. “You are talking madness. This is a criminal we’re dealing with; he doesn’t care about your rules or your family or your stupid pride!”

“Stupid pride!”

“Stop this!” Doreen said, nearing tears. “Stop it and look at me and hear what I am telling you, Phillip. Hear me loud and clear: if we don’t go through with this plan to hide Desiree, her death will be for real and not for pretend. Which would you rather have? A live daughter you could still hold in your arms? Or a cold one dead in the ground?”

Phillip went silent, leaning heavily against the mantlepiece and wondering if he was having a heart attack. Anger was bubbling in his veins. How dare someone threaten his daughter, his family? How dare someone force him into this position? Living half a life in witness protection was not good enough for his little princess. He hated feeling like he had no control over the situation. It made him feel hot all over.

Doreen got up from the sofa and walked slowly to him. “Honey, I’m sorry. I never wanted to give you bad news.”

He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t her fault, that he understood, but his anger was still running too hot to let him speak. She patted his arm and turned away.

“I am going to make the necessary arrangements to have Desiree transferred to a long-term care facility,” Doreen said. “We’ve got all the details accounted for; she will die en route. We will feign having her cremated when in actuality she will move to Colorado to be near her brother. I’m going to call him now. From now on, it’s only you, me, Desiree, and Reese who know the truth. As soon as I tell him.”

She feared her son would react the same way that Phillip had, or that he would refuse to be a part of the deception. She would have to take her chances and bank on having raised him to be compassionate enough to take his sister in during her time of need. She went into the kitchen to use the phone.

She got Reese’s answering machine; at the tone she said, “Reese, honey, it’s Mom. Listen, I’m afraid I have some bad news about your sister. Please call me as soon as you get this message. Goodbye.”

She hung up the phone and went to the cupboard. She removed a white teacup and matching saucer and set them on the counter, placing a teabag in the mug. She filled the kettle on the stove with water and turned on the burner, then waited for it to heat. In the ten minutes it took for the water to boil, Doreen did not hear a single sound from inside her house. She might as well have been alone for all the noise her husband was making.

The kettle whistled and Doreen pulled it off the burner. She turned off the stove with one hand while simultaneously pouring hot water into her cup with the other. She set the kettle on an alternate burner and stared out the kitchen window while her tea steeped. When this ritual was done, she took her cup to the table. Phillip came into the room as quietly as a mouse and sat down across from her.

“Now, I don’t like this, Doreen,” Phillip began, his voice much calmer than it had been. “I don’t have to like it, either, but if you really, honestly, truly believe that this is the best way for us to protect Desiree, then I’ll do it. I don’t like it, but I’ll do it.”

“Oh, Phillip!” she said, jumping up. Relieved, Doreen threw her arms around her husband’s neck. “I promise you, I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think it was our only option.”

“All right,” Phillip said, patting her arm. Doreen released him and went to sit again in her chair. She blew on her tea as he asked, “So what’s the name of her agent?”

“Agent?” Doreen repeated blankly.

“Yes,” Phillip said, pouting his lips together momentarily in distaste of the plan. “The agent in charge of Desiree’s case—what is his name?”

“Oh,” Doreen said, trying not to look thrown. “I... I don’t know. I’ll have to ask Desiree tomorrow.”

Phillip nodded. “I’ll go with you.”

“No!” Doreen said quickly.

“Why on earth not? I want to see her, too, you know!” he said.

“But Phillip, you haven’t come to the hospital all this time,” Doreen said. “You didn’t even come the day we... she... You can’t go.”

“I’ll come if I want to come!” he insisted.

“It will arouse suspicion, Phillip!” she said feverishly. “Now, please, let’s be reasonable here. You can see her as soon as she is free of this mess. For now, I beg you, let me handle things, and you... stay away from that hospital.”

Phillip pursed his lips in annoyance for a moment, nearly pouting like a child.

“Fine,” he said at last. “But I don’t have to like it.”

“No one said you did, dear,” Doreen replied.

Phillip made a noise in his throat that sounded a lot like, “Hmmph.”

Doreen ignored him and said, “All right. Enough excitement. How about a nice roast for dinner with potatoes and carrots?”

It was Phillip’s favorite meal, and he thought she might be suggesting it just to appease him. He intended to milk her generosity. “Are you going to make the good rolls?”

“If you like,” she said with a smile.

Phillip nodded his consent.

Inwardly, Doreen sighed with relief. Phase one was complete, now she just had four more steps to go.