Content Warning: This section includes discussions of miscarriage, self-harm, child abuse/neglect, and suicidal ideation.

A man arrives home late, feeling anxious and fearful. He can smell “the child’s mother” on his fingers (1), so he takes a shower but will not look at his reflection. He tries to do everything as he normally would. He gets his phone and goes to sleep in the guest room. He awakens to the phone’s vibration and hears the “pained pitch” of a woman’s voice telling him something terrible has occurred.

Whitney Loverly throws a birthday party for her twins, the adults “feigning friendliness” while the children play a “parallel kind of game” (3). Everything looks perfect, from the catered food to the cookies in cellophane favor bags. Whitney relaxes seeing that everyone notices the carefully planned details and is enjoying themselves. Her neighbor, Mara Alvaro, does not attend; she does not fit in with Whitney’s group and dislikes noise, but she spies on the party through the slats in a fence, finding and retrieving a paper airplane when she does so. Rebecca and Ben, more neighbors, arrive. Whitney’s friend,